Everett Dirksen
California’s ethnic studies curriculum was released last month on it’s third pass. The purpose of teaching Californian public education students is “highlighting the contributions of minorities in the development of California and the United States” and helping students become “global citizens with an appreciation for the contributions of multiple cultures.”
Lee Ohanian, Professor of Economics and Director of the Ettinger Family Program in Macroeconomic Research at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), writes, “Martin Luther King is a notable omission from the list of African Americans. A person displacing King from the list is Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former member of the Black Panthers who is serving a life sentence for first-degree murder of a police officer.”
Ohanian goes on to write, “Katherine Johnson is omitted. Johnson was a brilliant NASA mathematician who was included in an otherwise all-male research team that calculated the orbit of 1969’s Apollo 11 flight. The motion picture Hidden Figures was inspired by her. Just imagine how her story could motivate girls to embrace the fields of mathematics and science.
Assata Shakur, an African American activist from the 1960s who was convicted of murder during a shootout with police, and who escaped from prison and fled to Cuba where she was granted political asylum, is included.” Maxine Waters wrote a letter to Fidel Castro in direct opposition of a recent vote of Congress to extradite Shakur back to the US for prosecution. From her letter, “I oppose this measure is because I respect the right of Assata Shakur to seek political asylum. Assata Shakur has maintained that she was persecuted as a result of her political beliefs and political affiliations. As a result, she left the United States and sought political asylum in Cuba, where she still resides.” And goes on to conclude, “This illegal, clandestine political persecution was wrong in 1973, and remains wrong today.” Pleading for a murderer to be kept in Cuba versus facing criminal prosecution in the US. Waters hasn’t been canceled, censured, impeached. Maybe California will celebrate the life of NJ State Trooper Werner Foerster instead.
Another notable figure no one ever EVER talks about, is Everett Dirksen. Why not include him in the curriculum. In 1964 the Democratic party staged a 57 day filibuster to block the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Dirksen, a Republican from Illinois, and Mike Mansfield, a Democrat from Montana, proposed an alternate bill that carried all of the same principles of the Civil Rights Act but some opposition leaders claimed was too weak on businesses. Democrat Richard Russell blocked the vote on Dirksen’s alternate bill. Republican from Kentucky Thruston Morton proposed an amendment to Dirksen’s proposal that ended the filibuster after 57 days. But it was Dirksen’s persistence in the Senate to get the Civil Rights Bill passed. He’s quoted as saying, “Victor Hugo wrote in his diary substantially this sentiment: ‘Stronger than all the armies is an idea whose time has come.’ The time has come for equality of opportunity in sharing of government, in education, and in employment. It must not be stayed or denied.”
The overall vote count? In the House, 153 Democrats voted yes to 91 no votes. 136 Republicans voted yes to just 35 no votes. As a percentage, 36% of Democrats in the House of Representatives voted NO on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 compared to just 19% of Republicans. In the Senate, 46 Democrats voted yes to 21 no’s, and 27 Republicans voted yes to 6 no votes. That’s a sway of 31% to 18% in the Senate.
You’ll also find similar results related to the House and Senate voting record on the 1965 Voting Rights Act that prohibited racial discrimination in voting. In the House, Democrats voted 221-62 in favor, while Republicans voted 112-23 in favor. 21% of Democrats voted ‘no’, while only 16% of Republicans opposed. In the Senate it’s even more dramatic! Democrats voted 47-17 in favor, with 4 not voting. Republicans voted 30-2! That’s a 25% to 6% variance.
Everett Dirksen, among many other Republicans, are responsible for more progressive policies for the black community than cop killing activists soon to mangle the minds of California’s young student body. Why blacks don’t colonize around the Republican party is a crime of misinformation from the media, politicians aligned with the far left, and academia. Jim Crow laws were largely eliminated by Republican sponsorship.
Ben Carson? Herman Cain? Tim Scott? Thomas Sowell? Walter Williams? William Taft? Booker T. Washington? John F. Kennedy?
John Kennedy would not be embraced by today’s Democratic party, and William Taft, Republican President from Ohio, promoted the 14th Amendment. Kennedy put the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on a path to signature before his assassination.
California would rather educate kids about cop killers than positive black historical leaders.
