Dem. Gov’s “Segregation now … Segregation Forever” speech – 60 years later

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Democrat Alabama Governor George Wallace, in his January 14, 1963, inaugural speech said in part, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” Although that was sixty years ago, George Wallace’s fiery words still echo into this century.

In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled school desegregation unconstitutional with the Brown v Board of Education decision. The high court overturned the “separate but equal” principle set forth in the 1896 Plessy v Ferguson case.

After hundreds of black students applied for admission to the University of Alabama in 1963, Gov. Wallace doubled down on his “segregation forever” campaign promise to fight school integration. In a symbolic stance against integration, Wallace took a “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door” on June 11, 1963, when he blocked the entrance to Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama. Two black students applying for admission, Vivian Malone and James Hood, waited in a car during the standoff.

President Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard to force integration at the university. Kennedy expressed concern over the level of potential violence there because of Wallace’s heightened rhetoric. National Guard General Henry Graham commanded Gov. Wallace to step aside. Wallace refused.

Gov. Wallace responded by giving a speech about states’ rights. Four hours later, Gen. Graham again commanded Wallace to step aside saying, “Sir, it is my sad duty to ask you to step aside under the orders of the President of the United States.” Wallace continued to speak, but eventually stepped aside and allowed Malone and Hood to complete their registration.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. referenced Wallace’s remarks in his August 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech. Dr. King said, “I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of ‘interposition’ and ‘nullification’ – one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.”

ANOTHER RACIST DEMOCRAT GOVERNOR

Democrats often accuse Republicans of being racists, yet it’s the Democrats with the lengthy history of racism.

It was Democrat Arkansas Gov. Orval Fauvus who became the national symbol of racial segregation in September 1957. In defiance of a judge’s order, Gov. Fauvus used the Arkansas National Guard to prevent nine black high school students from integrating Little Rock Central High School.

President Eisenhower ordered the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army to Arkansas to ensure the judge’s order was obeyed, to protect the nine black students, and to maintain order in the school and community. He also federalized the Arkansas National Guard.

Gov. Fauvus cited states’ rights in his argument against school integration, just as Gov. Wallace did six years later. Fauvus, however, took the unprecedented step of closing Little Rock Central High School the following school year to prevent integration! The 1958-59 school year became known as the “Lost Year.”

A RACIST SENATOR / PRESIDENT

And it was future President Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) who, as Senate Majority Leader, killed the Civil Rights Act of 1957. President Obama said of LBJ, “During his first 20 years in Congress he opposed every civil rights bill that came up for a vote, once calling the push for federal legislation a farce and a shame.”

But when he became president, it was the same LBJ who was forced to sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that was passed by Republicans. What a hypocrite!

DEMOCRATS WROTE JIM CROW LAWS!

That brings me to “Jim Crow Laws.” President Biden and his fellow Democrats repeatedly accuse Republicans of furthering Jim Crow Laws. It drips with irony. Jim Crow laws were written and enacted by white Southern Democrats in the late 1800s and early 1900s as a way to disenfranchise Black Americans following the Civil War.

The term Jim Crow is attributed to a song-and-dance caricature performed by white actors in black face. By 1838, “Jim Crow” had become a pejorative term. So when white Southern Democrats wrote and passed racial segregation laws, they became known as Jim Crow laws.

From 1887 to 1892 southern Democrat-controlled state legislatures passed many segregation laws. The first of these required separate streetcars and trains for blacks and whites. Most states also imposed fines, and even imprisonment, for passengers who tried to sit in the wrong cars.

Other examples of Jim Crow laws include segregation in restaurants, sports, entertainment venues (theaters, dance halls, etc.), marriage, housing, and, of course, education.

DEMOCRATS CONTINUE TO PERPETUATE RACISM

So the next time President Biden, Senator Schumer, or other Democrats accuse Republicans of racism and furthering “Jim Crow Laws,” understand that Democrats know their party is guilty of writing, passing, and perpetuating those racist laws. For decades, and well into the 1960s, Democrats fought school integration, civil rights laws, and equal justice.

And isn’t it now in Democrat-controlled predominantly-black cities where violent crime is out of control? Isn’t that where poverty and sub-standard housing are so prevalent? Aren’t those the cities where the failures of the education system hamper viable employment opportunities? Why do Democrats keep promising blacks they’ll make city streets safer, improve the local economy, and revamp schools when they spent the last 150 years trying to prevent those very things?

Maybe Republicans should be addressing these important questions directly to voters who have been systematically mistreated and repeatedly lied to by Democrats. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me for 150 years……



Image from: Equal Justice Initiative


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GuvGeek
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GuvGeek
1 year ago

What’s really interesting is that Blacks self Segregate themselves in Most Societies around the World. It’s more than just an economic thing with Blacks; it’s Tribal. People from the Middle East also seem to do the same thing and it to is along Tribal Lines, not just “Color”. Democrats love to take advantage of this phenomena for political gain.