Civil
Rights Leaders Widen Attack on GOP
Groups Charge Senator's Actions Reflect Party's Agenda
By Darryl Fears
Monday,
When Sen. Trent Lott
crumpled to the canvas after taking a beating over his remarks, civil rights
leaders and black politicians who fought to knock the Mississippi Republican
down did not celebrate but looked to broaden their attack to the rest of his
party.
Acting almost as one,
the NAACP, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Leadership Conference on Civil
Rights and other groups sent a flurry of telephone calls, faxes and e-mail
announcements saying that Lott's resignation from the Senate leadership might
have changed the party's face, but not its soul.
"The record shows
that the issues of race and civil rights are much bigger than the resignation
of Senator Lott," said Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a senior member of the
black caucus and an icon of the civil rights movement. "The American
people are looking to see a change in Congress that goes beyond a shift in
the current Senate Republican leadership."
Lewis and Rainbow Coalition
leader Jesse L. Jackson, in keeping with their Baptist traditions, forgave
Lott as his troubles mounted in the last two weeks. But both men also condemned
Lott's words as well as his politics, and after he resigned they reaffirmed
their belief that his actions reflected his party's agenda.
Shortly after Lewis made
his statement, the NAACP's media machine placed calls to reporters to say
that the voting record of Republican Sen. Bill Frist (Tenn.), who is the lone
candidate to replace Lott when GOP senators vote today, is not much different
from Lott's.
In fact, NAACP President
Kweisi Mfume said, each of Lott's potential successors -- Frist and Sens.
Don Nickles (Ohla.), Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Rick Santorum (Pa.) -- had
civil rights voting records similar to their departing leader. The NAACP gave
each an "F" grade for voting against its issues more than 75 percent
of the time in the 107th Congress.
"This is a good
first step for the Republican Party," Mfume said of Lott's departure.
"Now they've got to reverse four decades of dependence on racist elements
in their base. They can do this by embracing the generally accepted remedies
for racial discrimination and by replacing the rhetoric of outreach with the
reality."
The concerns were not
limited to African Americans. "There are questions in the minds of minorities
about the makeup and the soul of the Republican Party," said Hector Flores,
president of the League of United Latin American Citizens. "Is this a
party for everyone? We shouldn't be having this conversation today, in 2002."
Even as the condemnations
flew, another racially charged declaration by a Republican was revealed. In
a recent interview with a Charlotte newspaper, Rep. Cass Ballenger of North
Carolina said that "in some areas of the South, in Charlotte and everywhere
else, there are people who get rubbed the wrong way and think, 'We've got
to bend over backwards; we've got to integrate' and things like that."
Ballenger also said of
outgoing Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.), who is black, "If I had to listen
to her, I probably would have developed a little bit of a segregationist feeling,"
and he called her a "bitch." He later apologized, saying, "My
choice of words to express distaste for a divisive member of Congress was
a mistake and was wrong."
The Lott and Ballenger
episodes reflect why many minorities, particularly African Americans and Latinos,
are deeply concerned about the GOP's motives when it comes to equal rights.
"It deepens in the
minds of people that conservatism is a cover for racist feelings," Ron
Walters, a University of Maryland political science professor who specializes
in black leadership, said of Ballenger's remarks.
"The same attention
is not going to be paid to him as Lott because he's not the head of the Senate,"
Walters said, "but these comments by Republicans have been made all along
at all levels of government and haven't received the proper spotlight. I blame
the media for this. It's given them a wide berth for all of this stuff."
On Dec. 5, when Lott
praised Sen. Strom Thurmond's segregationist 1948 presidential campaign during
a 100th birthday party for the South Carolina Republican, he enraged both
liberal and conservative African Americans. Afterward, his repeated apologies
and denunciation of his segregationist past could not erase his votes against
a Civil Rights Act extension, school busing, Martin Luther King Day and FBI
investigations of hate crimes.
As Lott's remarks became
widely known, civil rights organizations began working in concert to help
speed his demise as incoming Senate majority leader. Members of the black
caucus pushed the Democratic leadership to react. On Wednesday, as pressure
mounted on Lott to resign, the Black Leadership Forum, which includes the
NAACP, the Urban League and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference,
met in Washington to discuss strategies.
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings
(D-Md.), president-elect of the Congressional Black Caucus, said his organization
would take a serious look at the Republican voting record in the next Congress
and pay close attention to White House judicial nominations.
"I think Trent Lott
gave the Republican Party an opportunity to look at itself," Cummings
said. "If there is a new consciousness, then synchronize this new consciousness
with your conduct. Show me that you want progress, that you want a progressive
agenda. The words are not enough."
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