July 31, 2013 by Ann Coulter – her website

My cmnt: Though written nearly 12 years ago this column remains pertinent today.

My cmnt: It’s so important to remember that the democrats were, are and remain the party of racism. The party was founded in the early 1800s to protect slavery, was bound and determined to spread Slavery throughout the continent causing the Civil War, enacted the Jim Crow laws in the South, spread racial segregation, fought against integrating public universities and schools, performed most of the lynchings of black men, created and ran the Klu Klux Clan (of which long-time democratic Senator Robert Byrd was a Grand Dragon) and created a welfare state designed to re-enslave black people in America.

Does anyone read anymore? I mean, besides tweets from Anthony Weiner?

During his otherwise excellent commentaries on race in America, Bill O’Reilly, host of the No. 1 cable news show, claimed on Tuesday night that the one person who tried to help African-Americans more than any other was … Robert F. Kennedy!

No one laughed. I guess that’s what they’re teaching these days at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. (I can’t wait to hear how Ted Kennedy helped eradicate drunk driving!)

According to O’Reilly’s Bizarro-World history, Bobby Kennedy was “the guy who was really concerned about African-Americans” and “who really DID SOMETHING. … He went in with the federal government and he cleaned out the rat’s nest that was abusing African-Americans in the South.”

Although this myth has been polished to perfection by the Kennedy PR machine (requiring all Kennedy stories to illustrate either courage or adorableness), it is simply a fact that helping blacks was not the Democrats’ priority. Even the ones who wanted to, such as Bobby and John Kennedy, couldn’t risk upsetting the segregationists, more than 90 percent of whom were Democratic.

The job of actually enforcing civil rights and desegregating Southern schools fell to Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon.

Five years after Eisenhower had shown the Democrats how its done by sending federal troops to desegregate Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., President Kennedy and brother Bobby still dragged their feet in helping James Meredith enter the University of Mississippi.

On Feb. 7, 1961, Meredith wrote a beautiful letter to the Department of Justice, describing his inability to enroll at the University of Mississippi, He wrote:

“Whenever I attempt to reason logically about this matter, it grieves me deeply to realize that an individual, especially an American, the citizen of a free democratic nation, has to clamor with such procedures in order to try to gain just a small amount of his civil and human rights, and even after suffering the embarrassments and personal humiliation of this procedure, there still seems little hope of success.”

The full letter is worth looking up (I’ve conveniently included this below – LB) I would venture to guess there are not many college applicants of any race who write this well today. (You know why? Because Americans don’t read anymore. You watch cable news and fill your heads with nonsense history and false facts.)

In response to Meredith’s eloquent letter, Bobby Kennedy did nothing. And that’s how Bobby Kennedy “cleaned out the rat’s nest that was abusing African-Americans in the South”!

Remember: This was seven years after the Supreme Court had already handed down its decision in Brown v. Board of Education — a ruling expressly endorsed in the Republican Party platform, but not the Democratic platform, I might add.

But Democrats were in the White House, so Meredith had to take his case to the Supreme Court. Liberals were engaging in their usual massive resistance to court rulings they don’t like and neither Bobby nor John Kennedy would dare try to stop them.

You will notice that the Freedom Rides and civil rights marches all took place under Democratic presidents. It was the only way to get Democratic administrations to intervene against their fellow Democrats.

In June 1962, a federal appellate court ruled that Meredith had been denied admittance to Ole Miss because of his race and ordered the university to enroll him. (At least that’s how the two Republican judges voted; the segregationist FDR appointee dissented.) But one old segregationist on the court — who had not even sat on the case — kept issuing stays to prevent enforcement of the ruling.

Only when these illegitimate stays were appealed to the Supreme Court did Bobby Kennedy’s Justice Department finally weigh in, asking Justice Hugo Black, the circuit justice, to lift the stays — nearly two years after Meredith had written to the Department of Justice asking for its help.

Needless to say, Justice Black came down on Meredith’s side in a matter of about six seconds. The full court had already decided the school segregation issue years earlier in Brown.

But the state still would not admit Meredith to Ole Miss.

With a showdown inevitable, President Kennedy, on the counsel of his trusted attorney general, Bobby Kennedy, wrote a letter to the segregationist Democrat governor of Mississippi, Ross Barnett.

These were JFK’s stirring words on behalf of the constitutional rights of black Americans, redeemed with the blood of American patriots:

“White House, September 30, 1962

“To preserve our constitutional system, the Federal Government has an overriding responsibility to enforce the orders of the Federal Courts. Those courts have ordered that James Meredith be admitted now as a student at the University of Mississippi.”

So basically, his hands were tied. It reads like a letter from a Republican administration explaining why it’s forced to comply with a gay marriage ruling. (JFK’s weasel-word letter is also worth looking up.)

Yes, eventually the Kennedy brothers sent the National Guard to force the University of Mississippi to admit James Meredith. It wasn’t hard to figure out what to do: Eisenhower had sent in the 101st Airborne to enforce desegregation back in 1957 against a much more tenacious segregationist (and Bill Clinton pal), Gov. Orval Faubus of Arkansas.

But in the rest of the South, schools remained segregated as long as Bobby Kennedy was attorney general and either JFK or LBJ was in the White House. (LBJ on the 1964 Civil Rights Act: “I’ll have those n*ggers voting Democrat for the next 200 years.”)

Black Americans may say hosannas to Bobby Kennedy, but they would have to wait for Richard Nixon to become president to win the promise of Brown v. Board.

Within Nixon’s first two years in the White House, black students attending segregated schools in the South declined from nearly 70 percent to 18.4 percent. There was more desegregation of American public schools in Nixon’s first term than in any historical period before or since.

It was not an accident that Nixon launched his comeback in 1966 with a column denouncing Democrats for trying to “squeeze the last ounces of political juice out of the rotting fruit of racial injustice.” It’s also not an accident that James Meredith was a Republican. (You’d know all this if you had read Mugged: Racial Demagoguery from the Seventies to Obama, but you were busy watching TV.)

Crediting Bobby Kennedy for the great work he did on behalf of black Americans would be like calling Harry Reid the country’s greatest champion of the unborn. Sure, Reid says he’s pro-life, but he dare not act on it lest he upset the rest of his party. It was the same with Democrats and civil rights.

If you want to say something nice about Bobby Kennedy, remind everyone that he proudly worked for Sen. Joe McCarthy.

Civil Rights pioneer James Meredith’s letter to DOJ 1961

February 7, 1961

To: The United States Justice Department

It is with much regret that I present this information to you concerning myself. Whenever I attempt to reason logically about this matter, it grieves me deeply to realize that an individual, especially an American, the citizen of a free democratic nation, has to clamor with such procedures in order to try to gain just a small amount of his civil and human rights, and even after suffering the embarrassments and personal humiliation of these procedures, there still seems little hope of success. To be in an oppressed situation is not in itself very difficult, but to be in it and realize its unfairness, and then to have one’s conscience compel him to try to correct the situation is indeed agonizing and often miserable.

Before going further, I want to state my immediate situation. I have applied for admission to the University of Mississippi. I have not been accepted and I have not been rejected. Delaying tactics are presently being used by the state. This is the important fact and the reason I am writing (one major reason) to you. Other Negro citizens have attempted to exercise their rights of citizenship in the past, but during the period of delay, that is, between the time the action is initiated and the would- be-time of attainment of the goal, the agencies of the state have eliminated the individual concerned. I do not have any desire to be eliminated.

Why do I feel that you will or should be concerned about me? I have no great desire to protect my hide, but I do hope to see the day when the million Negroes that live in the state of Mississippi will have no cause to fear as they fear today. High-ranking officials of this state, including the Lieutenant Governor during the absence of the Governor on his South American trip, have made public statements saying that the law enforcement agencies of this state will not be used to enforce laws as proclaimed by the federal courts. I have no reason to believe that they will protect citizens that seek to bring about such decisions; in fact, I believe that if they are used at all it will be to intimidate such citizens.

America is a great nation. It has led the world in freedom for a long time. I feel that we can and we must continue to lead in this respect. However, I believe that a greater use should be made of the Negro potential. In my state, this is impossible under the present setup. All of the professions (except teaching and preaching), nearly all of the technical fields or trades, and the Commissioned Officers rolls are not open to a Negro born in Mississippi. Instead of the restrictions being lifted, they are now more rigorously enforced. I feel that this is not in the best interest of our country and certainly not in the best interest of the Negro people.

At the present time much is being said by the radio and press about a Negro wanting to go to the University of Mississippi. Much is being made of prior attempts by Negroes to go to “all white” Mississippi schools. They elaborate on the fate of these individuals; for instance, the last one to try is now serving a seven-year prison term on trumped-up charges subsequent to his attempt to go to the school. If this is to be the fate of any individual who seeks to exercise his rights of citizenship, then I certainly believe that this is an undesirable situation.

My background: I was born on a small farm in Attala County, Mississippi, the seventh of thirteen children. I walked to school, over four miles each way, every day for eleven years. Throughout these years, the white school bus passed us each morning. There was no Negro school bus. I never had a teacher during grade and high school with a college degree. But I was fortunate, because I was able to go to school. Each day I passed by one of the largest farms in the county, and there I saw boys my own age and younger working in the fields who to this day cannot even read road signs. I have never known how I could help solve this situation, but I have always felt that I must do my best.

During my last year of high school, which was spent in Florida, I entered an essay contest sponsored by the American Legion, and I was a winner along with two white girls. The title of the essay was “Why I Am Proud To Be An American.” My theme was that I was not proud because I was born with as many or more of the desirable things of life as the next man, but because in my country an individual has the opportunity to grow and develop according to his ability and ingenuity and because he is not restricted from progress solely on the basis of race. Basically, I still believe in this possibility.

I served nine years in the United States Air Force. All of this time was spent in the so-called “integrated” service; because of this experience I feel that there is no logical reason to justify denying a law-abiding citizen the rights of full citizenship solely on the basis of race.

What do I want from you? I think that the power and influence of the federal government should be used where necessary to insure compliance with the laws as interpreted by the proper authority. I feel that the federal government can c more in this area if it chooses and I feel that it should choose to do so. In view of the above information I simply ask that the federal agencies use the power and prestige of their positions to insure the full rights of citizenship for our people.

Sincerely,

JAMES H MEREDITH

James Meredith

American civil rights activist and author – Encyclopedia Brittanica

Also known as: James H. Meredith, James Howard Meredith

Quick Facts Born: June 25, 1933, Kosciusko, Mississippi, U.S. (age 91) Role In: American civil rights movement

Civil rights icon James Meredith is honored in his Mississippi hometown • Dec. 23, 2024, 11:51 AM ET (AP)

James Meredith James Meredith (center) with federal marshals, University of Mississippi, October 1, 1962.

James Meredith (born June 25, 1933, Kosciusko, Mississippi, U.S.) is an American civil rights activist who gained national renown at a key juncture in the civil rights movement in 1962, when he became the first African American student at the University of Mississippi. State officials, initially refusing a U.S. Supreme Court order to integrate the school, blocked Meredith’s entrance, but, following large campus riots that left two people dead, Meredith was admitted to the university under the protection of federal marshals.

James MeredithJames Meredith, flanked by federal marshals, entering the University of Mississippi, October 1, 1962.

Meredith served in the U.S. Air Force (1951–60) before attending an all-Black school, Jackson State College (1960–62). His repeated applications to the University of Mississippi were denied solely on the basis of his race, according to the verdict of his 1961–62 court battle, which was won on appeal with the legal assistance of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In the fall of 1962, as mob violence seemed imminent, U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy called in federal protection so that Meredith could register for classes. Meredith’s tenure at Mississippi was brief; he graduated in 1963.

Meredith continued to balance education and activism throughout the rest of the decade, attending the University of Ibadan in Nigeria (1964–65) and Columbia University (1966–68). In June 1966 he began a solitary protest march, which he called the March Against Fear, from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, when he was shot by a sniper. The crime mobilized many civil rights leaders to resume the march, which Meredith was able to rejoin after a period of hospitalization.

Meredith later ran for various public offices, most notably a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1972; his bid was unsuccessful. In 1989–91 he served as an adviser to Sen. Jesse Helms (North Carolina), who vehemently opposed the civil rights movement. That move—as well as his support of David Duke, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan who ran for governor of Louisiana in 1991—drew criticism, and Meredith claimed that he had never been “one of the civil rights people, the liberal agenda people, the nonviolent people.” The documentary Walk Against Fear: James Meredith appeared in 2020. His autobiographies included Three Years in Mississippi (1966) and A Mission from God: A Memoir and Challenge for America (2012; written with William Doyle).

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Mindy Johnston.