Little Rock Arkansas

Old Urban-Rural Battle Among States Now Battles Between Cities And Rural Areas Within The States!

Ronald 4 Comments

The story of much of American history is the struggle and battles between the growing urbanization in America, and the desire of small town, rural America to keep “traditional values”.

So the South, heavily rural historically, has always held back against reform and change, and switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party in the half century since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 under President Lyndon B. Johnson.

But now, in 2016, we are seeing a revolt, an uprising of growing urban areas and university towns in the South against “traditional values”!

So we see urban areas in many Southern states promoting becoming “sanctuary cities” for illegal immigrants; supporting gay and transgender rights; calling for minimum wage laws to be reinforced and to promote raises; and working to undermine the Confederate flag as an appropriate symbol in 21st century America!

These growing urban areas include such locations as Raleigh-Durham, Charlotte and Greensboro, North Carolina; Charleston, South Carolina; Atlanta, Athens and Savannah, Georgia; Gainesville and Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Jackson, Hattiesburg, and Oxford, Mississippi; Birmingham, Alabama; New Orleans, Louisiana; Little Rock and Fayetteville, Arkansas; Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee; San Antonio, Dallas and Houston, Texas; and Louisville, Kentucky. The Democratic Party is growing in these areas, and African Americans and Latinos are a good percentage of that growth, and university towns are also part of the massive changes that are occurring toward progressive change.

But the rural dominated Republican legislatures are passing state pre-emption laws that deny these localities the ability to set up their own regulations and laws. Ironically, it means these Republican states are fighting to take away local controls, while fighting on the national level against centralized authority of the federal government!

50th Anniversary Of University Of Mississippi Integration By James Meredith: One Of Ugliest Moments In American History!

Ronald 1 Comment

Fifty years ago, one of the ugliest moments of American history occurred, when the University of Mississippi was integrated by James Meredith, its first African American student, but with a cost initially of two killed, hundreds wounded, due to a racist mob that descended on the university campus, and battled with the National Guard mobilized by order of President John F. Kennedy to enforce federal court orders allowing Meredith to be enrolled.

Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett refused to enforce the court order, requiring Kennedy to do what President Dwight D. Eisenhower did five years earlier at Little Rock Central High School, the use of the National Guard under Presidential control, taken away from the state government’s authority.

What a terrible message this violent riot sent to the world, and the propaganda given to the Soviet Union about American “democracy”!

The incident etched in the memories of millions of Americans a terrible image about Mississippi and the deep South which still has not left us, and while the situation in that state has improved somewhat, it still is seen as a backward, regressive state in the minds of many, and has led to lack of economic growth even in recent times, and the loss of a Congressional seat, rare for a “Sun Belt” state, after the Census of 2000.

Has racism nationally declined from its peak fifty years ago? The answer is YES, but the fact that we have an African American President does not mean the end of it by any means, and has actually made for a new racism. The reality that many whites refuse to see Barack Obama as a legitimate President shows just how much work we need to do to overcome it in the long term, and how much of that racism is still taught at home by parents!

A Republican President, Race, And Great Courage And Principle: Little Rock, Arkansas In 1957!

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55 years ago today, we had a courageous, principled Republican President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, do what was right–intervene with federal troops in Little Rock, Arkansas, to protect nine black students at Little Rock Central High School, who were being spat upon and threatened by racist men and women, who did not want to allow racial integration. This was a leading moment in the civil rights movement!

Eisenhower was berated in the South for what he did, and states rights advocates called him a Communist for his intervention, but he knew that racial discrimination was something that had to be dealt with by the federal government, and it was a very important step in Presidential leadership, and was utilized also by President John F. Kennedy at the University of Mississippi in 1962 and the University of Alabama in 1963.

Here we are more than a half century later, and we cannot count on the Republican Party of 2012 taking the same or equivalent stand, as now the Republicans’ strongest base of support is among southern working class whites, the children and grandchildren of the bigots of fifty five years ago.

It is hoped that the younger generations look at things differently, but the indications are clear that those who felt the way they did about race back then, now have been succeeded by descendants who choose to back the Republican Party, and are horrified that now we have an African American President, Barack Obama!

Presidential Courage And Human Rights: From John Quincy Adams To Barack Obama

Ronald 3 Comments

One of the most important roles of a President is to be a moral leader, a person who sets the standard for what is moral and ethical in public affairs,

And nothing is more important than to have the courage to take leadership on human rights matters, whether in the United States or in other nations.

In that regard, Barack Obama will always stand out for what he did on Wednesday, speaking up for gay rights, including the right to marry.

Who else among our Presidents can be seen as a moral leader on human rights issues?

John Quincy Adams, as President and in his post Presidential career in the House of Representatives, campaigned against slavery and the slave trade, and was censured by the House of Representatives for fighting the gag rule (forbidding discussion of slavery in the House chamber) over and over again. He also represented the slaves aboard the slave ship Amistad, and won the court case for their freedom in 1841.

Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, a move many thought was unwise and might undermine the Union effort during the Civil War. But he believed that African Americans should be given freedom.

Harry Truman took the earliest steps in promoting civil rights for African Americans in the 1940s when segregation reigned in the South, and he went ahead anyway and promoted integration of the military and of the nation’s capital, Washington, DC.

Dwight D. Eisenhower alienated the white South when he sent in National Guard troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce integration of a public high school.

John F. Kennedy followed Eisenhower’s lead, in promoting National Guard intervention at the University of Mississippi and the University of Alabama, to bring about integration, and also proposed a civil rights law that he had to know would be extremely difficult to accomplish.

Lyndon B. Johnson, despite his Southern heritage, became the great proponent of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, knowing it would turn the white South over to the Republican Party, as it did.

Richard Nixon signed affirmative action into law, which became one of the great advancements in civil rights for women and minorities.

Jimmy Carter became the advocate of promoting human rights overseas, instead of accepting violations by so called “friendly” nations, as part of the business of diplomacy. He was bitterly criticized as naive, but his human rights beliefs remain one of his great legacies.

And now Barack Obama joins this group on Presidential courage in relation to the advancement of human rights! Kudos to him!