Civil Rights Movement

70th Anniversary Commemoration Of Brown V Board Of Education!

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The single most significant Supreme Court decision of the 20th century occurred exactly 70 years ago on May 17, 1954, when the Supreme Court, in an unanimous 9-0 decision, declared segregation in public education was unconstitutional, reversing the segregation decision in Plessy V Ferguson of 1896 after 58 years.

The fact that Chief Justice Earl Warren (1953-1969) was able to gain unanimous support on this case, including Southern members of the Court who were comfortable with segregation, is what made Earl Warren the greatest Chief Justice after John Marshall (1801-1835).

It also makes one very downcast and depressed at what has happened at the Supreme Court in recent decades, particularly since Donald Trump made three right wing appointments to be Supreme Court Justices, adding on to the two Presidents Bush who gave the nation the horrendous Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

Chief Justice John Roberts, also chosen by President George W. Bush, has been a great disappointment, unable to keep the Court balanced, and now containing two Justices totally out of control, arrogant, nasty, abusive, and not concerned about ethics and common decency.

This, along with the attack on DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion), and a reversal of Affirmative Action, has been not only promoted by this right wing dominated Supreme Court, but also by actions of Republican Governors Ron DeSantis of Florida, Greg Abbott of Texas, and a whole slew of other Republican governors nationwide.

This includes working to deemphazize African American history in educational curriculums, working to wipe out all of the advancements of the Civil Rights Movement after World War II for the next few decades.

Action must be taken to reverse this bigoted, right wing extremist agenda, and it begins by insuring Joe Biden wins a second term, and that, somehow, Democrats win the House of Representatives, and retain control of the US Senate.

This is a massive challenge that anyone who believes in fairness, and common decency, must engage in for the future of America as a shining beacon of change and tolerance.

Mark Robinson, NC Republican Gubernatorial Nominee: A Major Right Wing Extremist!

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The Republican Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina, Mark Robinson, who is African American, is the party nominee for Governor in November 2024, running against North Carolina State Attorney General and Democrat Josh Stein.

This upcoming election is a crisis for the state of North Carolina and the nation, as Mark Robinson is an out of control right wing extremist.

His past record and utterances demonstrate the following:

He is a strong supporter of the National Rifle Association, and spoke out against gun control legislation after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Massacre in Parkland, Florida in February 2018.

He is vehemently anti abortion; denies climate change as reality; wants to promote charter schools and school voucher programs at the expense of public schools; and wants to remove science and social studies from the curriculum for first graders through fifth graders.

He has promoted Holocaust denial, and has made strongly antisemitic statements, alarming the Jewish community in North Carolina and nationally.

He has been harshly critical of African Americans who are Democrats, and bitterly denounces Barack Obama and has called Michelle Obama a man, and called Martin Luther King Jr a Communist, along with the Civil Rights Movement.

He has been strongly anti gay and anti transgender, and is also strongly anti Muslim, and a nativist against various immigrant groups.

He has strongly denounced the COVID 19 Pandemic as a threat, and has praised past dictators, including Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Fidel Castro, while at the same time calling his critics “Communists”!

He also has a record of bankruptcies, owing back taxes, and having misused campaign funds for his 2020 campaign for Lieutenant Governor.

This character is a clear and present danger, and it is essential that Democrat Josh Stein be elected Governor, to succeed Democrat Roy Cooper, who has had to deal with the nightmare of his Lieutenant Governor being totally uncooperative and confrontational in the past four years!

75th Anniversary Of Truman’s Executive Orders 9980 And 9981, Desegregating The Federal Work Force And The US Military!

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One of the most courageous and principled actions of any President occurred 75 years ago today, when President Harry Truman issued Executive Orders 9980 and 9981, ordering desegregation of all US government employment and the US Military Forces.

Harry Truman came from a Confederate heritage background, and had a record of using nasty terms about African Americans in his earlier years, but as President, he took the courageous action to move forward on the important issue of human rights.

It alienated many Southerners, and the Dixiecrats (States Rights) Party challenged Truman in the Presidential Election Of 1948, with South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond as their Presidential candidate, winning four states and 39 electoral votes.

This was the second best third party total up to that point in American history, behind Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive (Bull Moose) party of 1912, which won six states and 88 electoral votes.

Later, George Wallace won five states and 46 electoral votes as the American Independent party nominee in 1968.

Truman’s decision to take action promoted the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, aided within six years by the Warren Court decision in Brown V Board of Education (1954), and then by courageous actions by Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson over the next 15 years!

Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday: Republicans Backtracking On Civil Rights!

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Today is the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday, and yet, the Republican Party is doing everything imaginable to backtrack on Civil Rights!

The Supreme Court, with Republican appointments controlling six of the nine seats, is working very hard to negate the Voting Rights Act, Affirmative Action, and so much more, and among those most promoting backtracking is African American Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, who is a total disgrace on the issue of civil rights, which actually advanced his career!

Republican Governors, led by Ron DeSantis of Florida, Greg Abbott of Texas, and other governors, mostly in the South, are mandating that teachers cannot discuss race and ethnicity, and the truth of American history, because some white children might feel “bad”, as if history should be totally sanitized!

This includes literature as well being censored, an absolute outrage, with the goal of keeping young people ignorant, and complying with the demands of many prejudiced white parents, who do not want their children exposed to truth and facts!

It also includes the goal of making it harder for poor people and those of color to be able to vote, a backtracking on the Voting Rights Act of 1965!

So we have Republicans mouthing quotes of Martin Luther King, Jr, but working assiduously to promote a white supremacy version of history and literature, in a nation becoming less white by the decade!

This is a human tragedy of massive proportions, and must be resisted by decent and educated people who do not want a sanitizing of our history and literature, and instead, a full accounting for past shortcomings, in order to promote a better future in a multiracial society!

FINALLY, LYNCHING IS DECLARED A FEDERAL CRIME, AND LEGISLATION NAMED AFTER EMMETT TILL!

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The crime of lynching, the hanging and butchering of a human being by a mob, most often utilized against African Americans, and particularly in the Southern States, but sadly against other groups, including Jews, Catholics, and Hispanics, and in other parts of America, has existed since the Reconstruction period after the Civil War.

But finally, Congress has passed Lynching legislation, making it a federal crime punishable by 30 years in prison, and the law is named after Emmett Till, the 14 year old lynched in Mississippi in 1955, for the supposed crime of flirting with a white woman, with his body desecrated, and causing shock around the nation.

The vote in the US Senate was unanimous, and only three Republican Congressmen voted against the legislation.

The white woman who lied about Emmett Till making a pass at her is still alive, and she should face prosecution for what became a heinous crime, perpetrated by her now dead husband and another man, both of whom were found not guilty in a disgraceful mockery of a trial in Mississippi in 1955!

The Emmett Till lynching helped to motivate the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s.

And there is a museum which commemorates the Lynching issue, located in Montgomery, Alabama, the heart of the “Old South”, named the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement To Mass Incarceration!

Ron DeSantis More Dangerous Than George Wallace Ever Was To Be President

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is more dangerous than George Wallace ever was to be President.

Wallace, Governor of Alabama and the infamous racial white supremacist, became a nightmare to many, as he became a national figure when he tried to prevent integration of the University of Alabama in 1963, and started pursuing the Presidency.

In 1968, Wallace, after competing in Democratic Presidential primaries, ran as the American Independent Party nominee for President, and won 13.5 percent of the national popular vote, and five Southern states and 46 electoral votes.

This occurred during the heights of the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

Wallace ran again in Democratic Presidential primaries in the spring of 1972, until, sadly, he was struck down by an attempted assassination in Maryland perpetrated by Arthur Bremer on May 15, 1972, discussed in detail in this author’s chapter in his book “Assassinations, Threats, and the American Presidency: From Andrew Jackson to Barack Obama” (Rowman Littlefield Publishers, 2015, Paperback 2017).

Wallace would be paralyzed for the rest of his life, but went on to be Alabama Governor again in the 1980s, and with a different tone, including apologizing for hie hateful behavior, and asking forgiveness from civil rights leaders. He had multiple surgeries to relieve his pain and suffering, and lived on for 26 years until his death in 1998 at age 79.

As horrible as Wallace was, he represented a state that was much less significant than Florida, in population and economic and social influence. And regarding a multitude of matters, Wallace was not promoting all kinds of other limitations as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is now doing, as he plans to seek the Presidency, and is appealing to the Extreme Right of his party, and seen by many as the inheritor of the MAGA (Make America Great Again) Donald Trump followers.

Wallace, despite his being a threat, was clearly never going to be President, but Ron DeSantis IS a real threat, representing the third largest state, and has a clear opportunity and possibility, to go all the way to the White House!

Texas Has Become The Pariah On So Many Issues!

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The state of Texas has become a pariah on so many issues.

Its decision to ban all abortions after six weeks, and allow citizens to sue and win a bounty of $10,000 against anyone who helps a woman gain an abortion is outrageous!

Its decision to create the most stringent limitations on voting rights, designed to prevent people of color, the young, the disabled, and urban centers from access to voting with reasonable rules is also outrageous!

Its plans to gerrymander the state in such a way as to make fair elections impossible in the future is also outrageous!

Its refusal to allow masking to be required to protect children and staff in public schools is also outrageous!

Its allowance for open carry of firearms is a danger to everyone, and mass killings will increase, and is also outrageous.

The state has right wing elements that have spoken about secession and treason, and is very willing to do everything possible to promote white supremacy in a state that is more than ever a state in which people of color, particularly Hispanic and Latino, but also Asian American and African American, are being treated in a discriminatory manner!

Texas was one of the most horrific racist states before the Civil Rights Movement, and now it is reverting to extremism that is shocking and detrimental to the people of the second largest populated state, and the courts seem unwilling to do anything about it!

Texas should face boycotts, court cases, and other moves to hold the right wing extremist legislature and Governor Greg Abbott to accountability, as this is not a situation that can be overlooked, as the danger is that this cancer might spread to other states!

Remembering Ted Kennedy, John McCain, Lyndon B. Johnson, WEB DuBois,19th Amendment Anniversaries In Time Of Turmoil

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Late August is a time to remember the contributions of three political leaders who were true statesmen, one civil rights leader and educator, as well as the celebration of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.

Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts died on August 25, 2009; Senator John McCain of Arizona died on August 25, 2018; President Lyndon B. Johnson was born on August 27, 1908; WEB DuBois died on August 27, 1963; and the 19th Amendment (Women Suffrage) was ratified and declared in effect on August 26, 1920.

These four individuals had a dramatic effect on American history, and the woman suffrage amendment has transformed American history as well.

Ted Kennedy is one of the greatest US Senators of all time, with his 47 plus years of service on all kinds of crucial issues.

John McCain is one of the heroic Senators, who also sacrificed years of torture and imprisonment in Vietnam, and was the true conscience of the Republican Party.

Lyndon B. Johnson promoted the greatest series of domestic reforms (“The Great Society”) since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, and those reforms still impact America today.

WEB Dubois was the most significant early leader of the Civil Rights Movement before Martin Luther King Jr. and impacted the concept of Black History, and holding America to a higher standard of racial advancement.

The 19th Amendment overcame the long discrimination against women participating in public life, and has had an immeasurable effect on the American promotion of democracy.

Donald Trump: George Wallace, Strom Thurmond, Pat Buchanan On Steroids!

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President Donald Trump is a true nightmare, as he has brought to ultimate power the viewpoints and policies of Alabama Governor George Wallace, who ran for President on a third party line in 1968, and won 13 percent of the national popular vote, and 46 electoral votes from five Southern states at the height of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s.

Donald Trump has also brought to mind the then South Carolina Governor and later US Senator Strom Thurmond, who won four Southern states and 39 electoral votes in 1948, also on an anti civil rights platform.

Donald Trump reminds us also of Pat Buchanan, journalist, commentator, and advisor to Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, who challenged President George H. W. Bush for renomination in 1992, and weakened his reelection campaign in that election year.

All three men were racists, hatemongers, Fascist oriented, and against civil rights.

Additionally, Buchanan was also a big time antisemite, who actually, indirectly, affected the Presidential Election of 2000. Four thousand Jewish voters in Palm Beach County, Florida, were confused by the so called “butterfly” ballot, and punched the hole for Buchanan, rather than Democratic nominee Al Gore, helping to influence the election result, with George W. Bush being declared the winner of Florida’s electoral vote by a margin of 537 popular votes statewide, and winning the Presidency!

All three of these candidates were obnoxious, disgraceful, and reprehensible, but while they all gained popular support to some extent, none was feared or became a dominant factor in leadership of the national government.

But now, we have a President who represents all of the evil and horrors promoted by Wallace, Thurmond, and Buchanan, but he was able to manipulate votes with Russian interference in 2016. Despite losing the national popular vote by a massive nearly three million to Hillary Clinton, he was able to win three states in popular vote combined of 78,000 (Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania) and become President.

He has unleashed one horror and disgraceful action and utterance after another, doing massive damage to American domestic and foreign policy, and attempting to do everything he can to make himself an authoritarian leader on a level unimaginable in American history.

Donald Trump makes George Wallace, Strom Thurmond, and Pat Buchanan look like choir boys by comparison. He raises the historical profile of the President most reviled for his actions and behavior before now—Richard Nixon–to a higher level, with at least Nixon having accomplished some really significant goals that are seen as positive in historical retrospect.

But many of the accomplishments of Nixon are now either gone or being destroyed by this maniac, who if he is somehow reelected by manipulation and fraud, is a clear threat to the Constitution and Bill of Rights!

Death Of Civil Rights Icon John Lewis, A True Inspiration For Nearly 60 Years

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This blogger and author woke up today and was shocked to discover that Civil Rights Icon John Lewis, Georgia Congressman since 1987, had passed away at age 80 of pancreatic cancer.

Lewis was a great inspiration to all of us who believe in civil rights and progressive reforms, and he personally paid the price in the early to mid 1960s, leading to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

He was arrested multiple times and bloodied and injured by Ku Klux Klansman all over the South, but he remained committed to nonviolent civil disobedience and basic human rights.

Lewis was the last speaker to survive, among those who spoke at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963, and worked closely with the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, even though he was just a young man in his mid 20s.

There is a movement on to rename the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama after him, as he was injured on “Bloody Sunday” on March 7, 1965, when marching for voting rights at that site.

Pettus was a Confederate Army General in the Civil War, a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, and a United States Senator from Alabama. It is time to remove his name from that bridge, and rename it after John Lewis.

Lewis will be remembered in the annals of history as a truly great man, and one of the most outstanding members historically of the House of Representatives.