REGRESSIVES THREATEN KING'S DREAM

Martin Luther King Jr. was born January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, GA. The son of a minister, King was the name sake of well known Atlanta preacher, Martin Luther King Sr --or "Daddy King" as he was sometimes known. Daddy King was the leader of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and president of the local NAACP chapter. He encouraged his son, now a Baptist minister himself, to become active in the civil rights movement. Beginning in 1955 with the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Martin Luther King led the fight for civil rights and equality of African Americans against racial prejudice and social injustice through non-violent protest. For the next decade, King and his followers captured the attention and scrutiny of the nation as the cold-hearted brutality of the southern, Jim Crow enforcing opposition unleashed its full rage upon King and the often teenage supporters of the civil rights movement. So, faced with the harsh reality of its own barbarism, the country changed. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law by LBJ and effectively outlawed all major forms of discrimination, ended bogus voter registration requirements, and officially ended racial segregation in schools, places of work, and all public venues. Wow! That sounds like victory, right? Well, in part.

There was some fall-out from this tremendous victory for civil rights that Martin and others so painfully fought for. Prior to 1964, the Republican Party (the party of Lincoln) had been a sometime friend of the abolitionists and subsequent civil rights community. The staunchest opposition to King's work and the voting rights act were housed in the Democratic Party. The 18 member 'Southern Bloc' in the senate featured the likes of Richard Russel (D-GA), Strom Thurmond (D-SC), and Robert Byrd (D-W.Va) who vowed to fight to the bitter end to defeat the legislation; and in the end, it would not have passed without Republican support. In the ashes of the historic passage of this landmark legislation, LBJ would later concede that in doing so, the party had lost the south "for a generation". Little did he know that it would be for considerably longer. Southern voters of former confederate states have voted almost exclusively Republican since 1964. What's it all mean? Is it as simple as southern confederates spurning the Democratic party for the open arms of the Republicans? I'll let you come to your own conclusion there, let's fast forward to today.

In contrast to the evolution we've witnessed from Democrats to Liberal to Progressive; there has been a devolution on the opposite side of the aisle. There appears to be a regression taking place in the Republican party and it is a threat to Martin's Dream. There is a faction growing on the right that isn't hindered by little things like facts or established political procedure. These Tea Party fueled fanatics only have one guiding principal--"Stop the Black guy and everything or everyone else be damned!" This past year, congressman on Tea Party payroll led the country to the brink of default and risked a world wide economic collapse. Why? Aren't Republicans usually all about fiscal responsibility? Not if it means agreeing with the Black guy-in-chief. This past October, Tea Party Republicans marched on Washington to protest outside the Whitehouse. Guess what they were waving proudly--the confederate flag.

The politics of regression have been highlighted by the vitriol shown by Republicans for President Obama but it is not limited to the politics of race. Did they support the Lily Ledbetter Act and equal pay for women? No. Do they support increasing the minimum wage above poverty levels? No. Do they support all Americans having access to decent health care? No. Do they support equal access to voter registration and balloting for the poor, minorities, and college students? No. I submit that there is a concerted effort in the United States by well funded right wing groups that want to transport this country back to 1955. In a sense, they are really working to nullify King's Dream despite all the progress that's been made. How do we fight this faction of regression and nullification? At the ballot box, of course. But I'm just the average black man and that's my 2cts.