By Lt. Colonel Frances Rice,U.S. Army Retired:
"We, African American citizens of the United States, declare and assert:
Whereas
in the early 1600's 20 African men and women were landed in Virginia
from a Dutch ship as slaves and from that tiny seed grew the poisoned
fruit of plantation slavery which shaped the course of American
development,
Whereas reconciliation and healing always begin with an apology and an effort to repay those who have been wronged,
Whereas
the Democratic Party has never apologized for their horrific atrocities
and racist practices committed against African Americans during the
past two hundred years, nor for the residual impact that those
atrocities and practices and current soft bigotry of low expectations
are having on us today,
Whereas the Democratic Party fought to
expand slavery and, after the Civil War, established Jim Crow Laws,
Black Codes and other repressive legislation that were designed to
disenfranchise African Americans,
Whereas the Ku Klux Klan was
the terrorist arm of the Democratic Party, and their primary goal was
to intimidate and terrorize African American voters, Republicans who
moved South to protect African Americans and any other whites who
supported them,
Whereas, according to leading historians (both
black and white), the horrific atrocities committed against African
Americans during slavery and Reconstruction were financed, sponsored,
and promoted by the Democratic Party and their Ku Klux Klan supporters,
Whereas from 1870 to 1930, in an effort to deny African
Americans their civil rights and to keep African Americans from voting
Republican, thousands of African Americans were shot, beaten, lynched,
mutilated, and burned to death by Ku Klux Klan terrorists from the
Democratic Party,
Whereas Democratic Presidents Franklin D.
Roosevelt and Harry Truman rejected anti-lynching laws and efforts to
establish a permanent Civil Rights Commission,
Whereas the
Democratic party has used racist demagoguery to deceive African
Americans about the history of the Republican Party that:
(a) started
as the anti-slavery party in 1854,
(b) fought to free African Americans
from slavery,
(c) designed Reconstruction, a ten-year period of
unprecedented political power for African Americans,
(d) passed the
Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the U. S.
Constitution granting African Americans freedom, citizenship, and the
right to vote,
(e) passed the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875
granting African Americans protection from the Black Codes and
prohibiting racial discrimination in public accommodations,
(f) passed
the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965
granting African Americans protection from the Jim Crow laws,
(g)
established Affirmative Action programs to help African Americans
proper with Republican President Richard Nixon's 1969 Philadelphia Plan
that set the first goals and timetables and his 1972 Equal Employment
Opportunity Act that made Affirmative Action Programs the law of our
nation, and
(h) never sponsored or launched a program, passed laws, or
engaged in practices that resulted in the death of millions of African
Americans,
Whereas Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka
(a 1954 decision by Chief Justice Earl Warren who was appointed by
Republican President Dwight Eisenhower) was a landmark civil rights
case that was designed to overturn the racist practices that were
established by the Democratic Party,
Whereas after Democratic
President Franklin D. Roosevelt received the vote of African Americans,
he banned African American newspapers from the military shortly after
taking office because he was convinced the newspapers were communists,
Whereas
Democratic President John F. Kennedy voted against the 1957 Civil
Rights Law, opposed the 1963 March on Washington by Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., and was later criticized by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for
ignoring civil rights issues.
Whereas Democratic President
John F. Kennedy authorized the FBI (supervised by his brother, Attorney
General Robert Kennedy) to investigate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on
suspicion of being a communist,
Whereas Democratic Senator
Robert Byrd of West Virginia, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, made
a 14-hour filibuster speech in the Senate in June 1964 in an
unsuccessful effort to block passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and
was heralded in April 2004 by Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd as a
senator who would have been a great leader during the Civil War,
Whereas
when the 1964 Civil Rights Act came up for vote, Senator Al Gore, Sr.
and the rest of the Southern Democrats voted against the bill,
Whereas
in the House of Representatives only 61 percent of the Democrats voted
for the 1964 Civil Rights Act as compared to 80 percent of Republicans,
and in the Senate only 69 percent of the Democrats voted for the 1964
Civil Rights Act, compared to 82 percent of the Republicans,
Whereas
Democratic President Bill Clinton sent troops to Europe to protect the
citizens of Bosnia and Kosovo while allowing an estimated 800,000 black
Rwandans to be massacred in Africa, vetoed the welfare reform law twice
before signing it, and refused to comply with a court order to have
shipping companies develop an Affirmative Action Plan,
Whereas
Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore created harmful racial
division when he falsely claimed that the 2000 presidential election
was "stolen" from him and that African Americans in Florida were
disenfranchised, even though a second recount of Florida votes by the
"Miami Herald" and a consortium of major news organizations confirmed
that he lost the election, and a ruling by the U.S. Civil Rights
Commission declared that African Americans were not denied the right to
vote,
Whereas the Democratic Party's soft bigotry of low
expectations and social promotions have consigned African Americans to
economic bondage and created a culture of dependency on government
social programs,
Whereas the Democratic Party's use of
deception and fear to block welfare reform, the faith-based initiative
and school choice that would help African Americans prosper is
consistent with the Democratic Party's heritage of racism that included
sanctioning of slavery and kukluxery, a perversion of moral sentiment
among leaders of the Democratic Party whose racist legacy bode ill
until this generation of African Americans,
Now, therefore,
for the above and other documented atrocities and accumulated wrongs
inflicted upon African Americans, we demand a formal written apology
and other appropriate remuneration from the leadership of the
Democratic party.
"We, African American citizens of the United States, declare and assert:
Whereas
in the early 1600's 20 African men and women were landed in Virginia
from a Dutch ship as slaves and from that tiny seed grew the poisoned
fruit of plantation slavery which shaped the course of American
development,
Whereas reconciliation and healing always begin with an apology and an effort to repay those who have been wronged,
Whereas
the Democratic Party has never apologized for their horrific atrocities
and racist practices committed against African Americans during the
past two hundred years, nor for the residual impact that those
atrocities and practices and current soft bigotry of low expectations
are having on us today,
Whereas the Democratic Party fought to
expand slavery and, after the Civil War, established Jim Crow Laws,
Black Codes and other repressive legislation that were designed to
disenfranchise African Americans,
Whereas the Ku Klux Klan was
the terrorist arm of the Democratic Party, and their primary goal was
to intimidate and terrorize African American voters, Republicans who
moved South to protect African Americans and any other whites who
supported them,
Whereas, according to leading historians (both
black and white), the horrific atrocities committed against African
Americans during slavery and Reconstruction were financed, sponsored,
and promoted by the Democratic Party and their Ku Klux Klan supporters,
Whereas from 1870 to 1930, in an effort to deny African
Americans their civil rights and to keep African Americans from voting
Republican, thousands of African Americans were shot, beaten, lynched,
mutilated, and burned to death by Ku Klux Klan terrorists from the
Democratic Party,
Whereas Democratic Presidents Franklin D.
Roosevelt and Harry Truman rejected anti-lynching laws and efforts to
establish a permanent Civil Rights Commission,
Whereas the
Democratic party has used racist demagoguery to deceive African
Americans about the history of the Republican Party that:
(a) started
as the anti-slavery party in 1854,
(b) fought to free African Americans
from slavery,
(c) designed Reconstruction, a ten-year period of
unprecedented political power for African Americans,
(d) passed the
Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the U. S.
Constitution granting African Americans freedom, citizenship, and the
right to vote,
(e) passed the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875
granting African Americans protection from the Black Codes and
prohibiting racial discrimination in public accommodations,
(f) passed
the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965
granting African Americans protection from the Jim Crow laws,
(g)
established Affirmative Action programs to help African Americans
proper with Republican President Richard Nixon's 1969 Philadelphia Plan
that set the first goals and timetables and his 1972 Equal Employment
Opportunity Act that made Affirmative Action Programs the law of our
nation, and
(h) never sponsored or launched a program, passed laws, or
engaged in practices that resulted in the death of millions of African
Americans,
Whereas Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka
(a 1954 decision by Chief Justice Earl Warren who was appointed by
Republican President Dwight Eisenhower) was a landmark civil rights
case that was designed to overturn the racist practices that were
established by the Democratic Party,
Whereas after Democratic
President Franklin D. Roosevelt received the vote of African Americans,
he banned African American newspapers from the military shortly after
taking office because he was convinced the newspapers were communists,
Whereas
Democratic President John F. Kennedy voted against the 1957 Civil
Rights Law, opposed the 1963 March on Washington by Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., and was later criticized by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for
ignoring civil rights issues.
Whereas Democratic President
John F. Kennedy authorized the FBI (supervised by his brother, Attorney
General Robert Kennedy) to investigate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on
suspicion of being a communist,
Whereas Democratic Senator
Robert Byrd of West Virginia, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, made
a 14-hour filibuster speech in the Senate in June 1964 in an
unsuccessful effort to block passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and
was heralded in April 2004 by Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd as a
senator who would have been a great leader during the Civil War,
Whereas
when the 1964 Civil Rights Act came up for vote, Senator Al Gore, Sr.
and the rest of the Southern Democrats voted against the bill,
Whereas
in the House of Representatives only 61 percent of the Democrats voted
for the 1964 Civil Rights Act as compared to 80 percent of Republicans,
and in the Senate only 69 percent of the Democrats voted for the 1964
Civil Rights Act, compared to 82 percent of the Republicans,
Whereas
Democratic President Bill Clinton sent troops to Europe to protect the
citizens of Bosnia and Kosovo while allowing an estimated 800,000 black
Rwandans to be massacred in Africa, vetoed the welfare reform law twice
before signing it, and refused to comply with a court order to have
shipping companies develop an Affirmative Action Plan,
Whereas
Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore created harmful racial
division when he falsely claimed that the 2000 presidential election
was "stolen" from him and that African Americans in Florida were
disenfranchised, even though a second recount of Florida votes by the
"Miami Herald" and a consortium of major news organizations confirmed
that he lost the election, and a ruling by the U.S. Civil Rights
Commission declared that African Americans were not denied the right to
vote,
Whereas the Democratic Party's soft bigotry of low
expectations and social promotions have consigned African Americans to
economic bondage and created a culture of dependency on government
social programs,
Whereas the Democratic Party's use of
deception and fear to block welfare reform, the faith-based initiative
and school choice that would help African Americans prosper is
consistent with the Democratic Party's heritage of racism that included
sanctioning of slavery and kukluxery, a perversion of moral sentiment
among leaders of the Democratic Party whose racist legacy bode ill
until this generation of African Americans,
Now, therefore,
for the above and other documented atrocities and accumulated wrongs
inflicted upon African Americans, we demand a formal written apology
and other appropriate remuneration from the leadership of the
Democratic party.
