Letter to Senator Dole from the Council of 100 regarding Republican approach to Civil Rights for African Americans

Item

Other Media

lead_049_010_001_tr.txt

Transcription (Scripto)

Read Full Text Only (TXT)

Extent (Dublin Core)

5 Pages

File Name (Dublin Core)

lead_049_010_001

Title (Dublin Core)

Letter to Senator Dole from the Council of 100 regarding Republican approach to Civil Rights for African Americans

Description (Dublin Core)

A letter from the Council of 100 to Senator Dole along with their notes they included from the meeting they had with him on Republicans' approach to civil rights legislation.

Date (Dublin Core)

1993-06-30

Date Created (Dublin Core)

1993-06-30

Congress (Dublin Core)

103rd (1993-1995)

Policy Area (Curation)

Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues

Creator (Dublin Core)

Educational Council of 100, Inc.

Record Type (Dublin Core)

correspondence

Names (Dublin Core)

See all items with this valueDole, Robert J., 1923-2021

Rights (Dublin Core)

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

Language (Dublin Core)

eng

Collection Finding Aid (Dublin Core)

https://dolearchivecollections.ku.edu/index.php?p=collections/findingaid&id=26&q=

Physical Location (Dublin Core)

Collection 007, Box 49, Folder 10

Institution (Dublin Core)

Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS

Archival Collection (Dublin Core)

Robert J. Dole Republican Leadership Collection, 1985-1996

Full Text (Extract Text)

COUNCIL of 100

1129-20th St., N.W, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20036
Phone 202.775-5496 FAX 202.383-2904

Chairman Milton Bins
Founder Samuel C. Jackson

June 30, 1993

The Honorable Robert Dole
Minority Leader
United States Senate
The Capitol, Suite S-230
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Dole:

Enclosed are the Council of 100's notes from the breakfast meeting you convened on June 22. There was a clear consensus among the participants that the civil rights agenda must move beyond enforcement matters to address African Americans's vital interest in economic and political empowerment by focusing on traditional Republican policies of entrepreneurial growth, job creation in the private sector, respect for law and order, limited government and individual responsibility.
Over the course of the next year we have a window of opportunity to take our message directly to targeted African American voters who are searching for alternatives to tax-and-spend politicians and policies. It is crucial that we seize this opportunity, as well as respond to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Shaw v. Reno concerning majority-minority districts. Republican senators should bring to the ensuing debate over appropriate remedies to address minority enfranchisement the same leadership that was exercised to secure passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Failure to enter the debate runs the risk of increasing racial polarization and diverting attention from the real impediment to minority political impact and leverage in the governing coalition at all levels of government: unaccountable and ineffective representation exacerbated by the very race-based reapportionment plans that have led to the increase in black elected officials.
Faye Anderson will follow up with Dennis Shea to explore vehicles by which to continue the dialogue. We look forward to working with you.

Sincerely, (signature) Milton Bins Chairman

Enclosure
(Image: Republican elephant logo)


(page 2)
On Tuesday, June 22, Senator Bob Dole convened a breakfast meeting (see attached list of attendees) to discuss "new perspectives on civil rights." After stating that the purpose of the meeting was to begin the process of redefining civil rights within the framework of Republican principles and ideas, Senator Dole opened the meeting up for discussion.

BOB WOODSON
- Affirmative action is as important to African Americans as, e.g., Israel is to Jewish Americans, yet it remains a divisive issue which has been used as a wedge issue in political campaigns. The Party can reestablish its credibility to address legitimate racial issues by being out front in defusing this issue. It should redefine affirmative action away from race and enforcement of civil rights laws: The operative criterion should be who receives assistance with one's social and economic status being the determinant factors rather than race.
- We should stop "lying" to African Americans that all of us are in bad shape and redefine civil rights to include those who are most vulnerable, those who have been locked out.
- The Party should undertake actions that demonstrate how it feels about poor people, emphasizing programs and policies that work.
- The National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise is instituting a nationwide educational voucher program for inner city students.

MILTON BINS
- The Party has historically been in the vanguard on human rights, freedom and liberty in this country, and it must again seize that leadership role.
- The Party has an historic opportunity to regain black support; such support is crucial if we are to excise the scourge of race-baiting from the body politic.
- Our focus should be on the middle and upper class, particularly those voters under age 40 who are in the private sector, and who are not linked to the Democratic Party. We should stress economic empowerment and education issues.
- While there is no need for new civil rights legislation, nondiscrimination regulations need to be fully enforced, particularly those impacting access to loans, working capital for small businesses and, in general, equal opportunity.

1


(page 3)
- The Party has not exploited its past support of civil rights legislation, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as well as its leadership role in strengthening historically black colleges and universities (the bailout of Meharry Medical College and Fisk University).

REV. JAMES PRICE
- The Party should not shrink from moral/social issues, such as gay rights and the so-called rainbow curriculum
- Black youth have lost sight of where their interest is in the system. We must challenge young blacks to operate within the system to make it work for them.
- Critical that we empower young people by promoting entrepreneurship; our youth want a hand up, not a handout.
- The Party needs to improve its communications and take its message directly to African Americans.

JACKIE CISSEL
- The Black Family Forum plans to picket the national convention of the NAACP, to be held in Indianapolis, in protest of the national board's resolution in support of the 1993 gay rights march.
- The "old guard" has lost their effectiveness and credibility, African Americans must vote their interests rather than party allegiance, and hold elected officials accountable.
- Seventy-three percent of African Americans do not vote; must educate African Americans to vote responsibility, that is, vote for those candidates who will best represent their interests.

JOE CLARK
- African Americans are not monolithic; affirmative action remedies should be class- or economic-based, rather than race-based.
- The phenomenon of African American students voluntarily segregating themselves on majority campuses is attributable to the failure of college presidents and administrators to exercise leadership and instead have allowed "political correctness" to run amok; white administrators and judges have established "double standards" for white and black students.

2


(page 4)
JOSHUA SMITH
- The issue is economics: job creation and access to capital where we live; economic rights equal civil rights.
- The Party needs to aggressively support African American entrepreneurial growth as it did in 1968 with Richard Nixon's campaign of "black capitalism," an issue that Democrats talk about but can't pull it off.
- The Party should be about real progress, real issues.
- Republicans need to emphasize that we are the Party of opportunity. The challenges facing the African American community can best be addressed by strengthening capitalism and promoting free-market solutions in our communities.

STAR PARKER
- Disappointed with the Party's response to the Los Angeles riots of 1992.
- Employers cannot afford to create jobs due to federally-imposed mandates.
- Need to promote programs that foster entrepreneurial development and growth of minority-owed businesses because these are the businesses that will hire inner city youth.
- The lack of access to capital is a real impediment to business growth.

CHIEF REUBEN GREENBERG
- The impact of crime in the African American community has been devastating.
- Crime is a civil rights issue but the focus should shift away from the rights of criminals to victims's rights.
- There has been a failure of leadership in not acknowledging the impact of high rates of crime on our communities's capacity to keep and attract businesses that will create jobs.
- Asian American businesses attest to the entrepreneurial opportunities available in African American communities; still, lack of access to capital is an impediment to black entrepreneurship.

3


(page 5)
- Need to hold our elected and appointed officials accountable, as well as instill a sense of personal responsibility for our self-destructive behavior.

EMANUEL McLITTLE
- Liberals have done a good job in getting their message out; we need to communicate the message that it's okay for African Americans to think differently.

TONY BROWN
- Congratulated the Senators for derailing President Clinton's so-called stimulus package.
- The Party should be vigilant and counter the President's mantra of "12 years of neglect" to obfuscate Democratic elected officials's failure of leadership.
- Republicans should resist attempts to characterize the deficit as a Republican deficit; the debt and deficit are bipartisan and date back to LBJ (Lyndon B. Johnson). While there is much discussion about deficit reduction, no one is discussing the national debt, and that if the Clinton budget is passed the national debt will increase $1.5 trillion in five years.
- The Party needs to be honest because there is nothing the government can do about many of the issues raised today, e.g., black-on-black crime, homicides, lack of entrepreneurial spirit, and say to African Americans, "That's your job. We can't do those things for you."
- The Party can pursue one of two agendas: The Party can make the President look bad and win back the White House by perhaps resurrecting the discredited southern strategy. Or, the Party can improve the quality of life for all Americans by focusing on a needs-based agenda for all Americans.
- President Clinton has given the Party a tremendous opportunity in clearly distinguishing Republicanism from Democratism. The Party needs to take advantage of this opportunity and reach out to targeted black voters by adopting a strategy that appeals to black voters's special interests, just as the Party does when it targets other voter groups by appealing to their special interests. A strategy that goes after the "black vote" without appealing to those voters's priority issues is a flawed strategy.
- The Party can get 20 to 30 percent black support among those voters who, although not self-identified as Republican, are essentially conservative, do not believe in over regulation, but feel they have no where else to go.

4