Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey, Republicans

The GOPNation.com ^ | April 15, 2008 | Grand Old Partisan

[bmweezer]

On this day in 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to play major league baseball. Robinson proved to be a stellar first baseman, and his Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Boston Braves 5-3.

Jackie Robinson, and the man who hired him, Branch Rickey, were Republicans -- http://grandoldpartisan.typepad.com.

Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the country, showing office-holders, candidates and activists how they would benefit tremendously from appreciating our Party's heritage of civil rights achievement. Back to Basics for the Republican Party is his acclaimed history of the GOP from the Republican point of view. Each day, his Grand Old Partisan blog -- http://grandoldpartisan.typepad.com -- celebrates 154 years of Republican heroes and heroics. See www.republicanbasics.com for more information.

[dixiechick2000]

I didn’t know that.
Thank you for the post, bmweezer.

Thank you, too, nutmeg, for the ping and the link.
That’s a very interesting website.

[TBP]

how is the basic idea of equal rights for all Americans unconstitutional?

It wasn't,of use. But the provision that set in motion the references for minorities clearly were. And the Federal interference in employment, housing, and other such matters (impinging on property rights) cannot be justified in the Constitution. It's one thing to invalidate discriminatory laws. It's quite another to violate the Constitution to set up new and different discriminatory laws. That's what the 1964 Civil Rights Act did.

[driftless2]

However the bill was later corrupted, here is the vital point: By being againt the bill in any form Goldwater told Black voters that the Republican Party was against civil rights for them. That’s the conclusion Black voters came to. In their minds Goldwater was lumped in with all the segregationists who denied them access to services available to white Americans but not to them. “Your child has an emergency situation that needs good medical care? Go to that inferior Black medical facility miles away from here.” That’s the message Goldwater’s stance was telling Black Americans.