John Lewis was as courageous as anyone could ever hope to be
In the summer of 1966, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Congress for Racial Equality recruited white students from northern states to help southern blacks register to vote. They chose to focus their campaign in Mississippi, a bastion of segregation, where southern bigotry was as obdurately defiant as had been the Confederate defenders. Three white kids from the North were kidnapped and murdered by Ku Klux Klan terrorists. Even the goal of integration was cast aside by some, and in its place the surer appeal of an easier pride, black separatism, rose to claim popular support. John Lewis was one of the bravest of those who stayed true to the faith. They couldn't scare the courage out of him. They couldn't beat it out of him, either. Writing in The Washington Post, Lewis remembered, "A young man named Jimmy Lee was shot in the stomach when he stepped in to protect his grandfather. He died from his wounds several days later. The plan to march from Selma to Montgomery was our response.
Source: Why Courage Matters, p. 96 Apr 1, 2004
******Fear did not restrain Dr. King to resist repression**********
Better to suffer for a good cause than live safely without one. Dr. King's cause was the dignity of his race and the full realization of America's founding values. He is, rightly, held up as an exemplar of moral courage. He was a believer in nonviolence who had courage of conscience, the courage to resist repression, to live his moral code. He was murdered for his willingness to act on his beliefs, a fate many of his admirers believe he anticipated and must have feared. Yet fear did not restrain him.
Source: Why Courage Matters, p. 91 Apr 1, 2004
********Inter-racial dating ban is idiotic and cruel********
KEYES [to McCain]: What votes have [you] been willing to risk to stand for any principle [such as opposing the ban on inter-racial dating at Bob Jones University]?
McCAIN: Well Alan, I’ve taken a few risks in my life and I’m proud of those risks. Some of them are the proudest points of my life.
I was not invited to attend Bob Jones. I understand that it’s a fine academic school. If I had been invited, I would have gone and I would’ve started by saying, as I have gone to other places that people are not in favor of me, and I would have said: Look, what you’re doing, in this ban on interracial dating, is stupid, it’s idiotic and it is incredibly cruel to many people. I also happen to have an adopted daughter who’s from Bangladesh. And I don’t think that she should be subjected to those kinds of things. In fact, I will stand up and fight against those. You’ve got to bring the message to get these people in to the modern times.
Source: GOP Debate on the Larry King Show Feb 15, 2000
Source: Boston Globe, p. A27 Jan 28, 2000
****John McCain Interviewed by Tavis Smiley about Race******
**Draft Michael Steele for Vice President: Sign the Petition****
This is a grassroots movement started by HipHopRepublican.com to convince Sen.John McCain to pick Michael S. Steele who at present is the chairman of GOPAC and a former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland,to the VP position. Having been elected on the same ticket as Governor Robert L. Ehrlich in 2002. He is the first African American to serve in a Maryland state-wide office and the first Republican lieutenant governor in the state since the position was created in 1970.
