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Random Thoughts On Blacks And Democrats
(Part II)
ately, I’ve had to remind
myself constantly that people have the right to sup- port the political candidate of their choice, especially when I see Blacks on national televi- sion defending Donald Trump. Furthermore, I have to remind myself that I was 21 years old before I found out that my whole family was reg- istered Republicans, after I registered myself as a Democ- rat because they had always voted for Democrats, except for 7
I believe they voted in that manner because they realized that since the Emancipation Proclamation (1865), Demo- cratic presidents and Con- gressmen have done more for Blacks in the 42 years they oc- cupied the White House than Republicans who occupied the White House for 113 of those years.
The last time we talked, I shared thoughts on the history of Blacks, Democrats, and Re- publicans since President Abraham Lincoln’s tenure through the presidency of Harry Truman.
Today, we will share infor- mation on how Blacks fared under Presidents John Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan.
President Kennedy,
though initially cautious about Civil Rights, shared a vision that would address the rights of Blacks to vote, the desegre- gation of public facilities,
bring an end to open racist in- sults and violence against Blacks, and improve the eco- nomic and social condition of Blacks.
President Kennedy “ap- pointed” unprecedented num- bers of Blacks to high-level positions in his administration and strengthened the Civil Rights Commission. In addi- tion, President Kennedy, in favor of school desegregation, sent federal marshals and the National Guard to Mississippi to protect James Meredith as he integrated the University of Mississippi.
Moreover, President Kennedy sent several thou- sand troops and federal mar- shals to Alabama to protect young Black protestors from Sheriff Bull Connor’s use of dogs, high pressure water hoses, and mass arrests, and to protect Black students en- rolling at the University of Al- abama.
Moreover, President Kennedy placed Vice Pres- ident Johnson in charge of the Commission on Equal Em- ployment opportunity, placed Attorney General Robert Kennedy in charge of secur- ing voting rights for Blacks and sent federal marshals to the South to protect freedom riders who were being at- tacked and murdered while at- tempting to desegregate public facilities and interstate trans- portation.
After the 1963 March on Washington, President Kennedy announced plans to submit bills to Congress that would guarantee Blacks equal
access to public accommoda- tions, that would end school segregation, and that provided federal protection of the right to vote.
Sadly, because of Presi- dent Kennedy’s assassina- tion in late 1963, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was left with the task to shepherd the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
President Johnson ini- tiated the War on Poverty pro- gram, Head Start, Medicaid, Medicare, Job Corps, Labor Education Advancement Pro- gram (LEAP), VISTA, Upward Bound, as well as numerous other education and employ- ment training programs that helped lift millions of Black families out of poverty and placed numerous Blacks in high paying jobs.
Furthermore, President Johnson appointed the first Black, Thurgood Marshall, to the Supreme Court in 1967. In 1969; President Richard Nixon issued an Executive Order that required all federal agencies to adopt affirmative programs for equal employ- ment opportunity, avoided personal contacts with Blacks, and launched a War on Drugs that resulted in the mass in- carceration of Blacks and a few whites.
President Nixon’s suc- cessor, President Gerald Ford, cultivated good rela- tionships with Blacks, ap- pointed the first Black Secretary of Transportation; yet, he opposed busing to achieve school desegregation.
Now, while our readers are more familiar with the Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama years, we will address their adminis- trations in an upcoming col- umn.
We pray you all will vote your choice in November. Until then, Harrambee.
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C. Blythe Andrews 1901-1977 (1945)
C. Blythe Andrews, Jr. 1930-2010 (1977)
The Birth Of A Nation: The Real Story
t was so well received that a reporter wrote, “Viewers
could not help, but marvel at its cinematic sophistica- tion.” Indeed, The Birth of a Nation was so ahead of its time, America’s 28th president, Woodrow Wilson said that watch- ing the film was “like writing history with lightning” because its content that highlighted Black Americans in the most vil- lainous way “was so terribly true,” said Wilson.
He said much more about D. W. Griffith’s film released in 1915 to a racist world panting to lose millions of souls in a ‘war to end all wars.” But isn’t it strange that on the 100th an- niversary of Griffith’s groundbreaking negrophobic master- piece, another movie takes its place on the world screen, robed in the same name, but seemingly having a different agenda . . . or so it would seem.
But guess what this movie, due out on October 6th, is about, being called The Birth of a Nation? Is it another Dis- neyesque travelogue about the kind-courage of the Ku Klux Klan? Uh-uh!
This one touts the story of none other than Nat Turner, firebrand slave-preacher-Black Geronimo figure whose fiery rebellion through 19th century Virginia almost caught Amer- ica on fire. And somehow, the movie’s makers decided to call it The Birth of A Nation.
We think we get it. Seemingly so say the film’s financers, Nat Turner’s revolution was the real “birth of the nation,” along with John Brown’s rebellion at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, perhaps so.
But adopting the title of one of the most racist films in the history of movies, then painting it with the portrait of one of Black America’s most controversial activist-heroes is risky business for anybody’s money.
Meanwhile, the movie made here in Tampa as a rebuke to Griffith’s film remains dust-ridden and silent. We refer to Emmett Scott’s The Birth of a Race. Before you see the new piece, go to the Robert Saunders Public Library, and check out Scott’s masterpiece.
riod of time when Trump doesn’t want to raise minimum wages for the working poor is in- deed, an apprentice for madness.
Yet, many minimum wage earners and middle income families will pay thousands in fed- eral income taxes.
Trump probably has used many loopholes that only wealthy families and corporations em- ployed to avoid tax-paying. Consider, 26 profitable Fortune 500 companies paid no taxes over a five-year (2008-2012) period. More so, a “Citizens For Tax Justice” report revealed 288 For- tune 500 companies paid only 19.4% rate over the five-year period, and that a third paid less than 10 percent.
Furthermore, the report showed 26 companies paid no federal taxes at all. In addition five companies enjoyed $77 billion in tax breaks between 2008 and 2012.
Trump may think middle class taxpayers are “dumb” and unable to find tax-loopholes. But remember: Dumb taxpayers can cast smart votes.
... Only Dumb People Pay Taxes!
hile listening to and watching intently the presiden-
tial debate a week ago, many Americans had what we would call an ‘epiphanic” (AHA!!) moment when they heard Hillary Clinton list possible reasons why Donald Trump had- n’t released his income tax returns, but when she got to the third reason (“perhaps, he doesn’t want us to know that he doesn’t pay any taxes at all”), Trump, with a twinkle in his eye, leaned toward the television camera and grinned, “That’s because I’m smart.”
One family who said they made roughly $52,000 and paid nearly $3,000 in federal taxes after deductions of $5,000 in medical costs, home mortgage interest and several other de- ductions did what any other red-blooded, middle class Amer- ican would do upon hearing Trump’s comment: They hit the ceiling!
Come on now. How could a self-professed billionaire even joke about not paying any taxes when 55 percent of American households pay federal income tax? Such arrogance in a pe-
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