Lessons in history for our current officials

My wife and I recently watched a documentary program on SDPB that featured the role that Walter F. White played as the leader of NAACP from the 1930s to the 1950s.

While watching the program we were vividly reminded of Jim Crow segregation policies touching all manner of human endeavor; the numerous lynchings of Black Americans, including returning WWII Black military veterans; and the racial injustices in our criminal “justice” system. We were also reminded of the stubborn and violent defense of these travesties that was mounted by racists as they sought to protect these policies and practices from change.

But change never-the-less came thanks to the efforts of NAACP and other civil rights groups and leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King joined by a white majority population that finally acknowledged the immorality of racial hate and injustice. With presidential leadership such as President Truman’s 1948 executive order directing the racial integration of all US Armed Services; US Supreme Court rulings like Brown v Board of Education (1954); and landmark Congressional acts such the 1965 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Federal Voting Rights, the United States of America appeared to be on a course toward racial equality.

Tragically, our nation’s path toward racial equality has been bulldozed with the election and re-election of Donald Trump as President of the United States. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs have been banned, and their presenters have been purged. Federal voting rights are under attack from the White House and the conservatives on the US Supreme Court. Black and Brown immigrant populations have been terrorized by federal goon squads.

Potential immigrants from scores of predominately Black nations are being denied any opportunity to apply for a travel visa to the US while White farmers from South Africa are the only persons currently allowed to seek US refugee status. The President and his surrounding cast of sycophants have invented and spread the most racist demeaning lies regarding minority populations (They are eating the cats).

The latest of racist acts coming from the White House is an unapologetic AI generated meme on Trump’s Truth Social depicting the heads of Barack and Michelle Obama on the bodies of monkeys. This act was followed by the disinviting of Maryland Governor Moore (D), who is Black, and Colorado Governor Polis (D), who is gay, to a White House dinner being hosted for our nation’s governors.

One can only fear the worst is yet to come in the remaining three years of the Trump Administration unless our fellow citizens mount a new resistance that reflects the determination and courage that was demonstrated by Walter F. White and Thurgood Marshall along with the NAACP membership and Dr. Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership membership and so many other civil rights group leaders and activists of our past.

Tens of thousands of activists in Minneapolis and other cities and towns across America have demonstrated the required determination and courage in resisting the modern Trump era of human inequality and injustice, Yet, the MAGA base and Republican leaders and rank and file members of the US Congress and state governments provide approval of Trump’s blatant and inhumane, racist words and actions through their silence and cheerleading.

McCarthyism and Nixon’s crimes did not end solely because traditional opponents expressed dismay.

McCarthy was silenced and Nixon resigned when their supporters, respectively, put the good of America above party loyalty and acted to end the wrongdoing of both.

Let us hope that the MAGA base and GOP leaders of today including our Congressional delegation might soon come to recognize the inhumane racist words and actions of President Trump and join with the tens of thousands of current activists in calling for an end to this national tragedy and disgrace.