By Horace Anderson
DAYTONA BEACH -- It’s Black History Month, the time when we African-Americans recall our many important contributions to the development of the United States and remember the history of our progress from slaves to free people, to a state of equality so nearly complete that we just re-elected a black president.
We rejoice in the support we enjoy from the Democratic Party and most of us think that things were always this way. But that isn’t true.
Everyone knows that the man who led the Civil War to free the slaves and who issued the Emancipation Proclamation was Abraham Lincoln - a Republican.
Everyone knows that the man who led the Civil War to free the slaves and who issued the Emancipation Proclamation was Abraham Lincoln - a Republican.
But did you know that it was Republicans in Mississippi who, in 1870, sent the first black Senator, Republican Hiram Rhodes Revels, to Washington where he filled the seat of Jefferson Davis, former president of the Confederacy and a Democrat?
Did you know that, from 1870 to 1901 thirteen former slaves were elected to Congress and all of them were Republicans?
Did you know that it was Republicans who passed the first three civil rights acts in our nation’s history and Democrats who opposed passage?
Did you know that it was President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, who re-segregated the military?
Did you know that the Rev. Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican?
Did you know that what later became the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was first proposed during the Republican Eisenhower Administration where it was opposed by then-Sen. John F. Kennedy?
And when, in 1964, the Act was in danger of failing in the Senate it was re-written by Republican Sen. Everett McKinley Dirksen into the glorious legislation we know today. But even this legislation was opposed by such Democratic stalwarts as Senator William Fulbright, who mentored Bill Clinton, Senator Al Gore senior and, in the longest filibuster in Senate history, by former KKK Grand Dragon Robert Byrd -- all Democrats.
Yes, Democratic programs have spent over 16 trillion dollars on welfare, much of which went to Blacks. But has all that money really advanced our race? For many of us it has kept the wolf from the door but it has also kept us on the government dole, stifling our unique initiative.
Yes, Democratic programs have spent over 16 trillion dollars on welfare, much of which went to Blacks. But has all that money really advanced our race? For many of us it has kept the wolf from the door but it has also kept us on the government dole, stifling our unique initiative.
How many successful African-Americans do you know who made it through welfare as opposed to their own hard work?
We Black Americans have made great contributions to the success of this country on our own and without being spoon fed by the government. We need to grab with both hands the opportunities which this nation offers to everyone and pull ourselves up the ladder.
That is the Republican philosophy: Equal opportunities for everyone to use their God-given talents to climb as high up the ladder as they can. It’s a philosophy that works for all of us.
You know what? African-Americans have had a strong civil rights alternative - a champion - all along, not just when it became politically advantageous. And they still do.
I’m Horace Anderson, a proud black American, and a Republican.
Paid Political Advertisement not on behalf of any candidate. Paid for by the Republican Executive Committee of Volusia County, 921 N. Nova Rd., Daytona Beach, Fl 32117.