"Race"

[Stewball]

Nothing like an excellent biopic on athletics and politics to perk up a weak year so far, although it does go wanting for better direction in some spots. It gets most of the history right, including the politics, although Owens carried a picture of him shaking hands with Hitler. He even told a Republican political rally for blacks later that year, "Hitler didn't snub me – it was our president (FDR) who snubbed me. The president didn't even send me a telegram", nor was he invited to the White House.** As the movie shows, he did have to take a freight elevator to his own reception at the Waldorf-Astoria after the ticker-tape parade down the canyon of heroes in NYC. 8/10

**Owens, like a majority of blacks, including MLK and his father, were members of the Party of Lincoln until Nixon's faux pas in 1960. FDR couldn't be seen commiserating in any way with blacks, what with the KKK and Jim Crow states being a large contingent of his Democrat constituency. FDR was re-elected 3 times after that. Funny how we remember things i'nit.

[theficionado]

**Owens, like a majority of blacks, including MLK and his father, were members of the Party of Lincoln until Nixon's faux pas in 1960. FDR couldn't be seen commiserating in any way with blacks, what with the KKK and Jim Crow states being a large contingent of his Democrat constituency. FDR was re-elected 3 times after that. Funny how we remember things i'nit.

I'm not sure what you mean by Nixon's faux pas (the debate against Kennedy?). The reason that many black Americans defected from the Republican to the Democratic party was for the same reason Strom Thurmond, for instance, defected the opposite way: There was a massive transformation of political coalitions along civil rights lines. In 1964, the Civil Rights Bill passed with bipartisan support — the political differences were regional rather than along party affiliation. Even at this late point, Republicans and Democrats were indistinguishable according to their votes on civil rights. Noting this regional cleavage, Goldwater and Nixon adopted an electoral strategy dedicating to soothing white Southerner concerns about blacks' integration, voting rights, and use of public services. Unsurprisingly, this drove away black voters and attracted new white voters, and, though the issues of significance have changed somewhat, this division remains salient.

[Stewball]

**Owens, like a majority of blacks, including MLK and his father, were members of the Party of Lincoln until Nixon's faux pas in 1960. FDR couldn't be seen commiserating in any way with blacks, what with the KKK and Jim Crow states being a large contingent of his Democrat constituency. FDR was re-elected 3 times after that. Funny how we remember things i'nit.

I'm not sure what you mean by Nixon's faux pas (the debate against Kennedy?). The reason that many black Americans defected from the Republican to the Democratic party was for the same reason Strom Thurmond, for instance, defected the opposite way: There was a massive transformation of political coalitions along civil rights lines. In 1964, the Civil Rights Bill passed with bipartisan support — the political differences were regional rather than along party affiliation. Even at this late point, Republicans and Democrats were indistinguishable according to their votes on civil rights. Noting this regional cleavage, Goldwater and Nixon adopted an electoral strategy dedicating to soothing white Southerner concerns about blacks' integration, voting rights, and use of public services. Unsurprisingly, this drove away black voters and attracted new white voters, and, though the issues of significance have changed somewhat, this division remains salient.

When Nixon was asked by Coretta Scott King about helping (his friend at the time) MLK being held in a Georgia jail on a trumped up traffic charge in 1960, Nixon replied, no comment, that it would be grandstanding. That flew all over MLK Sr. who came out strong against Nixon and for Kennedy.

With the Dixiecrats in the senate, the Civil Rights act would never have passed without the Republicans. And as for Johnson, he was the biggest most corrupt President ever, who said, pitching the Great Society and War on Poverty to a couple of (Southern?) governors on Air Force One, "I'll have those niggers voting Democrat for the next 200 years". 50 years and counting, still down on the Plantation.

BTW, though MLK was a Republican, at least at one point, he very wisely kept his options open in an attempt to play one side against the other instead of being a die hard Democrat controlled race war lord like the ones who took over after he was assassinated--no doubt at Johnson's behest 3 days after he was forced to withdraw from seeking reelection. Latching on 95% of blacks to the Democrats guarantees they'll mostly be taken for granted. But the War Lords get their due and then some.