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Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Article published June 7, 2004
Woman tries to persuade fellow blacks to switch, vote Republican

Don Quixote tilting at windmills is one thing. But trying to convince Americans that the Republican Party is the historic and present day party for blacks and that the Democratic Party is full of racists who opposed civil rights legislation, well that is Frances Rice territory.

The difference is that Rice, one of the co-founders of the SaraMana Black Republican Club, is far from alone, has a few facts in her armory and, in her analysis, there already is a shift in attitudes.

We certainly have seen an increase in conservative, Republican blacks in prominent positions, particularly in the Bush administration, where the secretary of state and the national security adviser are both black.

There are conservative black writers and radio show hosts, such as Armstrong Williams, Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele and many others, along with a conservative black U.S. Supreme Court justice.

Locally, Sarasota had its first black female mayor who was a Republican, although she lost re-election. The black-owned Tempo News in Sarasota and several other black-owned newspapers endorsed Republican Jeb Bush for governor. And Jim Smith, former chairman of the Sarasota County Republican Party, is black.

SaraMana Black Republican Club was formed in April 2003 with 16 charter members. Seven months later it held its first dinner meeting with 200 people.

That's a lot burbling under the surface. But has the shift among high-profile, successful blacks translated to the broader black community? Not yet. Polls still show overwhelming black support for the Democratic Party, although one poll showed 37 percent of blacks now have a favorable view of the Republican Party. "Favorable" has thus far not translated into votes.

Rice is aiming to change that. She is a lifelong Republican, as were her parents before her. She grew up in Atlanta under Jim Crowe laws and racism that, she is quick to point out, were instituted by Democratic politicians.

"My family was threatened by the Ku Klux Klan, and they were all Democrats," she said. "Only with the Republican Party was I able to register to vote."

She joined the Army as a private and retired in 1994 as a lieutenant colonel and military lawyer, earning her degrees through the military and remaining a dedicated Republican.

But most of the rest of black America shifted in the 1960s toward the Democratic Party -- for reasons that included being taken for granted by Republicans -- and by the 1990s they were the most loyal voting block for Democrats.

Rice became motivated to get active in politics when she watched the debate over welfare reform in the 1990s and the Democrats attempts to block it at each turn. She believes that the welfare state that was meant to help poor blacks had so obviously failed by that point that defending it amounted to keeping blacks poor, ignorant and dependent.

And to her, that meant the Democratic Party was the same as it had always been.

Rice has now begun distributing information on the history of the Democratic Party and an open letter to the party that lays out three pages of pull-no-punches history of racism in the Democratic Party and ends with a demand for a written apology.

The letter includes well-known historical facts, such as the Republican Party being the party that freed the slaves and fought the Jim Crow laws in the South, and lesser known factoids about Democratic presidents Roosevelt and Truman rejecting anti-lynching laws.

She also includes little publicized numbers showing that 80 percent of House Republicans voted for the 1964 Civil Rights Act, but only 61 percent of Democrats.

Rice has researched her topic and lived it. But only time will tell if she and others can persuade a substantial number of blacks to embrace Republicans.

Rod Thomson can be reached by e-mail at rod@plow.org, or by writing to the Herald-Tribune.

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