Protecting the Civil Rights Act

By Harry C. Alford, NNPA Columnist
September 10, 2007

Segregated and inferior schools, separate public facilities, refusal to sporting events, denial to employment and various "guaranteed" American opportunities - that's how it was before the Civil Rights Movement and the victory culminating in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

This was a very ugly country as I remember it. My sons try to imagine and feel the horror of that Apartheid that did not die until the early 1970's. It is impossible to really feel it if you didn't live it. I lived it and it was Hell on earth. It was a social sickness that still causes some bitterness even if the version I lived was a lot less than the version of my parents.

The Civil Rights Act became a living law as Affirmative Action became the implementation tool. Unlike Brown v. Topeka which was to move at "All Deliberate Speed" which became a big mystery and stalled in many places, the Civil Rights Act demanded action. Dr. Arthur A. Fletcher imposed Affirmative Action on the Nixon Administration while giants such as Adam Clayton Powell, Parren J. Mitchell, Gus Savage, etc. attached Affirmative Action components to all laws as they were written. These were the best of times for America. It opened the doors not just for Blacks but for all colors. White women profited from the Act as much as anyone else as it addressed gender as well as race and national origin.

Before the Civil Rights Act, white males in this nation controlled everything. Jobs, promotions, lending, contracting was in their control to the detriment of people of color and white women. Public contracting was nearly 100 percent white male-owned business. Today, it is about 85 percent. That has caused a backlash with the far right conservatives who wish for the days of white male supremacy to return. They have systematically organized a front to fight against the virtues of the Civil Rights Act. They have chosen to fight Affirmative Action policy wherever it appears. The "base camps" for this assault are conservative think tanks that are funded by wealthy right-wing zealots. They work through stealth and misinformation that confuses the general public. They have had some success through our disorganization and it is time for us to become better organized.

Let's identify these so-called think tanks. Perhaps the worst is the Center for New Black Leadership which has produced some of the most despicable Uncle Toms walking this earth. These Negroes get their funding from right wing sources. Many have been injected into the Bush Administration to put misery and conflict on Affirmative Action programs. The next three are the Bradley Foundation, Olin Foundation and the Scaife Foundation which probably have the greatest amount of funding devoted to wipe out Affirmative Action programs around the nation. Of course, there is the American Civil Rights Institute and the American Civil Rights Coalition, both of whom have Ward Connerly as their spokesperson. He's the guy who goes around the nation stirring up anti civil rights propositions.

The other groups, no less vicious, are: Earhart Foundation, Pacific Legal Foundation, Castle Rock Foundation, Pioneer Fund, Smith Richardson Foundation, Center for Equal Opportunity, Institute for Justice, National Review, American Spectator, Southeastern Legal Foundation, Rocky Mountain States Foundation, Americans for Tax Reform, Center for Individual Rights, Landmark Legal Foundation, American Enterprise Institute, Federalist Society Civil Rights Practice Group, Project for All Deliberate Speed, Frontiers for Freedom, Mont Pelerin Society, Council for National Policy, Claremont Institute. There are others. Treat these guys as the "Devil." They want you to go away or at least sit in second class citizenship as we did before the Civil Rights Act. They want the Civil Rights Act repealed, at least, void of any action. They long for the bad old days. Take notice and file these groups for quick access. Wherever you see them active - beware and fight them.

Harry Alford is the Co-Founder, President/CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce. Website: http://www.nationalbcc.org/.

[To read the entire commentary, go to:
http://www.louisianaweekly.com/weekly/news/articlegate.pl?20070910f ]