Mar
“It comes as a great shock…to discover that the flag to which you have pledged allegiance, along with everybody else, has not pledged allegiance to you. It comes as a great shock to discover that Gary Cooper killing off the Indians, when you were rooting for Gary Cooper, that the Indians were you. It comes as a great shock to discover that the country, which is your birthplace and to which you owe your life and your identity, has not, in its whole system of reality, evolved any place for you.”
- James Baldwin
Jan
It was both unfortunate and disastrous that the Republican Party nominated Barry Goldwater as its candidate for President of the United States. In foreign policy Mr. Goldwater advocated a narrow nationalism, a crippling isolationism, and a trigger-happy attitude that could plunge the whole world into the dark abyss of annihilation. On social and economic issues, Mr. Goldwater represented an unrealistic conservatism that was totally out of touch with the realities of the twentieth century. The issue of poverty compelled the attention of all citizens of our country. Senator Goldwater had neither the concern nor the comprehension necessary to grapple with this problem of poverty in the fashion that the historical moment dictated. On the urgent issue of civil rights, Senator Goldwater represented a philosophy that was morally indefensible and socially suicidal. While not himself a racist, Mr. Goldwater articulated a philosophy which gave aid and comfort to the racist. His candidacy and philosophy would serve as an umbrella under which extremists of all stripes would stand. In the light of these facts and because of my love for America, I had no alternative but to urge every Negro and white person of goodwill to vote against Mr. Goldwater and to withdraw support from any Republican candidate that did not publicly disassociate himself from Senator Goldwater and his philosophy.
While I had followed a policy of not endorsing political candidates, I felt that the prospect of Senator Goldwater being President of the United States so threatened the health, morality, and survival of our nation, that I could not in good conscience fail to take a stand against what he represented.
Jan
Abraham Lincoln, during a speaking tour of New England in March 1860 that coincided with a shoemakers’ strike.
Source: “Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era” by James McPherson. Pg 198.
Jan
Your #2 and #4 points about MLK are questionable, or at least the way you present them. It is highly doubtful he would've supported the party that oppressed his people pre-Civil Rights Act, which was the Democrats (Dixiecrats, anyone?). Also, JFK was going to escalate in Vietnam before he was assassinated, and LBJ DID escalate on Vietnam - both Democrats. You criticize others for doing it, but you shouldn't (or I guess your sources shouldn't) be trying to rewrite history either.
The sources you find “questionable” and “highly doubtful” are MLK’s own writings and autobiography.
He was certainly critical of both parties: “Actually, the Negro has been betrayed by both the Republican and the Democratic party. The Democrats have betrayed him by capitulating to the whims and caprices of the Southern Dixiecrats. The Republicans have betrayed him by capitulating to the blatant hypocrisy of reactionary right wing northern Republicans. And this coalition of southern Dixiecrats and right wing reactionary northern Republicans defeats every bill and every move towards liberal legislation in the area of civil rights.”
But again, according to his own words, he “always” voted for Democrats prior to 1956, he voted for Kennedy in 1960, and he wrote that “had President Kennedy lived, I would probably have endorsed him in 1964.”
Please consult the text of his autobiography and his 1956 letter to Ms. Sloan, both of which I linked to in my original post.
Jan
Just saw a conservative blogger condescendingly ask if President Obama knows that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican
I usually ignore such nonsense, but since this misleading claim can be so easily and quickly debunked:
- King had no strong allegiance to either party, believing that “the Negro should be more of an independent voter…this would give him more bargaining power” and stating “I’m not inextricably bound to either party.”
- In 1956, he wrote in a letter to Miss Viva O. Sloan, “I haven’t fully decided which candidate I will vote for. In the past I have always voted the Democratic ticket.”
- He also supported John F. Kennedy for President but, despite urgings from friends, decided not to publicly endorse either candidate. “I felt that Kennedy would make the best president. I never came out with an endorsement.”
- He strongly opposed the Vietnam War, in part because he felt money used to finance the war should instead be devoted to anti-poverty programs: ”A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
- Later in life, he was a self-identified democratic socialist: ”There must be a better distribution of wealth, and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism.”
In the future, let’s try not to rewrite history.
Jul
Mar
NYPD Spied on Lawful, Left-Wing Political Groups
Undercover NYPD officers attended meetings of liberal political organizations and kept intelligence files on activists who planned protests around the country, according to interviews and documents that show how police have used counterterrorism tactics to monitor even lawful activities.
The infiltration echoes the tactics the NYPD used in the run-up to New York’s 2004 Republican National Convention, when police monitored church groups, anti-war organizations and environmental advocates nationwide. That effort was revealed by The New York Times in 2007 and in an ongoing federal civil rights lawsuit over how the NYPD treated convention protesters.
The document provides the latest example of how, in the name of fighting terrorism, law enforcement agencies around the country have scrutinized groups that legally oppose government policies. The FBI, for instance, has collected information on anti-war demonstrators. The Maryland state police infiltrated meetings of anti-death penalty groups. Missouri counterterrorism analysts suggested that support for Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, might indicate support for violent militias — an assertion for which state officials later apologized. And Texas officials urged authorities to monitor lobbying efforts by pro Muslim-groups.
Jan
The MLK Whitewash: It’s easy to forget that Dr. King was once reviled as a Communist and a threat to America
There is no small amount of irony in conservative populists invoking Martin Luther King—because some of their ideological ancestors were among his most vicious critics.
The partisan labels only distract from the deeper continuity—conservative populists using the politics of fear and hatred of the “other” to hold onto power. It results in an insidious form of group-think that attacks anyone who threatens orthodoxy. And too often it is wrapped up in lofty rhetoric about commitment to the Bible and the Constitution, while opponents are cast as secular socialists or worse.
The point is not that conservative populists today are racist—that is an ugly charge that gets thrown around too reflexively from the left in our politics.
But when we hear attacks once directed at Dr. King echoing in our politics today—calling opponents anti-American, communist or hell-bent on destroying the Constitution—it is worth caution and condemnation. They are likely to sound just as unhinged when historic perspective sets in.
Jan
“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.”
Oct
Herman Cain admires his dad because he “didn’t complain” about being a segregated janitor
About 5 minutes into this startling interview, Herman Cain essentially argues that segregation wasn’t that big a deal and that his father was “grateful” for the opportunity to work as a janitor and chauffeur in the segregated South. Sean Hannity seems to find all of this quite charming, as if Cain’s modesty is somehow endearing, rather than servile and insulting. It’s hard to interpret this as anything but a slap in the face to the civil rights movement.
Aug
In the end, “The Help” is not a story about the millions of hardworking and dignified black women who labored in white homes to support their families and communities. Rather, it is the coming-of-age story of a white protagonist, who uses myths about the lives of black women to make sense of her own.
- Association of Black Women Historians
