Taylor F: President Dwight Eisenhower on Little Rock Integration Plan

Source:Taylor F.– Dwight D. Eisenhower (Republican, Texas) President of the United States (1953-61)

You can also see this post at The New Democrat, on WordPress.

“This is for educational and personal purposes.
Executive Order – – Little Rock 1957 – – Dwight D. Eisenhower”

From Taylor F.

Dwight Eisenhower, America’s first civil rights president. Not Lyndon Johnson who was our third, after Jack Kennedy who got involved in it strongly late in his presidency. But President Eisenhower was our first because he took on segregation from the executive level before the 1960s and when the civil rights movement became strong.

By taking on civil rights at the federal and executive level, President Eisenhower immediately gave credibility to the movement. Especially by being in favor of it and against school desegregation, by essentially saying that:

“African-Americans have the same right to a quality education as Caucasian-Americans. And that government can’t force African-American kids to go to poor schools. When Caucasians are going to good public schools”.

You can also see this post at The New Democrat, on Blogger.

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Muhammad Ali: ‘Why I Refused To Go To Vietnam’

Source:Iconic– The Greatest of All Time: Muhammad Ali.

You can also see this post on Blogger.

“Muhammad Ali on his decision to not joining the US army.”

From Iconic

“My conscious won’t let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America. And shoot them for what? They never called me nigger, they never lynched me, they didn’t put no dogs on me, they didn’t rob me of my nationality, rape and kill my mother and father… Shoot them for what? …How can I shoot them poor people, Just take me to jail.”

Source:Kaotik Calm– The Greatest of All Time: Muhammad Ali.

From Kaotik Calm

One thing that I respect about Muhammad Ali is that no one pushed him around, for the most part. Except for Don King perhaps with all the money he screwed Muhammad out of as his promoter in the 1970s. And Muhammad perhaps the most famous athlete in the world not just in the United States in the 1960s, who was at the heart of the American civil rights movement because of his race.

Because of Muhammad’s intelligence and the attention that he could bring to himself and because of how honest he was and wasn’t nice to the American establishment no matter the race, who knew how to get exactly what he wanted. And always said exactly what was on his mind so when he said he was against the Vietnam War in the mid 1960s. Like most people in his generation and was not going to fight against a country that never harmed him. Or denied him his freedom and constitutional rights because of his race and his complexion to fight against a country that never hurt him.

Muhammad wasn’t going to fight for a country that was trying to hold him down and when he said: “I’m not going to fight for a country that’s been trying to hold me down, because of my race to fight against a country that never called me Nigger”. and so-forth and he was being honest and serious. Muhammad was the Malcolm X of professional sports as far as someone who knew American history and the state of the African-American community.

Muhammad knew what African-Americans were going through and wasn’t going to take trash (to put it mildly) from anyone and be pushed around. Just like Malcolm X even if it meant his life. Malcolm was assassinated something that Muhammad has avoided. Muhammad was going to live his own life and try to help people that he felt he could and make a positive difference where he could and because of his intelligence. And his personality that he wasn’t going to sacrifice his own freedom and his own constitutional right to stand up for what he believed even if it meant getting his boxing career back, to fight for a cause that he believed was unjust.

What you see in this interview is Muhammad Ali being himself. And the interviewer bringing up for example all the money that not taking part in being drafted into the U.S. Army to fight in the Vietnam War and so-forth and losing his World Heavyweight Boxing Championship and his boxing license and the millions of dollars that came with that and Muhammad saying that: “Yeah, I could have that”. But I’m not going to take it at the cost of my freedom. Muhammad Ali wasn’t going to be bought.

You can also see this post at The New Democrat, on Blogger.

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Guy John: Governor Lester Maddox Says it’s Not About Race

Source: Guy John- Governor Lester Maddox D, GA

Source: This piece was originally posted at FRS Daily Times

Lester Maddux who unless I’m mistaken was Governor of Georgia at one point, but him saying that denying African-Americans service to his business “is not about race”, reminds me of the famous bank robber Willy Sutton saying that robbing banks “is not about the money”. Who are they trying to fool? Of course the racial discrimination that came about in the form of denying African-Americans service was about race. And it was also about skin-color as well. The Anglo-Saxon South lost the ability to treat Africans as property thanks to them losing the Civil War in the 1860s. Their response was that “if we can’t treat them like property, we’ll do the next best things. Separating the Africans from the Caucasians. And denying them the same quality of service that we give ourselves and for the ability for African-Americans to achieve any type of education in life that will allow for them to be successful in America”. They lost all of those battles and losing the ability to deny service to African-Americans, I guess was Lester Maddux’s last straw.

Guy John: Governor Lester Maddox Says It’s Not About Race

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Firing Line With William F. Buckley: ‘Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr.: The Wallace Crusade’

Source:Firing Line With William F. Buckley– Judge Leander Perez: Louisiana.

Source:The New Democrat 

“Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr.: The Wallace Movement. Episode 095, Recorded on April 15, 1968: Guest: Leander Perez.”

From Firing Line With William F. Buckley 

“Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr.: The Wallace Crusade. Episode 088, Recorded on January 24, 1968 Guest: George C. (George Corley) Wallace.”

Source:Firing Line With William F. Buckley– Interviewing Governor C. Wallace in 1968.

From Firing Line With William F. Buckley 

“Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr.: The Wallace Crusade. Episode 088, Recorded on January 24, 1968 Guest: George C. (George Corley) Wallace For more information about this program, see…

Source:Firing Line With William F. Buckley– Governor George C. Wallace: D. Alabama.

From Rick Donald

Bill Buckley was a true Conservative and he would’ve taken the more progressive or liberal stance against Wallace when it came to civil rights and segregation. Or least that it how it would seem. I even as a Liberal believe you can be a Conservative and still believe in commonsense American values like liberty, equality, equal rights and civil liberties. But that is me.

I never heard of Leander Perez from Louisiana before I saw this video. But apparently he was both Governor of Louisiana and a judge in Louisiana and this interview was done in 1968. And they were talking segregation and the civil rights laws. And the Governor telling Bill Buckley that he’s not a racist even though he says Negros (which is what African-Americans back then were called) are morally inferior to Caucasian-Americans. And Perez saying that he’s being honest and that is the truth, “why hide it”? With Buckley replying “so you are an honest bigot”.

Governor George C. Wallace was a Dixiecrat, a right-wing (at least on social cultural issues) Nationalist who was basically still fighting the Civil War and wanting to lead Confederates in that war. Not ready to perhaps even see African-Americans as people, let alone as Americans deserving of the same rights and protections, as well as responsibilities as European-Americans. Bill Buckley was a Conservative. And one of the conservative values is treating individuals as exactly that. And not treating people as members of groups. Worst or better simply because of their race.

The so-called Wallace Movement of the South of the 1960s and 1970s, was different. And more of a racially based nationalistic movement of Southern Caucasians, predominantly Protestant and perhaps even Anglo-Saxon. Who felt having African-Americans in their community was some type of an invasion. When the fact was and still is that Africans are just as American as Europeans and as such deserving of the same rights as European-Americans and every other race in America. The Wallace Movement simply saw African-Americans as inferior. And not deserving of the same rights and protections.

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The Daily Conversation: Long Lost Martin Luther King Speech

 

Freedom Fighter

Source: This piece was originally posted at The New Democrat

The thing that I may respect most about Dr. King was his ability to make his case to the country simply based on the facts. With a very sober demeanor that was designed to bring people to his cause based on the facts. That what he was talking about in accomplishing were equal rights under the law. That the United States Constitution guarantees everyone and that all Americans were supposed to be treated equally. And that we were entitled to these rights based under the United States Constitution.

Dr. King wasn’t calling for special rights or treatment for African-Americans. Just the same rights that Caucasian-Americans had and that no one was supposed to be discriminated against based on race. And treated better or worst because of their race. That we are all supposed to be treated equally under the law. And that it wasn’t some law that needed to be passed to guarantee our rights, because these rights were already guaranteed to all Americans again under the United States Constitution.

Dr. King also understood that for him to achieve the goals of his movement, which was racial equality under law, that he was going to need help. That African-Americans couldn’t make this happen on their own. That they needed other Americans including Caucasians as well. Simply because his community was outnumbered and need others to make their goals reality.

The Daily Conversation: Long Lost Dr. Martin Luther King Speech

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PBS: NewsHour: Gwen Ifill- U.S. Delegate Eleanore H. Norton: ‘On Organizing the March on Washington’

“The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and television program distributor[6] based in Arlington, Virginia. The PBS is a publicly funded[7] nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educational programming to public television stations in the United States, distributing series such as American Experience, America’s Test Kitchen, Antiques Roadshow, Arthur, Barney & Friends, Between the Lions, Cyberchase, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Downton Abbey, Wild Kratts, Finding Your Roots, Frontline, The Magic School Bus, The Kidsongs Television Show, Masterpiece Theater, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Nature, Nature Cat, Nova, PBS NewsHour, Peg + Cat, Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, Teletubbies, Keeping Up Appearances, and This Old House.[8]

PBS is funded by a combination of member station dues, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, pledge drives, and donations from both private foundations and individual citizens. All proposed funding for programming is subject to a set of standards to ensure the program is free of influence from the funding source.[9] PBS has over 350 member television stations, many owned by educational institutions, nonprofit groups both independent or affiliated with one particular local public school district or collegiate educational institution, or entities owned by or related to state government.”

From Wikipedia

“Decades before delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton would represent her district as a congresswoman on Capitol Hill, she worked as one of the original organizers for the March on Washington. Fifty years later, Holmes Norton reflects with Gwen Ifill on her efforts, part of a series of discussions on the legacy of August 28, 1963.”

From the PBS NewsHour

Organizing a march that became the most important event and speech in the American civil rights movement. That was about, yes, civil rights and equal rights for all Americans but also about economics and social and economic justice for low-income Americans.

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Sikivu Hutchinson: ‘Dr King Speaks Deep’

Source:Sikivu Hutchinson– Dr. Reverend Martin L. King I believe in 1968.

“Dr King speaks deep”

From Sikivu Hutchinson

Sounds like Dr. King talking about proposing Federal public funding for African-American colleges and universities.

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PBS: Newshour- Gwen Ifill & William P. Jones- ‘March on Washington Had More Radical Roots Than Remembered’

Source:PBS NewsHour– Gwen Ifill interviewing Professor William P. Jones.

“The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and television program distributor[6] based in Arlington, Virginia. It is a publicly funded[7] nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educational programming to public television stations in the United States, distributing series such as American Experience, America’s Test Kitchen, Antiques Roadshow, Arthur, Barney & Friends, Between the Lions, Cyberchase, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Downton Abbey, Wild Kratts, Finding Your Roots, Frontline, The Magic School Bus, The Kidsongs Television Show, Masterpiece Theater, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Nature, Nature Cat, Nova, PBS NewsHour, Peg + Cat, Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, Teletubbies, Keeping Up Appearances, and This Old House.”

From Wikipedia

“Historian William P. Jones joins Gwen Ifill to offer an overview of how the March on Washington came to be, why President Kennedy feared it would cause negative aftermath and what roles women of color played on that historic day. Their discussion is one a series of conversations looking back at the legacy of August 28, 1963.”

From the PBS NewsHour

The 1963 March on Washington was about individual freedom and equal rights for African-Americans. That is how the civil rights movement started out in the 1950s and 60s.

But as the movement moved along and by the time the late 1960s came around especially after the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 1965 Voting Rights Act and 1968 Fair Housing Law all passed Congress and were signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson, the movement then shifted towards economic issues and policy.

What Socialists call economic justice and social justice which are about addressing poverty in America and creating an economic system that expanded economic opportunity to more Americans especially low-income Americans and wasn’t exclusively for African-Americans, but Americans in general who lived in poverty and had no hope for a bright future.

The civil rights movement moves from equal rights under law for all Americans in the early and mid 1960s, to economic and social justice by the late 1960s. And had a real social democratic feel to it and moving American past the New Deal and Great Society and building off of those agendas. Which is what Socialists especially on the Left say further Left in the Democratic Party and Green Party, talk about doing today.

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RBG Street Scholar: James Baldwin & Dick Gregory- ‘Baldwin’s Nigger (1969)’

Source:RBG Street Scholar– about James Baldwin’s 1969 documentary.

You can also see this post at The New Democrat, on WordPress.

You can also see this post at The New Democrat, on Blogger.

“RBG-James Baldwin and Dick Gregory Baldwin’s Nigger (1969)”

From RBG Scholar

James Baldwin’s message seems to be about individual empowerment and individual freedom, that African-Americans should empower themselves and standup for their own lives and take charge of their own lives. And perhaps even stop complaining. Not forget about all the injustices that came to this community before, but for this community to move forward, they need to take control of their own lives and build their own lives and communities.

Dick Gregory, who what I’ve heard from him, sounds more like Martin King, then Malcolm X, when it came to the civil rights movement, or the Black Power movement. Someone who not only believes in non-violence, but believes in social democracy and democratic socialism when it comes to solving the problems of the African-American community. In this speech, sounds more like Malcolm X. Talking about personal responsibility, to go along with individual freedom and empowerment.

In this Baldwin speech he seems to be arguing that African-Americans, should stand up and take their freedom and build their own community. And not expect others to do that for them. Sounds very much like Malcolm X. Fighting violence with violence, which is essentially what Malcolm X preached when it came to racist Caucasians who abuse African-Americans, would’ve not of accomplished what was needed to end racist laws and state-sponsored racism. Because it wouldn’t have brought other communities to support the African-American freedom fighters.

But individual freedom through education and economic development and infrastructure in underserved communities, would give African-Americans the tools that they need to live in freedom.

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