The Year of Moving Forward

The Year of Moving Forward
At our 4 person wedding reception in DC

Friday, March 5, 2010

Roots of Republican Racism II

A few days ago I posted The Roots of Republican Racism, which revealed that just a few years after Republican president Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, the party began the systematic disenfranchisement of the free African Americans.

I guess this is going to become a series because the Republican party of 2010 keeps giving us material. Anyone who follows politics knows that the GOP plays on fear as a way to influence the American public to vote their way. They have denied this, but now with the discovery of their power point playbook denial is useless.

This picture from their presentation is all over the Internet.





Here is the entire presentation in pdf.

(As an aside, what is scary about Scooby Doo? How can he be linked to the "Evil Empire"?)

Such fear tactics were used here in Birmingham when the Teabaggers held a rally in Birmingham late last year.



But the roots of using fear tactics go back at least to 1892, when a Republican newspaper in Washington, DC printed an editorial explaining how things could be if equality for blacks was actually allowed. The column was reprinted in the Tallapoosa Voice in Tallapoosa County, AL, so frighten voters.


Quoting from a Republican newspaper in Washington, D.C., the Voice
warned local whites of the "feast" that awaited them if full citizenship was
allowed for blacks:

More than twenty negro Representatives from the South will render the Republican control of the future Congresses absolutely safe and sure. Heavy taxes should be laid upon the property of the whites to develop and extend the public school system of these States. Separate schools of the two races would be abolished, and the plan of bringing the youth of both colors into close and equal relation in school and churches given a fair trial...The State laws against the intermarriage of the races should be repealed, and any discrimination against the blacks in the matter of learning trades or obtaining employment should be a criminal offence - while the colored man's rights to hold office should be sacredly protected and recognized.


From - Blackmon, Douglas. Slavery by Another Name. pp 139-140.



Now, granted, most white voters in Alabama at the time might have been Democrats, they used the Republican message to sway the votes, through fear, at least in Tallapoosa county.


The one issue before the white people of Alabama is to maintain the integrity of
the white man's democratic party. This is the one thing to which party organizers should look. That is the one thing the voter should address himself to.


Tallapoosa Voice, April 7, 1892


From - Blackmon. p 139.


There is no dispute that the powerful Alabama white people of 1892 were racist, after all, just a few years later they wrote our racist and elitist 1901 Alabama Constitution. While Republican racism was documented as far back as 1876 there is no denying the Democrats of the day were just as bad and stayed that way through the "Dixiecats" and on until the 1960's when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were passed under the leadership of President Johnson.

Soon after that, racist Democrats left the party and joined the Republican Party and the rest is history, as evidenced by the RNC message seen this week.

5 comments:

Edwards said...

Soon after that, racist Democrats left the party and joined the Republican Party and the rest is history, as evidenced by the RNC message seen this week.

LMAO you are a clown! How convenient for you that the racist collectively left the Repubs for the Dems. Exactly which century are you in anyway? And for the record, there isn't a dimes bit of difference between the two parties you mention.

Joe said...

Would you care to rephrase that so that it makes a little sense?

Edwards said...

Yes Joe,
Are you suggesting that the racist element of the Democrat party collectively vacated the Democrat Party to join the Republican Party? So, under this logic, I would assume that all the "Good" Republican's left the Republican Party to join the Democrats? Surely you Jest? Okay, I will give you the "Powerful White People of 1892 were racist" It doesn't take a sleuth to figure that out. But all the sudden, after the Civil Rights Era, Democrats had a change of heart and those who didn't fled to the Republican Party? That's ludicrous. Face it. The Democrats didn't change their racist behavior until it became politically expedient for them to do so. Too bad you can't ask Wallace if that was true! Shall I repeat anything? I don't mind really.

Joe said...

Edwards,
Its well documented that the growth of the Republican party in alabama and other parts of the south was because Democrats who did not like what the party wass doing left and began supporting the GOP.

From Wayne Flynt's Alabama in the Twentieth Century:

"Factors propelling the GOP to victory in other states began to apply to Alabama as well, ...white flight segregationists who left the Democratic Party as its base became more heavily African American."

There are many other references that back this up.

Edwards said...

Those are opinions Joe. I for one am neither Republican or Democrat. I vote the Issues and what I feel is the best choice between two or more persons after I judge their character. What Little of it i'm allowed to know of. Usually voting record. If you ask me, which I know you never would, I believe both parties are as corrupt as ever been before. Which has the most racists? I really don't know. What I really believe is that MOST people in both Parties vote according to their preference of Agenda's. Unfortunately for those without a Party to represent their hard earned tax dollars, there isn't much to choose from either way. I say let both the Dems and Repubs continue to destroy themselves. Their doing a marvelous job of it anyway! Peace