How can you be Black and be a Republican?

To me this question displays a definite failure of our educational system to teach

relevant history, a failure of individuals to ask the right questions and get the facts
about important issues, while relying too much on emotional, quick-fix appeal and
TV sound bites to make life decisions. The reasonable question to ask is: How can
any minority be a Democrat? This topic is sure to stir the pot and upset
sensibilities; in any case, here are just a few verifiable facts.

Founded in 1854 by anti-slavery activists, the Republican Party surpassed the Whig
Party, in the United States, as the principal opposition to the Democratic Party.
Black Abolitionist Frederick Douglass attended the founding meeting and became a
Republican. The party came to power, in 1860, with the election of Abraham
Lincoln as President of the United States.

Republicans fought to free blacks from slavery and amended the Constitution to
abolish slavery (13th Amendment), grant citizenship to former slaves (14th
Amendment), and the right to vote (15th Amendment). Republicans passed the civil
rights laws of the 1860s, including the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the
Reconstruction Act of 1867 designed to establish a new government system in the
Democrat-controlled South, fairer to blacks. Back in those days Republicans were
called “radicals”.

Did you know that it was Republicans who started the NAACP in 1909?

It took four direct Supreme Court orders to end the Democrat's "white primary"
system, literacy tests, poll taxes, and after that, it took countless additional orders,
several acts of Congress, and a constitutional amendment to tear down the Jim
Crow codes that oppressed blacks for decades beyond the final Supreme Court
order ruling it officially unconstitutional.

Did you know it was Republicans who founded the Historically Black Colleges and
Universities?

The first grand wizard of the KKK was honored at the 1868 Democratic National
Convention, no Democrats voted for the 14th Amendment to grant citizenship to
former slaves. The Democrat National Convention of 1924, in New York, was host to
one of the largest Klan gatherings in American history. It was called the "Klan Bake
Convention" and ended with a cross burning.

It was Republican President Dwight Eisenhower who pushed to pass the Civil Rights
Act of 1957 and sent federal troops to Arkansas to desegregate schools.

The 1964 Civil Rights Act bill came before the full Senate for debate on March 30,
1964 and Democrats launched a 54 day filibuster to prevent its passage. Here’s the
1964 Civil Rights Act voting record for the final version. House Democrats (63% for
and 37% against), House Republicans (80% for and 20% against). Senate
Democrats (69% for and 31% against), Senate Republicans (82% for and 18%
against). Most Democrats from the Southern states opposed the bill, including
Senators Albert Gore Sr. (D-TN), and Robert Byrd (D-WV), a known KKK member,
personally filibustered for 14 hours and 13 minutes.
 How can you be Black and be a Republican?
Here’s the 1965 Voting Rights Act voting record for the final version. House
Democrats (75% for and 25% against), House Republicans (82% for and 18%
against). Senate Democrats (64% for and 36% against), Senate Republicans (97%
for and 3% against). A 25-year extension was signed into law by President George
W. Bush on July 27, 2006.

Senate Democrats on April 1, 2004, blocked passage of a bill to renew the 1996
Welfare Reform Law, which was vetoed twice by President Clinton before he finally
signed it. Opposed by the Democrats are school choice opportunity scholarships
that would help black children get out of failing schools and Social Security reform,
even though blacks on average lose roughly $10,000 in the current system because
of a shorter life expectancy than whites (72.2 years for blacks vs. 77.5 years for
whites).

Democrats have been running our inner cities for the past 40 years, and blacks are
still complaining about the same problems. The suspicious voting irregularities in
the disputed 2000 presidential election were all from Democrat run Florida counties.

Martin Luther King, Jr was a Republican, registered in 1956. President Ronald

Reagan made King’s birthday a national holiday. Melvin Evans was the first elected
governor of the Virgin Islands. Hiram Rhodes Revels (R-MS) was the first black U.S.
Senator in 1870. Blanche Bruce (R-MS) was the first elected black Senator in 1875.
Some other distinguished black republicans are Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman,
Booker T. Washington, A. Phillip Randolph, Jackie Robinson, Carter G. Woodson,
George Washington Carver, Mary McLeod Bethune, Sammy Davis, Jr, Denzel
Washington, Clarence Thomas, Thomas Sowell, Lynn Swann and J.C. Watts. There
are many more, but the list is too long for this forum. Republicans George Bush, Sr
and Jr, tapped and entrusted black people with Secretary of State, the most
powerful cabinet posts on the planet, namely Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice. I’m
proud to be associated with such a group of achievers.

In my opinion, even today, Democrats, in pursuit of their agenda, are successfully

keeping many blacks angry, poorly educated, dependent on government, and
ignorant of history. Do the research, and avoid the emotion, empty promises, and
hype; you will find that Democrats have been for slavery, secession, segregation,
and now socialism, in that order. It’s easy for me to be a Republican.

I applaud Senator Obama for breaking the ultimate glass barrier in politics, and
given the history I’ve outlined; his achievement is all the more significant in his
party. I wish him godspeed.

Vince Danet
St Croix, VI
vincedanet@yahoo.com