By Dr. Alveda King
Today, we remember my late uncle, Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr., whose vision was for equality and economic prosperity for all Americans.
His dream gave our nation a new perspective that will have an impact for
generations to come.
My uncle was the embodiment of bravery and courage and still inspires calls to
action in our communities. As beneficiaries of his dream, it is incumbent upon
us to never stop working for the advancement of our people.
I am grateful to have a President that believes in my uncle’s vision and continues to live out his legacy today.
As President Trump once said “…No matter what the color of our skin, or the place of our birth, we are all created equal by God.”
I am grateful to have a President that believes in my uncle’s vision and continues to live out his legacy today.
As President Trump once said “…No matter what the color of our skin, or the place of our birth, we are all created equal by God.”
As we strive to uplift our community, remember that
President Trump stands up for all Americans just like my uncle envisioned.
Dr. Alveda King is the niece of MLK and a Coalition Advisory Board Member, Black Voices for Trump
Dr. Alveda King is the niece of MLK and a Coalition Advisory Board Member, Black Voices for Trump
_________________
RELATED
ARTICLE
Without civil rights, we have no civil
liberties
The
Martin Luther King Jr Memorial located on the National Mall on the Tidal Basin
in Washington D.C. - Shutterstock
photo
“Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and
unalienable rights of man.”
– Thomas Jefferson
Protection of civil liberties and civil
rights is the most fundamental of all political values in American society. Yet
it is hard to imagine only 56 years ago American citizens of all races, ages,
sexes, colors, creeds, religions and those with disabilities were not entitled
to equally harvest the benefits they were entitled to.
This lack of equality entitlement was due to the over 100-year long fight by the
Democratic Party to deny equality of rights to all American citizens, focused
on preventing black Americans from exercising their rights guaranteed in the
Constitution by the Republican Party.
In a country established under republican
legal methodology so the majority could never disenfranchise the minority, it
took average citizens, not politicians, to venture forward from the shadows of
America’s cloistered societal enclaves to spark national outrage over the
cruelties inflicted on black citizens by Southern Democrats and correct these
heretical incongruities.
This week, we commemorate the legacy of Dr.
Martin Luther King and the value of human equality and the rights he labored
for. It is a time we reflect on the salience of Dr. King’s ability to unite men
and women of all colors to crusade against Southern segregation imposed on our
nation by the Democratic Party.
While most of us champion the Civil Rights
Movement of the 1950s and 1960s that was an extension of the fight for black
equality in the 1860s, as well as the laboring of Dr. King for ending
segregation in the Democratic Party controlled South, Dr. King’s efforts
affected all of us.
The significance of Dr. King’s work and
others who worked to purify the waters of our democracy is often overlooked
since there is a “disconnect” between civil rights and civil liberties. Civil
liberties, those listed in the Bill of Rights, are protected by the 14th
Amendment’s due process clause.
Civil rights is the protecting of those
rights from discrimination under the equal protection clause of the 14th
Amendment enacted by the Republican Party. This ratifies the importance of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 that was made necessary after Democrats overturned the
civil rights laws of the 1860s, which had been enacted by Republicans.
Since civil rights and civil liberties are
synonymous, much like our nation’s quest for independence and self rule, the
Civil Rights Movement, as indicated above, did not start and end in the 1960s.
At the beginning of the Convention of 1787,
when Thomas Paine was denied entry into Philadelphia Hall and queried why, they
told him his opinions on suffrage and slavery were too radical and they would
be too disruptive to deal with at this time. As a result, slavery was not
abolished and women were not given the right to vote in the new Constitution.
“The slavery of fear has made men afraid to
think.”
– Thomas Paine
As a result of our founder’s inability to
outlaw slavery and address the need to include equal voting rights at the
Convention, it took 78 years of courageous civil disobedience and conflicts of
brothers against brothers to end slavery. The conflicts of brother against
brother during the Civil War ignited when the Democratic Party seceded from the
Union to keep blacks in slavery and the Republican Party was founded as the
anti-slavery party.
Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower was
on the front line of the fight for black civil right during the modern civil
rights era. In 1957, he took action to protect black rights when the Warren
court ruled in favor of Brown v. Board of Education and ended school
segregation in the Democratic Party controlled South. Eisenhower proposed a
powerful Civil Rights Act that protected voting and judicial rights as
guaranteed by the 15th Amendment to the Constitution enacted by
Republicans.
“The history of free men is never written by
chance … but by their choice.”
– Dwight D. Eisenhower
Frustrated his first proposal had been gutted
by then Democrat Senator Lyndon Johnson, in 1960 Eisenhower proposed a second
Civil Rights Act to reinstate the provisions Johnson had slashed from his bill.
And again the Southern segregationists hacked out key provisions before sending
it to the floor, where it passed. It gave increased federal authority to
enforce violations of America’s voting rights guaranteed by the 15th Amendment to the Constitution and other civil rights guaranteed by the
Constitution. Black Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. remarked, “What this
president just did was end 80 years of black political slavery.”
In reaction to the race riots in the early
1960s and growing concerns by all Americans for protections of their civil
rights and civil liberties, Republican Everett Dirksen, the Senate Minority Leader from 1959 to
1969, helped write and pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and
the Civil Rights Act of 1968, both landmark pieces of legislation during
the modern era Civil Rights Movement.
The 1964 Civil Rights Act restored the
controversial provisions gutted from Eisenhower’s bill and outlawed segregation
in all public places. But the bill stalled in the House Rules Committee when
Chairman Howard Smith, a segregationist, vowed to kill it. The bill remained
dormant until the assassination of John Kennedy.
By the time Lyndon Johnson took office, the 1964
Civil Rights Act had generated strong support from the North. It soon became
imminent; Lyndon Johnson needed to get this bill that was championed by Senator
Dirksen to the floor. But Democrat segregationists Robert Byrd and William
Fulbright filibustered the bill for 83 days, arguing it would destroy “social
order and bring racial impurity” to the South. After a great deal of pressure
from Dr. Martin Luther King and a large number of black and white activists,
the bill finally passed, with more Republicans than Democrats voting for that
law.
“There is no deficit in human resources; the
deficit is in human will.”
– Martin Luther King
Dr. King told us, “The time is always right
to do what is right.” He and many other Americans made the ultimate sacrifice
to protect our civil liberties and civil rights. The chapters of American
history are filled with reforms led by visionary patriots who saw a wrong and
made it right. They reshaped our social and cultural destiny to better align
America’s socio-political order with our founders' ideas of equality, liberty
and unrestricted opportunity. These were grassroots efforts led by those
willing to work against an accepted system that was not working properly for
all Americans and decided to correct its political and social flaws.
“He who dares not offend cannot be honest.”
– Thomas Paine
It is hard for young Americans to imagine
this nation before the 1964 Civil Rights Act with Democrats fighting against
black civil rights. Because too few are taught the true intrinsic value of the modern
era Civil Rights Movement and how it brought awareness to the imparities in so
many aspects of our lives. The 1964 Civil Rights Act revolutionized American
society. It reinstated provisions that were in the civil rights laws of the
1860s. It barred segregation in public schools, restaurants and on public
transportation. It outlawed employment discrimination. It banned voter
disenfranchisement. It prohibited age, gender and religious discrimination, and
it brought necessary protections to the rights of every American.
A society that is not constantly in
transition is a society that has a limited life span. Change is an inevitable
consequence in a world where evolution brings with it new opportunities and
problems. As we adapt to address our current and future needs, we discover the
sins of our past. If we correct those errors in judgment, we are able to meet
our future cultural and social needs for survival. Dr. King and others who
worked in the modern era Civil Rights Movement helped improve the lives of all
Americans by working to bring us powerful weapons to protect our civil
liberties and civil rights.
America was founded by zealous patriots who
fought until we were a nation. And it will always be patriots like them who
answer their call to duty when our country needs them to help keep America a
great nation.
“There comes a time when one must take a
position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must take it
because conscience tells him that it is right.”
– Martin Luther King
____________
Contributing
Columnist William Haupt III is a retired professional journalist, author, and
citizen legislator in California for over 40 years. He got his start working to
approve California Proposition 13.
For additional information about civil rights history, see “Republicans and Democrats Did Not Switch Sides On Racism.”
