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I thought you, and others might like to see this:

A Solution to Civil Wrongs

I have a dream today. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” The Peaceful Warrior continues, “I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together (King).” This is straight out of the book of Isaiah, and the book of Luke, with the caveat, “…and all flesh shall see the salvation of God (KJ version).

Like Lincoln’s famous battlefield address a hundred years before, King’s speech was carefully crafted, but hardly moved his audience. Then the voice of gospel singer Mahalia Jackson called out from behind him: “Tell them about your dream, Martin! Tell them about your dream!” King began again, this time extemporaneously. When he was finished, he had shared his dream for America with his listeners and had given the nation another Gettysburg Address (Robert).

Who that cannot recognize the immortal words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in front of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, has been deprived the wisdom given this mortal man who did the most for the civil rights movement and the most to bring the races closer together than any other person. And why, indeed, did he bring the races closer together than any other man in U.S. history? Because he was a man of the Bible, and a Fundamentalist of the Bible (a Fundamentalist being one that adheres to what is written in the Bible). The best way a man can win over the hearts of men, and to bring them to a unified spirit is in what the Bible brings to us in such matters as racism. The truths of what is written in the Bible are of great value, not only for oneself, but for society as well.

A Brief History

What method of the civil rights movement effected the most change in America, not only in law, but also in integration, is explored in this research. The movement can be summed up in how well it swayed the laws of this country, but what about the movement brought the races closer together? Over the years, violence has erupted by people of both races due to race differences. Before the 1960’s, it was mostly white violence against blacks. After the 1950’s, blacks that felt oppressed were mostly the igniter of violence. Looking at the results of those who caused the violence, whether by white or black offenders, one can only conclude that the American public will not be sympathetic. In fact, it was because of the nonviolent nature of the civil rights movement in the fifties and early sixties that caused sympathy for the plight of the movement. This created the greatest change in law, and integration. In the 1970’s and 80’s, all Jim Crow laws and all segregationist laws in the U.S. disappeared. A different civil rights movement had emerged, this being the integration of the races in communities.

The Klan's first incarnation began in 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee. Its main purpose was to resist Congressional Reconstruction, and it focused as much on intimidating "carpetbaggers" and "scalawags" as on putting down the Freedmen. It quickly adopted violent methods, and was involved in a wave of 1,300 murders of Republican voters in 1868. A rapid reaction set in, with the Klan's leadership disowning it, and Southern elites seeing the Klan as an excuse for federal troops to continue their activities in the South. The organization was in decline from 1868 to 1870, and was destroyed in the early 1870s by President Ulysses S. Grant's vigorous action under the Civil Rights Act of 1871 (also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act) (Ku). A second distinct KKK rose in 1915 founded by William Joseph Simmons, aided by the film “Birth of a Nation”.

Racism has been about color, any color distrusting of another color, though the bitterest racism between any two has been between black and white in this country. Racism between blacks and whites reached its crescendo after the Civil War. During the period of Reconstruction of the late 19th century, too much force and not enough persuasion was used on the South to unite the white ex-slavers with black ex-slaves. At this time Humanism was reaching its zenith with the writings of Darwin and Marx. The pseudochristian southern whites, such as Thomas Dixon, took on Darwinist Theory with zeal as to prove the superiority of themselves over other races, especially ex-slaves (Thomas). Then the bitterest racism manifested itself into the Ku Klux Klan. But wasn’t the Ku Klux Klan a Christian organization? By no means. In the most vile and base way, the Ku Klux Klan used one of Christianity’s most precious symbols and desecrated it, using it as their symbol of hate, that of the burning cross. Nothing could be more of the antithesis to the symbol of the cross in the Bible. For example; Matthew 16:24 “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” And in Matthew 10:38 “And he that does not take his cross, and follow after me, is not worthy of me.” In the Bible the cross has always been a symbol of sacrifice, not of persecution. The Ku Klux Klan still exists, though in small numbers, and the first Grand Wizard, Nathan Bedford Forrest, still has his own holiday in Al Gore’s home state of Tennessee (Bedford).

After Reconstruction, “Southern legislatures, overwhelmingly dominated by Democrats, passed the black codes, which attempted to return freed slaves to bondage in legal fact, rather than official terminology…These became known as the Jim Crow laws… [a] Jim Crow law is a blanket term for any of this type of legislation following the end of Reconstruction… Jim Crow laws were a product of the solid Democratic South. As the party which supported the Confederacy, the Democrats quickly dominated all aspects of local, state, and federal political life in the post-Civil War South, right up through the 1970s (Jim)”.

Civil Rights Movement &Fundamentalism Unity

So where were the good Bible believers from the time of Reconstruction till the ‘70’s? According to Sam Hill, Professor Emeritus of the University of Florida, these good people were, “Relegated to the fringes as it was, [and] many thought it would go away or continue harmless, even if its presence was somewhat annoying … Classic American Fundamentalism did its judging from a distance. Having neither ambition nor hope to take over the society, it took aim from long range, believing it to be unbiblical to participate in evil structures by joining forces with godless people”

Sam Hill Continues, “At the deepest levels, the change in racial and biracial affairs brought about as a result of the Civil Rights Movement was less disruptive of historic Southern culture than the Baptist, Presbyterian, and "third force" fundamentalist uprisings have turned out to be. If the reputation of the South as a hotbed of fundamentalist activity were true, then just the opposite would be the case; but in fact the Fundamentalism of the past forty years or so has destabilized the traditional culture of the South in ways far beyond what the Civil Rights Movement was able to accomplish. (Hill).” The Fundamentalists of the period between Reconstruction and after World War II could not, or would not, be a destabilizing force in society.

Was it any wonder that, while during this period Fundamentalist Christians relegated to the sidelines, there were stagnant, if not reversals, of civil rights? From the time of Reconstruction to the 1950’s, segregation was fought by way of law. Even though there is not a law in the books in the U.S. that promotes segregation by race, law does not, and did not; address matters of the heart. The division between the races was still strong until the ‘50’s. There was scarce civil interaction between them. It was not until an itinerant Baptist preacher by the name of King, came and began his peaceful protest and used Biblical theology to turn the hearts of not only the racist but also to awaken the Fundamentalists to this plight. But after his assassination the movement faded, until the 1970’s. The spark that he left was his Biblical message of hope.

What changed? Sam Hill’s essay explains, “The triumph of Fundamentalism in the South needs only one example. When Presbyterian conservatives--let's call them lower-case fundamentalists--created the PCA,” another organization, “in the 1970’s, they had to do so by withdrawing from a parent body”, the Southern Presbyterian Church U.S. By the 1980’s, "fundamental conservatives" in the Southern Baptist Convention, the SBC, mobilized themselves into a major force and acquired power in that massive organization. “Theirs was a well-orchestrated takeover, not a defection, and they have successfully defended their domination through the intervening years.” states Professor Hill. Indeed, any withdrawal from Southern Baptist ranks will probably be by a cadre of "moderate conservatives (Hill) ", in other words, the old racist Baptist.

Do you remember the “Jesus Freaks” of the ‘70’s? Well you can say that this same revolution happened in the South, except that it happened with the Fundamentalist. Along with this revolution was the spark that King left, his Biblical message of hope. There has never been such integration as in Fundamentalist Christianity. No other organization in the history of the U.S., nor in any other country in the world, has had this kind of progress. In fact, no other organization like the Fundamentalist Christian churches of all the U.S. has more integrated marriages. There are many examples of these same types of churches here in California, Church On The Way, Calvary, Saddleback, etc. I can attest to this. My own church in itself, a church with as many as 5 thousand congregants, is highly integrated with many integrated marriages. I am being in one. I extend an open invitation to my church, Hope Chapel in Hermosa Beach, to witness what I have stated.

Civil Rights Movement & Fundamentalist Divide

Though there was sympathy and unity of the fundamentalist and civil rights movement during the 60’s, there was a schism that began at the end of that decade:

“The Civil Rights Movement had inclusion as its primary goal. In public policy it was democratic, in that it sought to identify and safeguard a place for everyone. The fundamentalist movement is differently disposed. Its passion is to promote the view that "truth" is absolute, with or without any acknowledgment that any absolutist position places truth ahead of people, in the sense that truth has its essence independent of people's existence (Hill).”

Professor Hill goes on to state that Fundamentalism is exclusive and inclusive as an apparent contradiction. This can be explained in that today’s Fundamentalist invites everybody (inclusive) to join them in the body of Christians who adhere to the truths of the Bible (exclusive) as the foundation of all truth. Professor Hill goes on to say that Christian truth is in light of the Bible, and that Christians believe in being in the world but not part of the world. The modern fundamentalism movement holds to the truth that it is their duty and to everyone’s benefit to spread the “Word” (Bible) of truth. Though hard to understand, one can be true to the Bible and to a democratic country.

Civil rights (i.e., liberty) must be built on truth. Fundamentalists believe that truth is found in light of the Bible, that true freedom (i.e., civil rights) cannot be freedom away from the truth. In other words, Fundamentalists know that once one deviates from the truth (the Bible) that eventually one’s freedom is naturally, or unnaturally, taken away. The leader of the civil rights movement in the ‘50’s and ‘60’s, Martin Luther King Jr., appealed to the fundamentalist movement by his use of the Bible. Our democratic country was founded by such Fundamentalists as George Washington, who stated, “ It is impossible to rightly govern without God and the Bible” and Thomas Jefferson, “The Bible is the cornerstone of liberty (i.e., freedom) (Christian).” There is no contradiction to the Fundamentalist in the thought of a democracy. On the contrary, Fundamentalists know you can’t have one without the Bible. King knew as well that Fundamentalist views were in the hearts of many Americans, and wisely appealed to their hearts. This is why King was so successful (whether or not some of you think he was a commie).

This gives credence to why there are more black Democrats and more Fundamentalist Republicans. The civil rights movement was more inclined to the more Socialistic thought of equality for all in wealth, education, sustenance, etc., no matter what the circumstances. Their primary goal is no longer for a colorblind society, but for special benefits based on color of skin. “Leaders” such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, Kweisi Mfume, etc., cannot afford to be judged by the content of their character (Sowell). This is where the fundamentalist movement differed from the civil rights movement, they believe in a more capitalistic view; though you should “give to the poor (KJ version)” one should adhere to “that if any would not work, neither should he eat (NI).” Thus in the late sixties, the two went there separate ways. In the same way, racism was devastated by this affect. Since the Democratic Party took in the civil rights movement and the Republicans the fundamentalist movement, the racist movement had nowhere to go. The Democratic Party was the home of the racist, so most left before they had to put up with anyone from the civil rights movement (though the Democratic Party is home to the last ex-Ku Klux Klan leader, Senator Robert Bird). In order to get into the Republican Party, the racist had to recant any racism. A perfect example of this is David Duke; he never recanted and never was voted in a Republican office.

I started a “thread”, that is a conversation on the web about the question of why blacks tend to vote Democrat. One “blogger”, or web logger, wrote:

To: celmak (my user name)

There's two reasons in play that ultimately converge. Historically, knowledge, wisdom, information and trust all came from the pulpit in the black community. In many ways, that trust (sic) in the man in the pulpit remains. Enter the charlatans that we "know and love" -- Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Kweisi Mfume and others. The fact that most (if not all) of the so-called leadership are ministers is not a coincidence. Those individuals took advantage of their trusted station to paint the "distinguished opposition" as evil, mean, heartless, and all sorts of other words. That made it very easy to paint those blacks who dared to step outside the box that the charlatans paint as "uncle toms," "oreos," "lawn jockeys," and worse names. It helps to marginalize any and everyone on the right. Conversely, there is a historical split from the early 20th Century: Booker T. Washington encouraged a doctrine of "doing for one's self" and "picking one's self up by their own bootstraps." W.E.B. DuBois, pushed the idea of a "talented ten percent" taking the "lead" to go forward and pull the remainder of society behind. I'm sure you can guess which side won. DuBois used that concept with the formative years of the NAACP, and his followers embraced the mindset. The single largest fallacy of that mindset is that the masses, i.e., those of us great unwashed who aren't part of the "talented tenth" are far smarter and more resourceful than many believe. We are those who Washington felt would rise to lead not only blacks in America, but to stand hand in hand with everyone to help lead America as a whole. We are there; we are rising. It isn't an instant process -- God knows that I wish it were, but it isn't. But as more of us leave the plantation of the "talented tenth," we begin to step beyond the liberal mindset and the Democratic party. And thank God for that! (King)

I have a theory that compliments the above paragraph. During the early 1800’s, whites in the South, by a wide majority, were Democrat. In the same way that black Democratic’s thinking is today, whites in the South, at that time, thought that menial work was “slave” work. Though there were not as many, if any, handouts from the government at the time, whites saw Republicans as caring only for northerners and taking away any handouts they would receive from the southern Democrats. Today, peers, public schools, white elites, and black “leaders” indoctrinate that, because they were slaves once, they cannot achieve anything higher than menial work. Besides, any menial work is “slave” work, and those that do better are winners of life’s lottery. Blacks are stuck in this rut of not accepting ground level jobs, which eventually lead to higher paying jobs (I know, I’m in one), but are addicted to the government handout. Add the two theories of M. H. King and I and the resulting dilemma of black liberals makes more sense.

From the sixties, there has been a rewriting of history, truth mixed with extreme amounts of sophistry. Though Goldwater, (Rep) voted against the Civil Rights Act of ’64, if it were not for Republicans in the Senate fighting against the filibuster of two Democrat Senators, Sen. Gore (Father of Al Gore) from Tennessee and Sen. J. William Fulbright from Arkansas (President Clinton’s mentor) the Act would not have past (Ratlief). Many of today’s re-writers associate the demonizing of welfare and the taking away of quotas in affirmative action programs as racist, but this does not meet an analytical challenge (Myth). Many Liberal Democrats associate Christians and republicans as far rightist as Nazis. This could be a reason why Jews of the U.S. vote mostly Democrat, but the Christians of the U.S. were fleeing their own persecution. Christians here have more in common with Jews here, but the mindset of the persecution of European Christians is deeply ingrained in Jewish history. Two contradictions here: first is the association of Nazis and Conservatives; the Nazis stood for “National Socialist Party” (Prager). The second is that throughout American history, the Democratic Party has stood for the oppression of blacks (Rice) (Perryman).

Though the civil rights movement has made progress in law and the acknowledgment that a people and a culture are citizens in their respective communities, racism against blacks still exist. It has grown in places and by suspects you would not associate racism with. Any blacks of prominence in the Republican Party have, in the recent past, gone through bigoted and racist punishment. The following cartoons are an example of Liberal racism: (Limbaugh)

(Cartoons were to be added here, but I don't know how as yet)

It’s too easy to quote hateful remarks from Liberals on radio and from websites (just type in “party of racism” on the Yahoo search engine), so I stay with the major forces of the cavil rights movement. So much emphases was placed on the shoulders of the Democratic Party to change from the time it was the Party of slaveholders. It appears that the civil rights movement has not cut out all its tumor of low expectations of “inferior” races, racism, and bigotry. Just small examples, from Condileeza Rice PhD, Secretary of State, being called a monkey and “house nigger” to Colin Powell a “slave”, from Senator Chris Dodd stating that Senator Byrd, Virginia, ex-KKK member, “would have been right during the great conflict of Civil War in this nation” to Supreme Court Justice Thomas being called an “embarrassment” By Senator Harry Raid, Minority Leader, while calling Justice Scalia “one smart guy”, show how racism and bigotry is still a Democratic and Liberal problem (Harwood). (Campbell) (Sullivan)(UPI)(US).

Racism has been about color, any color distrusting of another color, though the bitterest racism between any two has been between black and white. Civil Rightists and Fundamentalists have made great strides in eliminating racist laws. Churches today do the most to bring the races together because they speak to the hearts of men. The civil rights movement went the way of secularism after the sixties. The Democratic Party was, and still is, racist and bigoted at heart, while Republicans have been labeled as such.

The greatest racism was felt in the South between Whites and Blacks after Reconstruction. At this time, Biblical Fundamentalism was on the fringes. Not until The Reverend King’s message of Biblical Hope was there any great stride in reconciling the races. After his assassination, the spark of hope he left nearly died, until a surge in Fundamentalism arose in the South and the rest of this country. Adherence and application of Biblical principles by Fundamentalists in the 60’s, whether for justification or for the Lord’s glory, helped better relations between the races, and civil rights. The walls of race, color, and unjustified prejudice fall when you become a Believer, as well as the growth of hope and peace. What is left is only the difference between the Believer and nonbelievers.

Works Cited

Campbell, Dennis. "Don't vote for the Party of Racism." ChronWatch. Aug. 1, 2004.

Christian to the Core Liberty Online. March, April 2000.

Harwood, Anthony. "The World's Most Powerful Woman." Mirror.co.uk. Nov 23, 2004.

Hill, Sam. "Fundamentalism in Recent Southern Culture: Has it Done What the Civil Rights Movement Couldn't Do?" The Journal of Southern Religion. 1998

Jim Crow Law. Wikipedidia. Dec. 14, 2005.

King, Jr., Martin Luther. "I Have A Dream." American Rhetoric. Aug. 28, 1963.

King, M H. "Why are Blacks Democrats? - Post# 42." Free Republic. Dec. 13,2005

Ku Klux Klan. Wikipedidia. Dec 15 2005.

Limbaugh, Rush. "Liberal Racist Cartoons." RushLimbaugh.com. Nov. 17, 2004.

Myth of the Racist Republicans, The. Claremont Review of Books. Spring, 2004

Nathan Bedford Forrest. Wikipedidia. Dec. 13,2005.

Oliphant, Pat. "The Most Offensive Racist Published in Major US Daily in 40 Years." American Digest. Nov. 16, 2004

Perryman, Rev. Wayne. "from the office of Rev. Wayne Perryman" April 5, 2004

(Don't know how to do links either, but I'm sure everyone can Google these.) Let me know what you think. I received an A by the proffesor(from Berzurkely), for those who did not think I would do well