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Posted on 07/09/2015 2:57:49 AM PDT by SoConPubbie
Good day Austin:
Former Gov. Rick Perry delivered a speech Thursday at the National Press Club. It was entitled, “Economic Opportunity for All Americans,” but it was really Rick Perry’s speech on race.
I know Republicans have much to do to earn the trust of African-Americans. Blacks know that Republican Barry Goldwater, in 1964, ran against Lyndon Johnson, a champion of civil rights. They know that Barry Goldwater opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, because he felt that parts of it were unconstitutional.
States supporting segregation in the South cited “states’ rights” as a justification for keeping blacks from the voting booth and the dinner table.
As you know, I am an ardent believer in the Tenth Amendment, which was ratified in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights. The Tenth Amendment says that “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
I know that state governments are more accountable to you than the federal government is.
But I am also an ardent believer in the Fourteenth Amendment, which says that no state shall “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
There has been – and will continue to be – an important and legitimate role for the federal government in enforcing civil rights.
Too often, we Republicans – myself included – have emphasized our message on the Tenth Amendment but not our message on the Fourteenth – an Amendment, it bears reminding, that was one of the first great contributions of the Republican Party to American life, second only to the abolition of slavery.
For too long, we Republicans have been content to lose the black vote because we found that we could win elections without it. But when we gave up on trying to win the support of African-Americans, we lost our moral legitimacy as the party of Lincoln. As the party of equal opportunity for all.
It is time for us to once again reclaim our heritage as the only party in our country founded on the principle of freedom for African-Americans.
The body of the speech made the argument that Republicans, better than Democrats – that he, better than Barack Obama, the first black president – could pursue policies that would benefit African-Americans.
But what was most compelling and moving about Perry’s speech was its hushed preface, opening his remarks with a vivid account of the horrific lynching of Jesse Washington before a festive crowd in front of the McLennan County Courthouse in Waco, Texas, where a jury had taken all of four minutes to find Washington, who seemed barely aware of the charges against him, guilty of rape and murder.
Said Perry:
It was 99 years ago, on the 15th day of May, 1916, at a courthouse in Waco, Texas.
There was a mentally disabled 17-year-old boy. His name was Jesse Washington. He was convicted of raping and murdering the wife of his employer.
He pled guilty and he was sentenced to death. But Jesse died no ordinary death. Because he was black.
After the death sentence was issued, Jesse was dragged out of the McLennan County Courthouse into a crowd of hundreds. And thanks to the advent of this new technology called the telephone, word spread rather quickly to what was about to happen, and soon there were 15,000 people watching Jesse Washington be tortured, to be mutilated, to be tied to a tree.
Someone lit a fire under Jesse, and raised him up in the air.
Jesse tried to climb up the chains to keep from being consumed by that fire.
Someone started cutting his fingers off, so that he could not climb that chain
One man castrated him, Another used a pole to prevent him from pulling himself away from the fire.
There was a A prominent local photographer who took pictures of Jesse’s charred remains and sold them, as souvenirs, on a postcard.
Even today, we Texans struggle to talk about what happened to Jesse Washington. We don’t want to believe that our great state could ever have been the scene of such unimaginable horror.
But it is an episode in our history that we cannot ignore. It is an episode we have an obligation to transcend.
We’ve made a lot of progress since 1916.
A half-century ago, Republicans and Democrats came together to finally enshrine into law the principle that all of us – regardless of race, color, or national origin – are created equal.
Shedrick Willis was a slave. This was before the Civil War. He had been bought and sold on the courthouse steps of McLennan County, the same courthouse where Jesse Washington would later be drugged down and brought to his death.
When I was governor of Texas, I had the proud distinction of appointing Willis’, Shedrick Willis’ great-great-great-grandson, Wallace Jefferson, to be the first African-American justice on the Texas Supreme Court. In 2004, I appointed Wallace to be the Supreme Court’s first (black) Chief Justice.
There are tens of thousands of stories like Wallace Jefferson’s.
When it comes to race, America is a better and more tolerant and more welcoming place than it has ever been. We are a country with Hispanic CEOs, and Asian billionaires, with a black President.
So why is it that even today, so many black families feel left behind? Why is it that a quarter of African-Americans live below the poverty line, even after the impact of federal programs like food stamps and housing subsidies?
The supplemental poverty rate for African-Americans is nearly double the rate for other Americans.
Democrats have long had the opportunity to govern in African-American communities.
It is time to help black families hold them accountable for the results.
I am here to tell you that it is Republicans, not Democrats, who are truly offering black Americans the hope of a better life for themselves and their children.
I am proud to live in a country with an African-American President. But President Obama cannot be proud of the fact that the prevalence of black poverty has actually increased under his leadership.
We cannot dismiss the historical legacy of slavery, nor its role in causing the problem of black poverty. And because slavery and segregation were sanctioned by government, there is a role for government policy in addressing their lasting effects.
But the specific policies advanced by the President and his allies on the left amount to little more than throwing money at the problem and walking away.
Perry’s answers were not surprising. He talked about Texas’ successes, citing the economy, education and criminal justice reform.
From 2005 to 2007, more African-Americans moved to Texas than any other state except Georgia. Many were coming from blue states like New York, Illinois, and California. Many came from Louisiana, where they had lost their homes due to Hurricane Katrina.
But each new resident was welcomed to Texas, with open arms.
They came to a state with a booming economy. We kept taxes and regulation low, and frivolous lawsuits to a minimum. And we worked hard to educate every child.
Let me be clear. We haven’t eliminated black poverty in Texas. But we have made meaningful progress.
xxxxxx
If we do these five things – if we create jobs, incentivize work, keep non-violent drug offenders out of prison, reform our schools, and reduce the cost of living – we will have done more for African-Americans than the last three Democratic Administrations combined.
What was more striking to me than the specifics, however, was how a speech that was intended to be a rejoinder to President Obama on race in some small measure echoed the tone of Obama’s recent remarks in his eulogy for the Reverend Clementa Pinckney, who was among those murdered in their Charleston church, though, of course, Perry did nothing to rival the president’s moving singing of Amazing Grace.
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From what I see that was a stupid speech. The LIV who hears excerpts only of it will come away with confirmation that Bush was responsible for dragging the black man behind a pickup truck after all. I would say Perry just committed an unforced error.
Rick stepped in it with that speech. Seems to say the 14th Amendment renders the 10th Amendment flaccid. I actually liked him before he flamed out during his run for the WH - can’t figure him out these days. Maybe the pain meds are still being used and he can’t clear his mind.
I’ve crossed another candidate off the list.
another apologia by another kow tow man ....
go away rickperry
All Perry needs to do now is fly to some African country and apologize for slavery (preferably in a country that still practices slavery while not being a source for American slaves) as Clinton and Obama did. Or promise to double up on W’s foreign aid to Africa.
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