Lott opens a curtain on lots of racism
By Monica Moorehead
The recent statement by U.S. Senate Minority Leader--slated
to be Majority Leader--Trent Lott praising arch-segregationist
South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond at his 100th birthday party
may yet lead to Lott's ouster. It continues to make headlines
as Lott made his fifth televised apology Dec. 16 in a Black
Entertainment Television interview.
Civil-rights advocates have expressed their outrage and
demanded Lott's ouster. Even some of his right-wing peers are
urging him to resign from his position as the most powerful
figure in the U.S. Senate.
These closet racists are afraid that his too-candid remarks
might call attention to the Senate's own role as a
segregationist club mainly made up of millionaire white men.
This club has had only two African American members since the
days of Reconstruction following the U.S. Civil War, and none
since 1998.
Others, including some Democrats and President George W.
Bush, have demagogically referred to Lott's remarks as
"unfortunate." So far, Bush has stopped short of openly calling
for Lott's resignation, but all reports say that he wants Lott
to pull back as the Mississippi senator has become a burden to
the White House.
For Bush, the Lott controversy is an unwelcome diversion
from his administration's plans to attack Iraq. About 40
percent of the rank-and-file troops and 20 percent of officers
and non-commissioned officers in the U.S. military are people
of color, most of them African American.
The last thing Bush wants is his record of coddling racists
like Lott to stir up morale problems with these troops, many of
whom joined the armed forces only for their economic
survival.
Right-wing journalists like William Kristol and Charles
Krauthammer, worried that their association with Lott will
expose and discredit their own racist opposition to affirmative
action and other programs encouraging equality, have criticized
the senator. They want someone in who can put a better face on
a reactionary, racist program turning back civil-rights
laws.
On Dec. 5, Lott paid tribute to the long-time racist
Thurmond by stating: "I want to say this about my state
[Mississippi]: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted
for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had
followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over
all these years, either."
What Thurmond represents
Thurmond ran for president back in 1948 on the States Rights
Democratic Party ticket. Also known as the Dixiecrats, the SRDP
broke away from the Democratic Party to protest that party's
platform, which included some pro-civil-rights points.
President Harry Truman, who backed this platform in order to
win over the Black vote, defeated Republican Thomas Dewey in
1948 in a close vote to recapture the presidency. The
pro-slavery, pro-Confederate Dixiecrat Thurmond ran on the
platform of "Segregation Forever." He won Mississippi, Alabama,
Louisiana and South Carolina with 56 percent of the vote of
Southern whites.
Though Lott made these remarks on Dec. 5, much of the
big-business media either ignored or downplayed his comments
until Dec. 10. This includes the CBS, NBC and ABC evening news
broadcasts, plus "Nightline" and "Meet the Press." CNN's
"Inside Politics" host Jonathan Karl interviewed Lott on Dec. 6
and did not confront him even once about his remarks.
But once Lott's comments gained national prominence, more
and more people were justifiably shocked and outraged that such
an avowed racist has had a significant voice in shaping U.S.
policy. This includes millions of immigrants, a number of whom
are just becoming aware of the U.S. segregationist past. Many
people of Arab descent are now considering how the unequal
application of repressive immigration laws especially since
Sept. 11, 2001, fits into this history.
Lott's racist record
Lott's praise for the notorious Thurmond was no mere slip of
the tongue.
Lott delivered a similar message over 22 years ago when as a
member of the House of Representatives from Mississippi, he
told a Republican crowd that if the country had elected Strom
Thurmond "30 years ago, we wouldn't be in the mess we are
today." That's according to the Nov. 3, 1980, edition of the
Jackson Clarion-Ledger.
In 1984, Lott was a keynote speaker at the Convention of the
Sons of Confederate Veterans in Biloxi, Miss. One of his
comments was that "the spirit of Jefferson Davis lives in the
1984 Republican Platform."
Davis was a president of the pro-slavery Confederate States
of America before the outbreak of and during the Civil War.
During the 1970s, Lott spearheaded a campaign to have the
citizenship of Jefferson Davis retroactively restored.
Trent Lott was a close friend and ally of the Council of
Conservative Citizens, an outgrowth of the ultra-racist,
anti-Semitic White Citizens Council that worked hand and hand
with the Ku Klux Klan. To this day, the CCC characterizes
interracial marriage as "white genocide."
According to the Institute of Southern Studies, Lott
addressed the CCC in 1992, stating that the group stood for the
"right principles and right philosophy." Although Lott said
that he had no association with the CCC, one of the group's
spokespeople said in 1998 that Lott was a dues-paying
member.
During Lott's 16 years in the House of Representatives and
14 years in the Senate, he has consistently opposed
civil-rights legislation. He voted against extending the 1965
Voting Rights Act, desegregation in housing and schools,
affirmative action in federal contracts, a federal holiday
honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and guaranteeing fees for
lawyers whose clients win civil-rights lawsuits.
Lott opposed Bush's nomination of Roger L. Gregory, a
conservative judge, as the first Black person to serve on the
United States Court of Appeals of the Fourth Circuit in
Richmond, Va.
Lott has voted for a design patent on behalf of the United
Daughters of the Confederacy.
Not only is Lott a neo-fascist, he is rabidly biased against
gays and lesbians. Lesbian/gay/bi-/trans organizations and AIDS
activists have organized significant campaigns against Lott for
many years because of his anti-gay comments along with
promoting legislation against the funding of domestic partner
benefits and AIDS prevention.
Close ties to big business
While Lott's racist past is all out in the open, very little
is known about his close associations with big business. In
order to bankroll the election campaigns of Republican
candidates starting in 1993 during the Clinton administration,
Lott was instrumental in raising millions of dollars for the
New Republican Majority Fund.
Those who contributed to this fund included the American
Financial Services Association, BellSouth, the Edison Electric
Institute, FedEx, Glaxo Wellcome, Massachusetts Mutual Life,
Philip Morris, R. J. Reynolds, and U.S. Tobacco.
Lott also has links to the CEOs of Verizon Communications,
Inc., WorldCom, AT&T, Blue Cross & Blue Shield,
National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors as well as the
gambling industry.
All these magnates of finance capital should be exposed for
their complicit roles in supporting KKK politicians in
three-piece suits like Lott, Thurmond and Jesse Helms from
North Carolina.
The Democrats are not immune from charges in these events
either. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who ran for vice president in
2000 and announced Dec. 16 that he is a contender for the 2004
nomination, said of Thurmond, "He's a man of iron with a heart
of gold."
Reprinted from the Dec. 26, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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