Bet You Didn’t Know [6]

Fri Feb 15, 2013

Editor: “Don’t know your past, can’t know your future.” A reminder, this is a series on the history of the Republican Party and its 150-year fight for justice for the Negro, not the benevolence of abortion, welfare and “Dependent on DC”.{{more}}

I bet you didn’t know that:

•  In 1955: President Eisenhower [Republican] appointed 37-year-old Frank M. Johnson to the U.S. District Court.

•  March 4, 2007, Obama – the pulpit Brown Chapel AME Church: Yet something happened back here in Selma, Alabama. Something happened in Birmingham that sent out what Bobby Kennedy called, “Ripples of hope all around the world.” Something happened when a bunch of women decided they were going to walk instead of ride the bus. That sent a shout across oceans, so that my grandfather began to imagine something different for his son. His son, who grew up herding goats in a small village in Africa could suddenly set his sights a little higher and believe that maybe a black man in this world had a chance.

What happened in Selma, Alabama and Birmingham also stirred the conscience of the nation. It worried folks in the White House who said “You know, we’re battling Communism. How are we going to win hearts and minds all across the world? If right here in our own country, John, we’re not observing the ideals set forth in our Constitution, we might be accused of being hypocrites.” So, the Kennedys decided we’re going to do an airlift. We’re going to go to Africa and start bringing young Africans over to this country and give them scholarships to study so they can learn what a wonderful country America is.

This young man named Barack Obama got one of those tickets and came over to this country. He met this woman whose great great-great-great-grandfather had owned slaves; but she had a good idea there was some craziness going on, because they looked at each other and they decided that we know that the world as it has been it might not be possible for us to get together and have a child…. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr was born. So, don’t tell me I don’t have a claim on Selma, Alabama. Don’t tell me I’m not coming home to Selma, Alabama. I’m here because somebody marched.

•  In 1959: Barack Obama Sr arrived in the US in September. A Republican, Eisenhower was in the White House – no Kennedy.

• In 1960: Father Obama met Stanley Ann Durham in a Russian language class in September.

• In 1961: Father Obama – with a wife and two children in Africa – marries Stanley Ann on February 2. Stanley Ann gives birth to Baby Obama on August 4.

• November 27, 2012: What was most disgusting throughout the campaign was the ease with which he [Romney] lied on a daily basis. I often wondered how he could live with himself while showing such disrespect for the American people [Ken Wyllie, Searchlight].

• October 1956: Democrat Jimmy Carter attempted to halt construction of a new black elementary school, reacting to the segregationists who wanted to keep black and white children apart. Carter and the rest of the Sumter County School Board then reassured parents at a meeting on October 5, 1956, that the board “would do everything in its power to minimize simultaneous traffic between white and colored students in route to and from school”. [More later]

•  In 1977: President Carter – now lover of Negroes – asked Frank M Johnson to head the FBI, but the judge refused for medical reasons.

•  November 6, 1956: African-American civil rights leaders Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy vote for Republican Dwight Eisenhower for President.

•  September 9, 1957: President Dwight Eisenhower signs Republican Party’s 1957 Civil Rights Act.

•  September 24, 1957: Sparking criticism from Democrats such as Senators John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, President Dwight Eisenhower deploys the 82nd Airborne Division to Little Rock, AR to force Democrat Governor Orval Faubus to integrate public schools.

•  May 6, 1960: President Dwight Eisenhower signs Republicans’ Civil Rights Act of 1960, overcoming 125-hour, around-the-clock filibuster by 18 Senate Democrats, including Bill Clinton’s mentor.

•  May 2, 1963: Republicans condemn Democrat sheriff of Birmingham, AL for arresting over 2,000 African-American schoolchildren marching for their civil rights.

• September 29, 1963: Gov. George Wallace (D-AL) defies order by U.S. District Judge Frank Johnson to integrate Tuskegee High School.

•  June 9, 1964: Republicans condemn 14-hour filibuster against 1964 Civil Rights Act by U.S. Senator and former Ku Klux Klansman Robert Byrd (D-WV).

•  June 10, 1964: Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL) criticizes Democrat filibuster against 1964 Civil Rights Act, calls on Democrats to stop opposing racial equality. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was introduced and approved by a staggering majority of Republicans in the Senate. The Act was opposed by most southern Democrat senators, several of whom were proud segregationists-one of them being Al Gore Sr. Democrat President Lyndon B. Johnson relied on Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen, the Republican leader from Illinois, to get the Act passed.

•  August 4, 1965: Senate Republican Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL) overcomes Democrat attempts to block 1965 Voting Rights Act; 94% of Senate Republicans vote for landmark civil right legislation, while 27% of Democrats oppose. Voting Rights Act of 1965, abolishing literacy tests and other measures devised by Democrats to prevent African-Americans from voting, signed into law; higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats vote in favor.

•  November 27, 2012: I must remind my brother that in 1965 with Dr King present, late President Johnson signed the voting rights act; he remarked to a colleague that he had just surrendered the southern states to the Republicans. To this day those states are still Republican and extremely racist. [Ken Wyllie, Searchlight].

Fact or fiction? You decide.

Next week, Clinton’s mentor, the Southern Manifesto and more.

Frank E da Silva