I was honored to speak today on Arise.tv about the role of African-Americans in the Republican party.
There's only so much you can say in seconds-long sound bites, particularly when many charges are being leveled at you with machine gun rapid fire. But the one false accusation still resonating with me hours later, one that still has me spitting mad, is that Allen West and other GOP minorities are somehow token poster children for "white guilt."
On-air, I was (and still am) the first to concede that after "taking one on the jaw" as LTC West put it in his CPAC speech, the GOP is doing some much needed soul searching on a wide variety of issues with respect to its brand image. However, the Republican Party doesn't need an infusion of "Roots," it merely needs to reconnect with its (well documented) roots.
Those intimately familiar with the history of the Republican Party know that some of its first elected leaders were Black men. Men freed thanks to the Republican Party!
As this chart from Black Americans in Congress (BAIC) shows, there were no Blacks elected in the Democrat Party until 1935, some sixty years after the first elected Black Republicans:
Congress* Name State Party Service
41st (1869-1871) LONG,Jefferson Franklin GA Republican House 41st (1869-1871) RAINEY, Joseph Hayne SC Republican House 41st (1869-1871) REVELS, Hiram Rhodes MS Republican Senate
42nd (1871-1873) DE LARGE, Robert Carlos SC Republican House 42nd (1871-1873) ELLIOTT, Robert Brown SC Republican House 42nd (1871-1873) RAINEY, Joseph Hayne SC Republican House 42nd (1871-1873) TURNER, Benjamin Sterling AL Republican House 42nd (1871-1873) WALLS, Josiah Thomas FL Republican House
43rd (1873-1875) CAIN, Richard Harvey SC Republican House 43rd (1873-1875) ELLIOTT, Robert Brown SC Republican House 43rd (1873-1875) LYNCH, John Roy MS Republican House 43rd (1873-1875) RAINEY, Joseph Hayne SC Republican House 43rd (1873-1875) RANSIER, Alonzo Jacob SC Republican House 43rd (1873-1875) RAPIER, James Thomas AL Republican House 43rd (1873-1875) WALLS, Josiah Thomas FL Republican House
44th (1875-1877) BRUCE, Blanche Kelso MS Republican Senate 44th (1875-1877) HARALSON, Jeremiah AL Republican House 44th (1875-1877) HYMAN, John Adams NC Republican House 44th (1875-1877) LYNCH, John Roy MS Republican House 44th (1875-1877) NASH, Charles Edmund LA Republican House 44th (1875-1877) RAINEY, Joseph Hayne SC Republican House 44th (1875-1877) SMALLS, Robert SC Republican House 44th (1875-1877) WALLS, Josiah Thomas FL Republican House
45th (1877-1879) BRUCE, Blanche Kelso MS Republican Senate 45th (1877-1879) CAIN, Richard Harvey SC Republican House 45th (1877-1879) RAINEY, Joseph Hayne SC Republican House 45th (1877-1879) SMALLS, Robert SC Republican House
46th (1879-1881) BRUCE, Blanche Kelso MS Republican Senate
47th (1881-1883) LYNCH, John Roy MS Republican House 47th (1881-1883) SMALLS, Robert SC Republican House
48th (1883-1885) O'HARA, James Edward NC Republican House 48th (1883-1885) SMALLS, Robert SC Republican House
49th (1885-1887) O'HARA, James Edward NC Republican House 49th (1885-1887) SMALLS, Robert SC Republican House
51st (1889-1891) CHEATHAM, Henry Plummer NC Republican House 51st (1889-1891) LANGSTON, John Mercer VA Republican House 51st (1889-1891) MILLER, Thomas Ezekiel SC Republican House
52nd (1891-1893) CHEATHAM, Henry Plummer NC Republican House
53rd (1893-1895) MURRAY, George Washington SC Republican House
54th (1895-1897) MURRAY, George Washington SC Republican House
55th (1897-1899) WHITE, George Henry NC Republican House
56th (1899-1901) WHITE, George Henry NC Republican House
71st (1929-1931) DE PRIEST, Oscar Stanton IL Republican House
72nd (1931-1933) DE PRIEST, Oscar Stanton IL Republican House
73rd (1933-1935) DE PRIEST, Oscar Stanton IL Republican House
74th (1935-1937) MITCHELL, Arthur Wergs IL Democrat House
History speaks for itself: Republicans freed the slaves and Republicans championed Civil Rights. With the rise of the Tea Party, Conservatives are reconnecting with our historical legacy, and emerging from our ranks are strong men and women of color like Allen West, Mia Long, Star Parker, Tim Scott and Marco Rubio. These are not “tokens;” these are men and women convinced that limited government and free market solutions provide the best opportunities for all Americans, including those of color.
History has shown the GOP to be very different from the “bigots” the Left routinely paints them to be. Nor are they “anti-women,” as guest host Karen Hunter charged this morning, but rather champions of the rights of women from the womb, particularly Black women, who are more likely to be aborted than born, as a recent statistic out of New York shows.
Ms. Hunter went on to say that former RNC Chairman, Michael Steele was merely a counter-measure to the election of Barack Obama. Now, faithful readers know I have had my fair share of gripes about Mr. Steele, but being a “token” isn’t one of them. During Mr. Steele’s candidacy, did anyone from his party talk about his “Negro dialect” (that he could turn off “at will”) or call him “clean and articulate” (as opposed to what, I’d like to know -- "dirty and inarticulate?”). Not only was then-Senator Obama called that, he went on to choose the author of that latter remark as his running mate! Only in the DNC could something like that happen, and yet the GOP is painted with the "raaaacist" brush!
Ah, facts (and the indelible memory of the Internet) - enemies of the Left. The next time you hear that “racist rhetoric” from your friendly neighborhood Lefty, please set them straight, or send them here!
* List does not include Joseph Willis Menard who was elected to the House of Representatives in 1868, but, in a contested race, was not allowed to be seated.
Photo Credit: New York Public Library