[author's note: Allow me to introduce myself. I go by Mr. Chap, and I am the owner of the Insane Asylum website (http://www.insaneasylumblog.com/). At the Insane Asylum, we strive to make people think about the things they normally don't. From unbelievable news to politics, we cover the issues that drive our society.I'm really honored that Matthew, who is an all-star contributor at the Insane Asylum, has given me the green light to write here. For the record, I do think I should let you know that I'm a sympathetic Grammar Nazi who is open to beginning sentences with "because" and "but", I rarely use curse words, and I'm also a serial comma killer.
Enjoy the ride...motherfuckers.]
I hope they don't take my Black Card for this...
January 19th was the 50th Anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's Inaugural speech, and if it wasn't for Google reminding us, most people probably wouldn't have noticed. It's funny how Mr. Kennedy is seen as this major proponent of civil rights. He's earned a spot on the walls and mantles of many Black households next to Dr. Martin Luther King and Black Jesus...the one with the dreads. However, Mr. Kennedy voted against the 1957 Civil Rights Act while he was a Senator, and after he became President, Kennedy was opposed to Dr. King's 1963 March on Washington which was organized by A. Phillip Randolph, who was a Black Republican.
During the civil rights movement Dr. King fought the Democrats who turned fire hoses on blacks, stood in the school house doors, and let dogs loose. It was Republican President Dwight Eisenhower who pushed to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and sent troops to Arkansas to desegregate schools. Eisenhower appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren to the U.S. Supreme Court, which resulted in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision ending school segregation. It was also Eisenhower that actually ended segregation in the military.(edit)
The 1963 March on Washington was initially opposed by Kennedy because he believed that any march during his presidency meant that civil rights leaders were critical of his stance on civil rights. Kennedy also felt that the march could affect Congress when it was in the process of discussing his civil rights bill. Only when it was agreed that the Federal Government would have a presence Kennedy eventually endorsed it. He might have been playing politics when he opposed the 1957 Act. I'll give him that. And while is was status-quo for the Dems to be against civil rights at that time, maybe he recognized that he needed the ‘Black Vote’ if he was to beat Nixon. Hence the complete about-face in policy.
Given the circumstances of that era, it is safe to say Dr. King was a Republican. It was the Republicans who fought to free blacks from slavery and amended the Constitution to grant blacks freedom (13th Amendment), citizenship (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 that was designed to establish a new government system in the Democrat-controlled South, one that was to be fair to Blacks. Republicans also started the NAACP and affirmative action with Republican President Richard Nixon's 1969 Philadelphia Plan (designed by Black Republican Art Fletcher). Although affirmative action now has been turned by the Democrats into an unfair quota system, affirmative action was begun by Nixon to counter the harm caused to Blacks when Democrat President Woodrow Wilson in 1912 kicked all of the blacks out of federal government jobs.
Nah, I'm not a Republican, Democrat, Progressive, Tea-Bagger, Independent or Watermelon (green on the outside, red on the inside). Their stances change every day and a good idea is a bad idea to a Party if another Party brings it up first. I'm not much into relying on man to do what's right. The only thing we have dominion over are animals and we can't even do that without effing up. I'll just sit back and watch the political dogfights while eating my popcorn.
Nah, I'm not a Republican, Democrat, Progressive, Tea-Bagger, Independent or Watermelon (green on the outside, red on the inside). Their stances change every day and a good idea is a bad idea to a Party if another Party brings it up first. I'm not much into relying on man to do what's right. The only thing we have dominion over are animals and we can't even do that without effing up. I'll just sit back and watch the political dogfights while eating my popcorn.
*this post also appears at the Insane Asylum Blog*
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