Thursday, March 28, 2024

You can be a minority and a Republican too

October 18, 2007

Leo Madarang

When I attended the GOP conference on Mackinac Island in September, I saw a shirt that said “I’m a black Republican” and someone joked, “Do they even exist?” Even though there were only a handful — five or six out of 3,000 attendees — the answer is they do exist. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Keith Butler, who is running for Republican National Committeeman in Michigan, current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Maryland Lieutenant Gov. Michael Steel, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. are black Republicans, to name a few. I don’t know if you could tell by my mug shot, but I am Filipino and a pretty staunch Republican. You must be saying to yourself “a minority Republican, isn’t that an oxymoron?” But we do exist outside the realm of typical stereotypes.

So, the question should not be whether black Republicans exist, the question should be, why aren’t there more? Many people try to make the argument that the Republican Party is the party for the whites. They also contend that the Republican Party does not do anything for the minority makeup of America. However, to think that the Republican Party has done nothing for the black community is ignorant of history. Instead of trying to argue what the Republicans do not do for the black community, a more acceptable thing to do is recognize what the Republican Party has done for the black population both in the past and the present.

The Republican Party was instrumental in ending the heinous system of slavery. Slavery was a major platform issue. Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States and a Republican, ended slavery. He did this by signing both the Confiscation Act and the Emancipation Proclamation.

Continuing on, a Republican Congress passed both the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875. These two acts helped promote equality between newly freed slaves and the white population. The Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875 called for extending citizenship and equal rights to people of all races, all colors, all creeds and despite prior service as slaves.

Now let’s fast forward to the passage of more civil rights acts in 1957, 1960 and 1964. The Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960 were proposed and signed by President Eisenhower to help blacks have the ability to vote. The famous Civil Rights Act of 1964 was not only introduced by a Republican senator, Everett Dirksen, but it was passed with more support from Republicans then Democrats. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made racial restrictions on the use of public facilities illegal, strengthened voting laws, provided for the integration of schools and made employment discrimination illegal, thus providing more job opportunities for blacks.

Besides passing legislation in Washington, Republicans have been highly involved in advancing the black cause in America. For instance, everyone knows of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, a black activist group. However, did you know that two Republican women, Ida Wells and Mary Terrell, started the NAACP?

The Republican Party also has helped blacks make strides in education. The landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education, which outlawed segregation in schools, was passed by a majority-led Republican Supreme Court. Chief Justice Earl Warren, who gave the opinion in the case, was nominated by Republican President Eisenhower. It was also Eisenhower who ordered U.S. troops to Arkansas to help nine black students, the Little Rock Nine, enter a high school. The high school was blocked by state troopers ordered by Democratic Gov. Orval Faubus to not let them in. Finally, was President George W. Bush, who supposedly does not like black people, not a supporter of the Supreme Court’s ruling to uphold the University of Michigan’s affirmative action decision?

In the sporting world, Republican business owner Branch Rickey helped tear down the color barrier in Major League Baseball. Rickey owned the Brooklyn Dodgers team that hired baseball icon and first black MLB player Jackie Robinson in 1947. By the way, Robinson was a proud Republican.

As you can see from this history lesson, Republicans have done something for the black community. And based on history, one must ask why there aren’t more black Republicans. So, as vice chairman of the MSU College Republicans, I invite the men and women of the black community, or any other minority community, to please attend our next meeting.

Leo Madarang is a State News columnist, vice chairman of the MSU College Republicans and political theory senior. Reach him at madaran5@msu.edu.

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