Obama's References to His Party's Racist Past

President Barack Obama is one of the only black elected officials and one of the only black leaders in modern-day history - who has openly discussed how badly Democrats have treated black voters and he does so in his book: Dreams From My Father. The book highlights a conversation where black Democrats referred to their relationship with the Democratic Party as Plantation Politics. (p. 147). Obama reports that during this conversation blacks in the barber shop asked themselves, why do they keep voting Democrat when blacks have the worst jobs, the worst housing, Police brutality rampant, and we all line up and vote the straight Democratic ticket. Sell our soul for a Christmas Turkey. White folks spitting in our faces and we'd reward them with the vote. Obama also states in his book that some white Democrats said they would vote Republican before voting for a black [Democrat] to be mayor of Chicago. (p. 148) During Obama's Victory Speech on November 5, 2008 he talked about Ann Nixon Cooper, a black woman who could not vote because of his party's voting policies in the South and during that same speech he referred to the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, the bridge in Selma and the preacher from Atlanta, - all racist situations that occurred in areas where Democrat elected officials were in control. He also talked about his party's racist past during his March 18, 2008 speech regarding Rev. Wright. The then Senator Obama said, so many of the disparities that exist in the African American community today can be traced directly to the inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the [Democrat's] brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow. Obama, a student of history knew that his party made the following statements in several of their national platforms:

DEMOCRATS' 1844 PLATFORM for SLAVERY All efforts by the abolitionist and others made to induce Congress to interfere with questions of slavery... are calculated to lead to the most alarming and dangerous consequences.... DEMOCRATS' 1852 PLATFORM for SLAVERY The Democratic Party standing on this national platform will abide by and adhere to a faithful execution of the acts [meaning Fugitive Slave Laws]... for reclaiming fugitives.... The Democratic Party will resist all attempts at renewing in Congress or out of it, the agitation of the slavery question, under whatever shape or color the attempt is made.
Not one Democrat voted for the 13 th Amendment to end slavery and as a party, Democrats did not vote to pass the 14th Amendment to make blacks citizens nor did they support the 15 th Amendment to give blacks the right to vote. Obama is one of the only black leaders who have acknowledge these wrongs by his party. so with this lawsuit we are simply asking: based on what he knows about his party's racist past and how they have treated black folks, why is he and the leaders of his party reluctant to issue a public apology?

Rev. Wayne Perryman