WHY IS THIS RELEVANT NOW?
An African-American, radio talk show host attracted a lot of attention recently by pleading and begging Republican presidental candidate, John McCain to defeat opponent Barack Obama. He aggravated his predicament with appearance on CNN. He didn’t seem to be a worthy to face a guest CNN critic and opted to walk off the show in the middle of verbal sparks. Certainly his critic came to play. But this got me thinking about the African Americans who are gravitate to the Republican National Party. It also got me going about the history of this alliance.
SCOPE NOTE
It seems that the Republican Party was founded 1850’s by a group of anti-slavery activists. This group wanted the U.S. government to grant western lands to settlers for free. They also believed, of course, in abolishing slavery, free speech and women’s suffrage. These were early stances the Republican Party. What may have origins of the relationship between enslaved Africans and Republicans was that fight to abolish slavery, give blacks equal rights and then the vote. These views put more than a few Republican politicians at risk. Indeed many blacks who elected to any offices in state legislatures were Repubicans. The very first was elected to Congress in 1869. The trend shifted 1935 when the first black Democrat finally was elected to Congress.
PUBLISHED MATERIALS
Black Puritan, Black Republican : The Life and Thought of Lemuel Haynes, 1753-1833 by John Saillant
From the Deck to the Sea: Blacks and the Republican Party by Matthew Rees
JOURNALS
Black Republicans in the Virginia tobacco fields, 1867-70. Jeff R. Kerr-Ritchie. The Journal of Negro History, Wntr 2001 v86 i1 p12(18 )
The Trial of Democracy: Black Suffrage and Northern Republicans, 1860-1910. (Review) John David Smith. Southern Cultures, Spring 1999 v5 i1 p83(1)
POSSIBLE KEYWORDS SEARCHES
early + black republicans
nineteenth-century + black republicans
blacks + voting + reconstruction
KEY FIGURES
Hiriam Rhodes Revels
Blanche Kelso Bruce
RELEVANT WEBSITES
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_org_republican.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reconstruction/activism/sf_rights.htm
http://www.nationalreview.com/murdock/murdock200502180737.asp
