Some notable Republicans

[HL]

[HL]

Two of these brilliant great ancestors--had a direct impact on who i am today.

Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver.

[Gamma]

hmmmm .... do you think THIS republican party today stands for what the republican party did then?

[Islandman]

Most black people were Republicans from the 1860s (Lincoln) to the 1950s or thereabouts.

The Democratic party was the preferred party of Southern racists until the early 1960s.

This is a great example of why being a "diehard" party follower is so silly. Parties change and evolve over time. Where politics is concerned, Have no permanent friends or enemies, just permanent interests.

[Gamma]

exactly .... those "southern democrats" morphed into republicans as we know them today ...

[HL]

NO!!! Different animal-- this current set of tea-baggers who vote against their own self interest.....(to start with)

[Rudi]

As usual HL doesn't even give half of the story.

[HL]

...i am very much aware of the story bass...

[Islandman]

HL, a few weeks ago I noticed that Amazon was offering a free Kindle version of Booker T Washingtons "Up From Slavery". Even though I had read it years ago I decided to download it and take another read and I am glad I did.

What a life that man lived! That book is one of the few well-written accounts that I have come across which describes firsthand what it was like being a slave, and what it really was like when freedom finally came. One section that was very interesting was when he explained that after the initial celebrations, some of the older slaves started to worry about how they would manage in a world without “Massa” looking out for their every need. Must be like what happens when a prisoner spends 30-40 years in jail and is then released.

I have always felt that Booker T Washington’s views on civil rights were too compromising even for the time that he lived in, but nobody can question the magnitude of his role in the area of educating his people in the early years after slavery was abolished. This is a man that didn’t have access to any kind of education until his teenage years, yet found a way to get educated and establish a school that is still around today.

A great man who did it his way.

[MdmeX]

Most black people were Republicans from the 1860s (Lincoln) to the 1950s or thereabouts.

The Democratic party was the preferred party of Southern racists until the early 1960s.

This is a great example of why being a "diehard" party follower is so silly. Parties change and evolve over time. Where politics is concerned, Have no permanent friends or enemies, just permanent interests.

TRUTH

[HL]

Up From Slavery was mandatory reading when I attended Tuskegee U.

I have gotten in the habit not to complain about anything: When one considers what our foreparents endured on our behalf..."we", today, should approach the rigors and challenges of life as a cake walk.

Booker T. was called an Uncle Tom....because, as you pointed out--he compromised a lot.

I drew a parallel with Supreme Court Clarence Thomas. He is also regarded as an Uncle Tom by many. But unpopular decisions now--has a way of manifesting itself in positive ways in the future.

[I will say more about this in the future].