Jimmy Carter's first slander on Sept. 14

JImmy Carter's first slander against many white Americans of good will on Sept.14 was far too broad and too mean and likely intended to freeze dissent.

Our "Brother in Black" is the book that answers Jimmy Carter’s slander against many white Americans of good will.

Former President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday, Sept. 14, that U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst to President Barack Obama during a speech to Congress last week was an act "based on racism" and rooted in the fears of white people of a black president. In a separate speech at Emory University in Atlanta three days later, Carter tried to back off a few inches from his blanket indictment of all white Americans on Sept. 14 and said racism was behind on the “radical fringe elements.” But he stuck by his overall assertion that racism is still a big problem in all of America in the current political climate.

Jimmy Carter is flat out wrong. There have been millions of white Americans of good will over the last 130 years who actively worked for education and job opportunities for African Americans and never relied on one penny from federal government programs to do it. One very good answer to Jimmy Carter’s slander against white Americans as a group in fact is found in a new 2009 edition of a book first published 128 years ago in 1881 by a former Methodist clergyman, Bishop Atticus Haygood from Georgia, who was the president of Emory College as it was then called from 1876 to 1885. Bishop Haygood had actually served as a chaplain in the Confederate Army, but he became one of the leading advocates in 19th Century America for higher education opportunities for emancipated slaves and their children. As an agent for The Slater Fund, Haygood helped to start and finance a large number of schools that are now referred to as “historically black colleges and universities” or HCBUs. Many of those same colleges that Haygood helped are today beneficiaries of The United Negro College Fund. Haygood was a Christian leader who believed that the teachings of Jesus Christ demanded that all people regardless of skin color should treat each other with love and respect. Many white Americans in all regions of the country agreed with this teaching that can be found in the new 2009 Silver Bowl edition of Our Brother in Black by Atticus Haygood (http://dewardpublishing.com/wordpress/?p=504).

Jimmy Carter, who grew up in a rural part of Georgia eighty years ago, also implied on Sept. 14 that he is an expert on latent racial bigotry by white people because he is from the South. So his first remarks of Sept. 14, before he started to qualify his broad brush attack, were also a slander against all white southerners of good will and Our Brother in Black is a book that helps to prove Carter is wrong when he implies that most policy opposition to the country’s first African American president is motivated by racial fears of white Americans. President Barack Obama himself rejected Carter’s view to a small degree on Sept. 20th Sunday news shows.

William Haygood Shaker is a conservative businessman from Virginia who is also the great-grandson of Bishop Atticus Haygood. Shaker made this statement last week:

I am William Haygood Shaker—and I am offended by former President Jimmy Carter’s recent racism remarks at Emory University in Atlanta. My great grandfather, also a prominent Southerner, has powerful “teachable moments” to share with Jimmy Carter—and with the Nation. Haygood is the 2009 posthumous recipient of the International Platform Association “Silver Bowl Award for Lifetime Achievement in Education.” Sharing the Silver Bowl honor with former Presidents John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson, Bishop Haygood’s retort to the former president from Georgia rings across the decades in his “Our Brother in Black,” a 2009 edition published by DeWard Publishers. http://dewardpublishing.com/wordpress/?p=504 In speaking to students at Emory University, Jimmy Carter called folks racist that criticize Obama’s liberal policies. Mr. Carter said he grew up in Georgia, that he lives in a Southern state and knows that the animosity that has bubbled up is based on racism–Carter says that many Southern Whites, as well as other White Americans don’t believe the president is qualified to lead because of the color of his skin. Mr. Obama has distanced himself from Mr. Carter’s remarks, saying he does not believe that criticism of his policies is based on the color of his skin. All citizens regardless of their race or that of their leaders still keep the right to criticize their elected officials and hold them accountable without being smeared as racists just because they disagree with administration policies of America’s first African American to be elected president. Many white Americans of good will shared the pride of most African Americans when that historical barrier was broken in 2008, but all citizens must still guard the right to speak in dissent just as they did under previous presidents who were white Americans. Perhaps it would be useful if President Obama would go further than merely saying he does not agree with the way former President Carter made his point and instead very specifically admonish Mr. Carter for his thoughtless and inflammatory remarks. A former president of Emory and a Southern Democrat’s retort to Mr. Carter’s accusation of Southern Racism admonishes Carter’s overly broad racist slander across space and time in “Our Brother in Black,” by Atticus Haygood, a former president of Emory. “Our Brother in Black,” is available at http://dewardpublishing.com/wordpress/?p=504. Perhaps the former Emory president would say this to Mr. Carter, who is now a part-time Emory professor, “We in the South have no divine call to stand eternal guard by the grave of dead issues.” This quote is from a Thanksgiving Day speech Haygood delivered on the Oxford campus of Emory and a quote that President Lyndon Johnson used when stumping though Georgia on behalf of civil rights legislation in 1964. Over many decades, the work of historical figures such as Bishop Haygood, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, and other civil rights teachers and leaders accomplished much, even though more work remains to be done. It may be that real racial animosity is a core sin that may never be completely eradicated from the human heart. Yet Mr. Carter’s broad accusations, to the extent that they try to freeze all attempts at rational civil debate over policy differences, are not helpful and must be discredited and “Our Brother in Black” can be one important tool in showing just how much progress this Nation has accomplished over time. Get it at http://dewardpublishing.com/wordpress/?p=504

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