Free Republic

The recent spate of protests against police brutality have changed the way the left thinks about rioting. The old liberal idea, which distinguished between peaceful protests (good) and rioting (bad), has given way to a more radical analysis. “Riots work,” insists George Ciccariello-Maher in Salon. “But despite the obviousness of the point, an entire chorus of media, police, and self-appointed community leaders continue to try to convince us otherwise, hammering into our heads a narrative of a nonviolence that has never worked on its own, based on a mythical understanding of the Civil Rights Movement.” Vox’s German Lopez, while acknowledging...

A fiery, old-school eulogist at the funeral of Aretha Franklin fell flat for many in the crowd and prompted a social media uproar when he declared "black America has lost its soul," black women are incapable of raising sons alone and the Black Lives Matter movement is unfounded in the face of black-on-black crime. And that was just 26 minutes into the nearly 50 minutes of words provided by the Rev. Jasper Williams Jr. of Salem Baptist Church in Atlanta as Franklin's marathon funeral wound down Friday. Williams, who also eulogized Franklin's father, minister and civil rights activist C.L. Franklin,...

Hey, you devoted Trump fans out there. Guess what? — you’re just a bunch of unreconstructed racists! That was how David Cay Johnston, a guest on Joy Reid’s MSNBC show this morning, portrayed the people who will stick with Trump through thick and thin. Said Johnston: “Even if the worst possible thing could happen, that Robert Mueller proves that Donald Trump is a traitor, you’re going to see a segment of the population supporting him for an entirely different reason. Unfortunately, there are people in this country who hate the civil rights movement. And those people are going to be...

On Thursday, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) told the media that he questions whether Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (DS-Vt.) was as involved in the civil rights movement as he has said he was. As noted by CNN, Sanders on multiple occasions has talked about his past as an activist during the civil rights movement in the 1960s at the University of Chicago. Sanders repeatedly mentions his work with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. ...

Editor's note: To accurately portray the subject of this article and his critics, offensive language is quoted. (CNN) -- He is the leader of "America's most hated family," a gaunt, craggy-faced preacher who displays "God Hates Fags" signs at the funerals of American troops, gay men and AIDS victims. For at least 12 years, the Rev. Fred Phelps has led his Topeka, Kansas, church on a cross-country crusade against gays and lesbians. That crusade ignited a legal battle that has reached the U.S. Supreme Court. But there is another Phelps that few know. He was a "brilliant" civil rights attorney...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/statement-president-obama-45th-anniversary-march-selma-montgomery Home • Briefing Room • Statements & Releases The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release March 07, 2010 Statement by President Obama on the 45th Anniversary of the March from Selma-to-Montgomery On this day, 45 years ago, hundreds of brave men and women gathered in the small town of Selma, Alabama to announce to the world that they, too, sang America. As they marched from Selma to Montgomery, fully aware of the danger that lay ahead, these heroes let their feet speak in a way that their voices...

Tasting gun of FBI 'rat,' Mississippi Klansman revealed graves of 3 -- NEW YORK -- The FBI used underworld ties to solve the 1964 disappearance of three civil rights volunteers in Mississippi, a gangster's ex-girlfriend testified Monday, becoming the first witness to repeat in open court a story that's been underworld lore for years. Linda Schiro said that her boyfriend, Mafia tough guy Gregory Scarpa Sr., was recruited by the FBI to help find the volunteers' bodies. She said Scarpa later told her he put a gun in a Ku Klux Klansman's mouth and forced him to reveal the location...

http://dan-smoot.blogspot.com/ DAN SMOOT: "Conspiracy Expert" ? It probably is not much of an exaggeration to observe that, eventually, every right-wing conspiracy proponent gets around to quoting Dan Smoot as an expert witness about matters pertaining to the "Master Conspiracy" operating in the United States. Many conspiracy authors cite Dan's 1962 book, The Invisible Government, for its unique insights based upon his "inside knowledge" as a former FBI Special Agent. In late 1993 I read Dan's autobiography entitled People Along The Way. I was curious about Dan's explanation for why he decided to leave the FBI (pages 181-184 of his...