From Newsmax (Yes, yes, I know. Newsmax is wrong, and evil, and nasty, and sticky, but it doesn’t seem that many newssources are reporting this yet).
The party at Frederick Douglass’ house? What. The. Fuck.
This is a man who said: “with a Negro by my side. Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.”
Byrd later joined with other southern Democrats to oppose the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Byrd filibustered the bill for more than 14 hours, saying it abrogated principles of federalism.
and even in 2001 he said:
*“There are white niggers. I’ve seen a lot of white niggers in my time; I’m going to use that word…We just need to work together to make our country a better country, and I’d just as soon quit talking about it so much.” *
I seriously need to understand why anyone would think hosting a birthday party at Frederick Douglass’ house for this asshole would be an even remotely good idea.
Byrd has repudiated and apologized for his racist past, and for the last 30 years has worked harder than anyone in the Senate to protect the rights of minorities and the disenfranchised. We can’t forgive someone who grew up in a town where everyone was racist for whom the scales have fallen from his eyes? I’d be curious to know if none of your political and moral views have changed in the last 40 years. I bet they have.
While he has apologized and repudiated his racist past, I disagree with his characteriation as a civil right pioneer since. Seems to me his chief energies in the past thirty years have been devoted to securing vast amounts of federal swag for his home state.
Can you point out his noteworthy civil rights accomplishments, especially lately?
Dunno if it counts as noteworthy, but I think it counts for “lately.”
Yeah, it’s the Wikipedia, but they link to the original NAACP pdf.
I’m not in favor of his views on atheism or abortion, but anybody who would charicterize him as a racist is either ignorant, a liar, or an ignorant liar.
I feel like the crux of my point is being glossed over here. Yes, Byrd has recanted his very shameful and racist history, not just as a youth but as a senator as well. That’s not the problem, the problem I find is that they honored this man at Frederick Douglass’ house.
Yeah, the real scandal would be if they held a party in Byrd’s honor at Alan Greenspan’s house.
An even bigger shocker will be if Pirro gets more than 35% of the vote in next year’s Senate race.
Jeneanne Pirro is a disingenuous cunt just trying to stir shit for purely partisan reasons. Byrd renounced his racism a long, long time ago and Pirro’s complaint is just opportunistic baiting.
Before anyone asks, I also thought the reaction to Trent Lott was overcooked and I said so at the time. I think Lott had a couple of scotches in him and was trying to say something nice to an old man at his birthday party and that he just didn’t think through what he was saying.
If he’s reformed, and has been a reliable supporter of civil rights since, why do you still object? Our culture places great store on redemption and forgiveness; on what grounds would you deny that to anyone?
Well, it does point out how much political opinions can change over the course of several decades, doesn’t it? But if you’re that desperate for my opinion, here it is:
Frederick Douglass worked to change a racist society into something better. As such, it seems entirely fitting to use his house to host a former racist, who has himself changed into something better. It strikes me as a perfect symbol for Frederick Douglass’s goals, and the extent to which we have managed to realize them.
