(Don Robey, pictured in middle)
(George Herriman and his family)
Posted on 11/06/2008 11:37:28 PM PST by nickcarraway
SO today’s the day. The day we discover whether a black man can become president of the USA.
But hang on. According to some chroniclers of the times, America has already had a black president.
And it happened in 1920 amidst a form of apartheid as unsavoury as anything coming out of South Africa, a time when lynchings were commonplace, when it was hard enough for a black man or woman to vote, let alone get elected to any kind of office.
And those who claimed he was black nodded knowingly when Warren Gamaliel Harding became the first president since the Civil War to speak out in the Deep South for the rights of African-Americans. Remember, that war had ended only 55 years earlier. In those southern states, blacks were still regarded as subhuman.
The first open accusation came when Harding, then 21, moved to the little town of Marion, Ohio, where he met Florence Kling De Wolfe, divorced daughter of Amos Kling, the richest man in town. When he heard of their burgeoning romance, Kling grabbed Harding in the court house yelling “I’ll blow your head off if you ever come near my house.”
But Florence married him and, working with a supreme fixer named Harry Daugherty, pushed him into local politics. Then, after a few undistinguished years in the Senate, Warren G Harding was, to much amazement, nominated the Republican candidate on the 10th ballot after his party’s power brokers chomped their way through so many cigars that here was the origin of that legendary “smoke-filled room”.
They chose him because “he looked like a president ought to look”. And he was, the king-makers agreed, “the best of the second-raters”. His own joyous reaction summed up this compulsive gambler: “I feel like a man who goes in on a pair of eights, and comes out with aces full.”
By then Harding had a mistress, 20-year-old Nan Britton who gave birth to his child. The scandal was hushed up – but that other “secret” was brought out into the open, a flood of leaflets claiming that “there is Negro blood in the Harding lineage”.
His enemies provided affidavits from acquaintances who knew of his background, and they talked of a full-page of facts backing their claims, due to be published in the local paper but “bought up and suppressed before it could appear”.
Meanwhile, a book that “proved” the president’s Afro-American ancestry was confiscated by the Department of Justice, purchasers forced to hand their copies over until only half a dozen survived.
Proof of a black president would have triggered the greatest crisis since the Civil War, maybe even started another.
But it wasn’t race that would haunt Harding’s presidency, and during his last days in office George W Bush might take some interest in his predecessor.
Harding had talked of coming out with aces full, and there was plenty of poker in the White House as the cronies appointed to his Cabinet joined him for all-night sessions washed down with booze provided by the president’s official bootlegger in this era of Prohibition.
Those cronies were playing for bigger stakes. Daugherty, appointed Attorney General, and the rest made it the most corrupt administration in history. Millions of taxpayers’ dollars were stolen, bribery and outright theft was the norm. When things started to fall apart some of Harding’s placemen fled to Europe, one shot himself and Congressional investigations into abuses of office began.
To find some relief, Harding and his poker-playing pals embarked on a cross-country train trip with a quick visit to Canada included.
In Vancouver, Harding complained of feeling ill and his Surgeon General, one of the poker brigade known as Doc Sawyer, diagnosed acute indigestion. It was coronary thrombosis. Harding died in a San Francisco hospital. The country mourned – until the corruption was exposed. And then, wrote Samuel Hopkins Adams, veteran Harding-watcher: “The public which had held its breath over the dying president now held its nose over the rising stench of scandal.”
Five of Harding’s men were jailed, two killed themselves, and there were claims his wife poisoned him to avoid inevitable impeachment. But today, real proof that America has changed since then: only a few diehards openly give a damn that Barack Obama is black.
It maybe true but . . . the quicker everyone drops the “black” issue, the quicker this President is knocked off of the pedestal everyone has placed him on and we can get to issues and he won’t be made of teflon anymore.
According to Tuskeegee University, there have been fewer than 5000 lynchings between 1882 and 1951. That comes out to around 72 a year, so I don't know how commonplace they were--would someone say general murders, which number a lot more than that, are commonplace?
Obama looks 'Black'. Sure there is some cream in the coffee, but he looks Black, not African Black, but American 'Black'.
What is this article implying? That Harding is 93.5% white and 6.5% Black, so that means he is 'Black'?
Let's get real and ignore this kind of BS.
he’s muslim.
Aren’t we all forgetting that we had our first black president in 1992? ;-)
I would have never thought that.
You cannot be serious.
About?
Obama looks black but is he more black than say Slash of Guns and Roses who is also 50-50? Barack can tan as is quite evident in the “tanline” photos from his summer trip to Hawaii where he frolicked in the sun before heading to Denver for the DNC convention.
So again we arrive at “what is black”?
He grew up in Hawaii and largely in Indonesia as a youth. His father was not descended from American slaves. He missed out on 2 elements of the “black struggle” in America. He was not descended from oppression and he did not grow up under it. Additionally he was largely raised in a white household with respect.
But he knows how to play a card.
Meanwhile I wonder when a direct descendent of native Americans, the first peoples’ “wronged” by this nation, will get to serve as President in the White House. And what of the Japanese Americans who were shuffled about and lost their property last century (in our collective lifetime)?
Barack is the new black. < /fashion joke >
(Don Robey, pictured in middle)
(George Herriman and his family)
Great point!
Oh, and I also have a take on the birth certificate issue. I think he doesn't want it released because it says, "caucasian" as his race, and he hates being white. My sons are mixed, but their birth certificates list the race of their birthmothers.
If you wish to consider 'Black' as an identity and not a race, consider Johnny Otis ('Hand Jive'). He was a white man who was raised in a black community. He identified as being 'Black' and married a Black woman. He us arguably more black then Hawaii prep school, Harvard educated Obama.
I still say it is all BS. Barack wants to be thought of as Black, and I have no problem with that.
What I have issues with are policy, not race.
So, that is six a month, which is more then one a week.
How many lynchings do you need before you cross the line from "rare" to "common place"?
It seems a point that is not worth discussing since any number is way too many.........Correct?
I suspected you were someone looking to grandstand, but I gave you the benefit of the doubt. Won't get fooled again.
Please show where in my post I supported lynching, or said anything remotely approving of this practice?
You can't, because I didn't. Any idiot who supports lynching probably can't figure out how to sign on to the Internet in the first place.
What DID I do?
I disputed the choice of a word in a written article.
Obamaism has infected FR already--merely talking about GRAMMAR in an article gets one suspected of supporting lynching.
I agree on this. And it is why I am generally underwhelmed by the occasion that a black man, or anyone of non-white origins, has been elected President. I never believed it was impossible therefore I am not shocked by the acheivment.
I do know the history of this nation in the past 50 years and that it is a world away from the race relations at the time of Barack's birth. I just see us as being far beyond that. And now that the milestone has been reached, consider it so.
Barack spoke in private of "those who cling to religion and guns" (single issue voters on the issues of opposing gun control, opposing same sex marriage, and opposing abortion) but some cling the the racial stereotypes of the past.
Anyone who tries to hold you back is not your friend. That peer of similar background (economic or skin color) who says "don't study, man. That's so preppy/white" is not your friend; he doesn't want to see you leave him the dust as you excel onward and upward. And there are poor people (white too) who do this as well.
A caller to Michael Medved this afternoon was talking about this issue in a way. And it leads me to think of battered women or other people who grew up under abuse. They see others who are like those who mistreated them as potentially harboring the same thought. Ok, I can understand this. But at some point you should go to seek counseling to open up to the world, the problem is in your head emotionally, not the outside world. And those who bring their CHILDREN up with this same victim mentality are burdening them with a handicap that society is not imposing on them, it comes from passing on the legacy of a fear of abuse. This in itself is also a form of abuse.
Do we say murders are commonplace? No, they're unusual. And there are more murders than 72 a year.
Don't try your self-applauding crap with me.
“He’s the first black Democrat to be president. We have to admit, they came along way for that party to have a black man as president”
for that party to “admit” to having a black man as President you mean. But when the man’s (Harding’s) own family won’t admit it, how can you or that party? Harding is dead, let the dead rest in peace. He wouldn’t admit his race to himself. If his family and himself refused to address the issue, then let it be.
Sure, it is a good thing for me for us to have a black man elected as President. But, race is not important to me and never has been. Gender is far more important to me and is more basic than race since all races and ethnic groups have men and women. Women got screwed this time all the way around. For women running, people do look at clothes, age,sex appeal, weight, way of speaking, children and things far more complicated than me do. Women candidates can’t be lumped with the spouses of male candidates or the First Ladys and there is no need to try. Kind of also hard to have a hidden woman President.
The double standard is horrendous, even more than what a black male candidate has to deal with. Black men had the right to vote before women did.
Like Ferraro and Clinton, Palin did break new ground no matter what her detractors said with her younger age and looks and spirit and personality. People will remember this when the next female candidate comes up and will stop the awful sexism as it occurs hopefully next time and will stop the turncoats. People will remember this.
But, I think race is an issue that makes his Royal Highness stay up on a pedestal instead of the real issues getting addressed and heard. He contributed badly to the sexism directed toward Clinton and Palin. I remember watching Carville and Breazil on CNN the night Palin was named by McCain and immediately they labeled her “inexperienced” within moments and this time Palin was never able to shake that label.
If you take away the race issue, you have a President Elect who had Acorn voter fraud assisting him, went to a racist church for 20 years, made promises to every single group, hangs around with strange people and his only response is he didn’t know or he thought the people changed to every single issue. And these are just some of the issues. And you have a very sexist President.
If it had been a white President, it would have mattered.
It is a double standard.
And the people registering and voting on the same day with no picture ID (in this day and age, no picture ID post 9/11 is unbelievable—even Mexico has National ID cards) and foreigners who are not citizens voting and foreign contributions being made to both candidates with now some strange FBI story that the MSM reports about foreigners hacking both parties computers and then the stunts by the black panthers etc.
This election smacks of Chicago Daly mafia politics the repulsive kind that fits every sterotype that Daly left an in impression on.
It leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. But none of this is getting addressed by either party and if you look at the Daly era, if not cleaned up, it gets worse. That’s what is important, not the race of a President and not the race of Harding who also was full of scandals so people who are black may not want to claim Harding as one of their own.
This President needs to be taken off of the world pedestal he is on and brought down to our playing field. Race is the only thing that is doing that. So, hence is why I am saying stop talking about his race. He is like any other President we ever had except he is a socialist and should be treated like that.
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