County Republican chair Doug Roulstone’s recent letter to the editor was startling in it’s complete lack of historical fact (“Democrats have long history of racism,” The Herald, May 25).
The first purchasers of slaves were not Democrats. Democrats did not exist. They were British citizens looking for unpaid labor. The Democratic Party did not emerge until 1828, 200 years after the first ship of slaves arrived. The Republican Party emerged in 1854 and did come into being to oppose the expansion of slavery. Lincoln was a Republican, and did free the slaves, but did not believe they were equal to whites. The South was largely Democratic and actively worked to suppress the Black population through Jim Crow laws and other abhorrent practices.
However, our entire country, no matter what political persuasion, endorsed these practices, either through active suppression or silence. That’s pretty much where Roulstone’s historical knowledge ends. He conveniently ignores Harry Truman, a Democrat who ordered the integration of our armed forces; and it brazenly ignores the huge 1964 shift in political parties when presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, a Republican, refused to endorse the civil rights act and President Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat, managed to get the Civil Rights act passed through Congress. This is what caused the south to shift to the Republican Party, where they hoped their views would fare better.
But the real shame in his letter is trying desperately to blame this horrible stain on our nation’s history on any single entity. It was a national effort with a segment that didn’t necessarily own slaves, but also did not believe the black race was equal. Sadly, the traces of this stain remains completely visible on our national psyche and infects us to this very day. As long as our effort is only spent on trying to absolve ourselves of blame we will remain firmly rooted in this same spot. The blame lands on every single one of us, living and dead. If we remain adamant in our refusal to come to grips with our own responsibility, we will never free ourselves from this continuing pain. Courage means being willing to accept your own frailties and being willing to work to overcome them.
Ann Distefano
Marysville
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