Reagan's racism

Lee delivers an editorial about the anniversary of the death of 3 civil rights workers in the same town where Ronald Reagan started his presidential campaign in 1980.

audio here.

Text of the editorial after the jump....

Remembrance

This past month has been quite a season of remembrances. From Ronald Reagan’s death on June 5th to Ray Charles’ death less than a week later the media has had plenty to reminisce about.

Less prominent in the media has been the remembrance of freedom that arrived this weekend with the Juneteenth celebrations nation-wide commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. The first Juneteenth African American Emancipation celebration took place in Galveston Texas in 1865 upon the arrival of Union Major General Gerald Granger on June 19th of that year, delivering the news that the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed and that the enslaved were now “free”. This announcement came nearly 2 years after the actuall signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Early proof that old habits die hard.

Since that late announcement in 1865 …..in various ways …. Juneteenth has been celebrated by African Americans nationwide on June 19th.

Most local celebrations began on Friday and are winding down today.

In stark contrast to this jubilant celebration of freedom (which is not federally recognized, mind you), tomorrow brings the anniversary of the deaths of 3 civil rights workers back in 1964 in a small town in Mississippi called Philadelphia. This is not the same Philadelphia that is home to the Liberty Bell and the Declaration of Independence in Pennsylvania whose history was integrally entwined with the destiny of the United States of America .. this is the Philadelphia of the south with little in it’s history to distinguish it from any other city in the south, except that it was the site of the infamous and highly publicized murder of three civil rights activists in 1964.

On June 20th of 1964, white New York civil rights workers Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman traveled to Meridian Mississippi as part of a drive to register black voters in the south known as Freedom Summer. In Meridian they met up with black civil rights activist James Cheney, and began their trek from Meridian to Philidelphia. Once in Philidelphia it was their intent to investigate the burning of a black church there. Sometime on June 21st these three men were stopped by the county’s deputy sheriff who released them into the night where they were ambushed by members of the local Ku Klux Klan. In August 4th of that same year (1964) the bodies of James Cheney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were found dead and buried in a partially constructed damn in Philidelphia, Mississippi.

Let’s fast forward from August 4 1964 when the bodies were found in Philidelphia Mississippi to August 3 1980, when Ronald Reagan delivered the first speech of his Presidential campaign in (of all places) Philadelphia Mississippi. The subject: State’s rights.

Much was made about that term State’s rights at the time. Republicans Reagan supporters claimed the intent was to refer to the rights of western states to grazing land that was then controlled by the federal government. And this may well have been part of his concern for “state’s rights”. But if that was truly his major concern, why would the former governor of a western state choose a small southern town who’s only claim to fame historically was the scandalous racially charged murder of three civil rights workers, as the place to deliver this message of state’s rights.

Anyone who’s studied the civil war for any length of time knows that the term “state’s rights” in the south is the euphemistic way that some southerners use to define the central cause of the civil war. Do a quick google search on the term state’s rights and see what kind of sites you find. Confederate flags abound. These sites claim that the civil war was not about slavery it was about state’s rights. The subtext: The civil war was about a state’s right to treat people as property if they want to…..about a state’s right to discriminate based on race…if that’s what they determine is in their best interest.

While Ronald Reagan did not explicitly identify these particular interpretations of state’s rights…. the implication was clear. After receiving his parties nomination in Detroit Michigan in mid July, Reagan waited until August 3rd…the day before the anniversary of the day that the bodies of James Cheney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman were found beaten and murdered in Philidelphia Mississippi…..to deliver the first speech of his presidential campaign in Philidelphia Mississippi…on the subject of state’s rights.

This was at the very least an intense show of disrespect for the memories of Cheny, Schwerner, and Goodman, though I find it hard not to see it as the closest Reagan could come to telling southern racists “I’m a racist too.”

His domestic policies and foreign policies bore that out. Not least among these his engagement with the apartheid regime in South Africa, that this show originally was developed to combat.

Ronald Reagan is often credited as the progenitor of modern neo-conservatism. George W. Bush has certainly embraced Reagan’s legacy. GeorgeWBush.com, the Bush Cheney campaign web site replaced it’s front page with a Reagan memorial for a almost 2 weeks. Grover Norquist of the Reagan Legacy Project, American’s for Tax Reform, and the Heritage Foundation…who is also a close economic advisor to George W. Bush has made claims that Reagan’s face should be on the $10 bill replacing Alexander Hamilton who was our countries first Secretary of the Treasury. The argument he made recently on a cable news network was that Alexander Hamilton should be replaced because he is the only person memorialized on our currency that was never president. Curiously this ignores the presence of Benjamin Franklin on the hundred dollar bill . Benjamin Franklin lived much of his life in and died in Philidelphia, Pennsylvania, but was never a President. What is it about cities named Philadelphia that causes such a mental block for Reagan and his supporters.

It seems to me that if we can close down federal offices to mourn the loss of Ronald Reagan, it would certainly be fair that tomorrow June 21st should also be a time of mourning in this country. A time to mourn the beating and murder of three civil rights workers in Philidelphia Mississippi in 1964. It is the least the Reagan legacy could do after subjecting us to two weeks of white washing of Reagan’s racist legacy… I will not, however, be holding my breath.

The story of Cheney, Schwerner and Goodman is told in the Alan Parker film Mississippi Burning.

Andrew Goodman was a highschool classmate of singer songwriter Paul Simon and Simon and Garfunkle wrote this song for him.

Posted by lee at June 20, 2004 06:35 PM
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