REQUIRED READING

In 1964, I was a student at Stetson University in Deland, Florida, and worked at a print shop in St. Augustine while taking some time off from my studies.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. came to town to try to win meaningful concessions for local blacks.

Being a bit radical for my time, and believing in the cause he espoused, I joined him in the march.

This post, however, is not about me, or about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it is about a history lesson you need.

I urge you to read a very important post called On Racism and Republicans .

You may not realize just who did what for whom in this country.

Here is a little test you might want to take (if you don't want to take it, take it anyway...it will be informative and good for you).

1. What political Party fought to keep blacks in slavery and was the Party of the Ku Klux Klan?

2. From 1870 to 1930, what Party used fraud, whippings, lynchings, murder, intimidation and mutilation to get the black vote, and passed the Black Codes (most commonly associated with legislation passed by states after the Civil War in an attempt to control the labor, movements and activities of Blacks) and Jim Crow laws (Some examples of which are: the segregation of public schools; public places and public transportation; and the segregation of restrooms and restaurants for whites and blacks.) which legalized racial discrimination and denied blacks their rights as citizens?

3. What was the Party of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and President Harry Truman, who rejected anti-lynching laws and efforts to establish a permanent Civil Rights Commission?

4. Of what Party is current Senator Robert Byrd, who was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, Senator Fritz Hollings, who hoisted the Confederate flag over the state capitol in South Carolina when he was the governor, and Senator Ted Kennedy, who recently insulted black judicial nominees by calling them "Neanderthals" while blocking their appointments?

5. What was the Party of the president who sent troops to war in Bosnia and Kosovo without Congressional approval, vetoed the Welfare Reform law twice before being pressured to sign it, refused to comply with a court order to have shipping companies develop an Affirmative Action Plan, and failed to fight terroritsts after the first bombing of the World Trade Center (William Jefferson Clinton)?

6. What was the Party of Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Sr., who voted against the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s?

7. What Party opposes the faith based initiative, school vouchers, school prayers?

8. What Party refuses to acknowledge their racist past or to apologize for try to expand slavery, lynch blacks, and other despicable positions?

9. What Party is now trying to get elected the first black president (not counting W.J. Clinton), whose recent views have espoused the same kind of counter-productive thinking, only now toward the white race?

By now you know that the answer to every question above is THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

Surprised? Don't believe it?

When you read, On Racism and Republicans , you will see some things you may never have seen before.

You will put into perspective some things you may never have understood before.

Some of you will react to this post as though it is somehow racist, in and of itself.

That's your problem, because it most assuredly is not.

If you will read, On Racism and Republicans , you will understand a lot of things.