Raw Republican Racism
By Dr. Ronald Walters
I am often asked by both perplexed and cagey journalists to tell them why blacks don’t support
Republicans, or when will they begin to do so.
I tell them that blacks are like any other people, they vote their interests and when it appears that a person
or party doesn’t particularly like them, they will take their business elsewhere. The "elsewhere" for blacks
has generally been with Democrats, largely because of the feeling that, even though Democrats have also
done them wrong, they feel that Democrats are less prone to be racist than Republicans.
A recent example of this is the case of Judge Ronnie L. White, a member of the Missouri Supreme Court
and an African American, who was nominated to the Federal bench for the Eastern District of Missouri by
President Clinton in 1997. Missouri now has two Republican Senators, John Ashcroft and Christopher
"Kit" Bond and in the beginning, Bond said that he would support White’s nomination, while Ashcroft
opposed it.
Ashcroft opposed Judge Ronnie White’s nomination on the grounds that White was soft on the death
penalty.
A County sheriff, Kenny Jones, whose wife was killed on a shooting rampage by James Johnson in 1991,
lobbied law enforcement officials in the state to oppose White, who cast the lone vote against the death
penalty for Johnson. The opposition reached a fever pitch with Jones sponsoring a petition drive, with
urging by Ashcroft, to oppose the nomination of White to the Federal bench.
Eventually, Bond broke his commitment to the black commitment to support White and when the vote was
taken on October 5, both Senators from Missouri voted against Judge Ronnie White’s nomination.
You may remember that in the 1998 elections, a sizeable share of the black community, led by the state
NAACP head, opposed a challenge to Kit Bond by a Democrat Attorney General who had played a role in
weakening school integration laws - to the consternation of the national democratic party.
They cast their lot with Kit Bond, so, Bond’s pledge was to reciprocate by supporting Judge Ronnie White.
The point here is that actually, Ashcroft did not need the Johnson case to oppose the nomination of Judge
White. He was nominated by Clinton in June of 1997 and in May of 1998, the Senate Judiciary Committee
held hearings. At that time, Kit Bond urged his fellow Senators to confirm the nomination and the
Committee voted 15-3 in favor of the nomination, while Ashcroft cast one of the negative votes.
Ashcroft’s opposition appeared to many to rest squarely on the fact that the Judge was black, not that he
was a "judicial activists" against the death penalty as Ashcroft had charged. In fact, the record in the state
of Missouri showed that White had a relatively moderate record on this issue, since of the 55 death
penalty cases he reviewed as a member of the Supreme Court, he voted for the death penalty in 35
cases. In the other 20 cases, he voted to reverse the lower court decisions, the majority of the court voting
with him in 13 of the cases. Yet, with this clear record of moderation on the death penalty in the State of
Missouri, John Ashcroft held up White’s nomination for more than two years.
Ashcroft’s view appeared to be that the Supreme Court of Missouri should have automatically followed the
rulings of the lower court in death penalty cases, because he belongs to the radical wing of the
Republican party who would rather impose a final sentence of death on convicted rather than give them
any benefit of the doubt.
The final sentence of death may be warranted for some, but it should also be understood that 82
death-row inmates have been found innocent nationally, since the death penalty was reinstated.
Death penalty politics is beside the point in this case.
Race is the point. It is no accident that the national Supreme Court, headed by Republican appointees
appears to be having trouble hiring black law clerks, an issue raised in a demonstration by the NAACP at
the Supreme Court building. Then, the Republican controlled Congress seems to behaving trouble hiring
blacks in responsible roles, since of the 74 staff directors in the House, only one is an African American.
Are these only coincidences, or do we have the right to conclude that the Republican party carries an
anti-black bias in its approach to governing?
Well, some opposition to the treatment of Judge Ronnie White has arisen among blacks in the law
profession and they have been attempting to urge the President to re-submit the nomination of Judge
White to the Senate. White, however, has refused to approve of his name going forward a second time,
given the "lynching" that he has suffered at the hands of Senate Republicans, led by those in his own
state.
Nevertheless, black lawyers and law students in Washington, DC like Wade Henderson, Donald Temple
and others, took to the streets and mounted a rally on Thursday, October 21 at the Capitol to protest this
outrageous treatment of a distinguished black jurist -simply because he is black.
So, ask me again why we don’t support Republicans as much as Democrats and I’ll give you some more
examples. For now, this one will suffice. (Posted 10-25-99)
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