On his blog, Where’s the Outrage, Dr. Errington Thompson posted an article entitled The Failure of the Republican Party to deliver anything for Blacks.

Dr. Timothy Johnson, Chairman of the Buncombe County Republican Party, responds to that article:

To My Good Friend Dr. Errington,

There is no doubt you have done a great job re-capping the past 40 years and the elusive relationship the Republican Party, in general has had with the Black community, overall.

However, I feel you did not provide your audience with enough information to include the fact that in 1966 Edward Brooke, a Black Republican from Massachusetts was elected to the U.S. Senate and re-elected in 1972. I find it even more interesting that you don’t mention it took 20 more years for another Black person and the first woman, Senator Moseley-Braun to get elected to the Senate and another 12 years, before the election of Senator Obama.

While you are well versed in history, I find many people I speak with are not.

In 1854, when the Republican Party was founded, it was known as the anti-slavery party. The 20 Congressional founders wanted to end slavery, not because it was the popular thing to do, but instead it because it was the right thing to do. At the conclusion of the Civil War, the first blacks elected to Congress were Republicans and from southern states. In 1898, when the Wilmington riots took place, 2,000 blacks and 1,000 white Republicans were lynched and forced from their homes by Democrats. The KKK was started by the Dixiecrats, who were Southern Democrats, affectionally known as yellows dogs.

Coming into the present times, are you not going to acknowledge J.C. Watts historic accomplishments, General Powell’s numerous accomplishments or Secretary Rice’s historical accomplishments?

Are you willing to be so partisan that you wouldn’t even acknowledge the fact that President Bush has appointed more Blacks to senior level positions in his administration than any other President in history, to include the so-called first Black President - William Jefferson Clinton?

And this year alone, three Blacks have been elected National Committee Men and Woman from South Carolina, North Carolina and Michigan. Black Republicans are being elected around the country and are current candidates for local to national offices. Furthermore, Black community activists, like myself, are being elected to lead our local volunteers. Re-establishing our rightful place, without forgetting we are “Black Republicans” not “Republicans who happen to be Black.”

Finally, for those who love history, we know history keeps track of our past. Those failing to acknowledge and learn from it are doomed to repeat it.

Please do not think the Republican Party is asleep at the wheel or unaware of its past history and relationship with people of color. If they reach out to us and we don’t reach back, we can’t and shouldn’t expect anymore than we have traditionally received.

Like you, I am proud of what Senator Barack Obama, the fifth Black U.S. Senator and the second Black Democratic Senator in our nation’s history, has accomplished. But, I am fearful for us, as Black Americans, submitting ourselves to this single-minded thinking that the Democratic Party is and will be our only political option.

I am free to think, feel and vote my preference. I pray to God that the mental shackles will free more of us to think for ourselves, seek out the real truth and vote for the person who will actually represent us without controlling us.

That’s what I continue to believe and think Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was saying to us during his work for civil rights and that is the legacy that remains with me. As a lifelong Black Republican, are his words useless and meaningless because of his political affiliation? I leave that up to you to decide.

[Photo by Max Cooper]