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Boreas
02-02-2010, 01:22 PM
Just for giggles I was cruising the GOP website and landed on their "Heroes" page. On it they list a number of people whom they claim to be American heroes who were also Republicans. A lot of them are black and one of those is Jackie Robinson who was a supporter of Nelson Rockefeller during the 1964 and as such went to the Republican National Convention in San Francisco that year.

Here's what he had to say about the party in his autobiography:

"I was not as sold on the Republican party as I was on the governor. Every chance I got, while I was campaigning, I said plainly what I thought of the right-wing Republicans and the harm they were doing. I felt the GOP was a minority party in term of numbers of registered voters and could not win unless they updated their social philosophy and sponsored candidates and principles to attract the young, the black, and the independent voter. I said this often from public, and frequently Republican, platforms. By and large Republicans had ignored blacks and sometimes handpicked a few servile leaders in the black community to be their token "niggers." How would I sound trying to go all out to sell Republicans to black people? They're not buying. They know better."

and about the convention:

"I admit freely that I think, live, and breathe black first and foremost. That is one of the reasons I was so committed to the governor and so opposed to Senator Barry Goldwater. Early in 1964 I wrote a Speaking Out piece for The Saturday Evening Post. A Barry Goldwater victory would insure that the GOP would be completely the white man's party. What happened at San Francisco when Senator Goldwater became the Republican standard-bearer confirmed my prediction.

"I was a special delegate to the convention through an arrangement made by the Rockefeller office. That convention was one of the most unforgettable and frightening experiences of my life. The hatred I saw was unique to me because it was hatred directed against a white man. It embodied a revulsion for all he stood for, including his enlightened attitude toward black people."

John

Note: All of the other Republicans listed are from the decades immediately following the Civil War when freed blacks associated themselves with "the Party of Lincoln".

finnbow
02-02-2010, 01:51 PM
And to think the one Republican that attracted Robinson was Rockefeller, who is now considered an apostate by the Right. The only two Republicans of his ilk anymore are the two gals from Maine. I don't think Rockefeller could win a Republican primary anywhere in the country nowadays.