Civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson built a memorial and museum in Montgomery, Alabama that names some of the over 4,000 lynching victims in America: CNN

Guest Column –
By James Rhodes –

It is evident that some news readers are confused and baffled by the actions of many Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate, as their policy positions do not line-up with long standing Republican principles.

I resided in Alabama when being a Republican was not only rare, but an actual threat to one’s life. After all it was the so-called Grand Old Party (GOP) that was against “state’s rights” (segregation) and had fought against our way of life (plantation slavery) during the Civil War. It was their leader, Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves with his Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, and who pushed the 13th Amendment through Congress, which abolished slavery.

I also saw the NAACP begin to take root and talk about things such as “equality,” “human rights,” and the “dignity of all human beings.” From our state and federal Democratic leadership, reinforced by conservative fundamentalist Christian dogma — as well as state educational curriculums — we were brainwashed into believing that not only was such rhetoric foolish but Communist inspired. We had no idea what Communism was. We just knew it was bad and anti-American and anti-Christian.

I saw first hand the effects of mis-information and lies presented as facts as well as the effect it had on a society, state and region.

Then the Johnson civil rights era came along and federal legislation opposed to Jim Crow laws, otherwise known as Southern apartheid, and civil rights and voting rights became the law of the land over the opposition of the Republican Party. I saw with my own eyes, overnight, in a twinkling of an eye the “Solid South” abandoned it’s Democratic roots and became Republican. Johnson predicted it would happen and it did.

Now it was the Republican Party that was the new champion of “state’s rights” (separate but equal) and would fight to maintain “patriotism” and “religious values” (white supremacy). White Citizens Councils sprung up in every major city to combat this malignant Communist attack on America, even advocating death to anyone associated with this “illegitimate” movement. It sadly happened too frequently by those who would become what they thought was a “warrior of god.” Lynchings were the order of the day, and white juries would never convict the guilty.

From Christian pulpits I learned that the white race was created by God Himself. Yet somehow the black race had evolved through the line of apes as Charles Darwin indicated, allowing the belief that African Americans were subhuman, along with the Jews. Scholars have written about this as “social Darwinism” or even “eugenics,” a discredited line of pseudo-science that justified discrimination based on a false theory of whites as a superior race.

We even fought two world wars to combat a fascism that pushed this fiction, but in recent years, people have forgotten that.

Plus, it was taught that God Himself punished and cursed Cain by turning his skin black (a misrepresentation of the actual Biblical scripture but we were taught never to question authority figures.) On a parallel journey was Eve, the “cause” of original sin and the downfall of man — had she not only remained in her predestined subservient position, the world would be better off.

So what I experienced on a religious level, reinforced by state and federal politicians, with the support of the educational system and existing state law, were two serious villains: non-whites, especially blacks; and women who did not know their place.

When Jeff Sessions left the senate to assume a position in the Trump administration, his senate seat was filled by Birmingham Democrat Doug Jones, mainly because his Republican opponent was an alleged child molester and maybe even a pedophile, never mind the Qanon theory that Democrats are devil worshiping pedophiles.

Jones was narrowly elected because many registered Republicans simply did not vote. Of the Republicans who did vote the party line, they defended Judge Roy Moore’s “dating” of minors, some of whom actually appeared in his court, utilizing three serious justifications: (1) NO woman should ever be allowed to cost a decent man his job, (2) “Mary (mother of Jesus) was only 12 when she married” so basically what’s the harm? (This I am sure is another misrepresentation of scripture) and lastly (3) Jones is a “Negro” lover — it was Jones who prosecuted KKK members in Alabama, including those accused of murdering black residents.

Jones is a decent man worthy of reelection, but we knew this would never happen as Tuberville’s winning campaign slogans were: “Jones does not represent our values (white supremacy)” and “He (Jones) is not one of us” (racist).

Tuberville and Sessions supported the Trump position of separating children from their parents at the Southern border and locking them in cages, justifying their blatant racism with a Bible and an American flag. They opposed the expansion of Medicare in Alabama because it would take “white money” and divert it to “blacks” who were not deserving, forgetting there are many poor whites in Alabama as well. But they have been successful in keeping the two groups (poor whites and poor blacks) opposed to each other.

When it became apparent that Joe Biden would be the next president, I was shocked to hear of the vocal concerns in Alabama about his health and well being; but I should have known better. Perhaps it was best summed up by this statement: “I just hope Mr. Biden can live long enough to serve out his term of office. Can you possibly imagine having a ‘Negro’ woman as our president?”

And there you have it, the basis, I firmly believe, of the Republican opposition to our democratic process. It’s not so much the fear of a President Biden, but the possibility of a President Kamala Harris — racism fueled by religion, political leaders, and voter suppression supported by a partisan judiciary.

God save the United States of America from such ignorance.

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James Rhodes, a long time resident of Birmingham, Alabama who recently moved to California, was a combat veteran in Vietnam who later served as a U.S. State Department Fulbright educational specialist to Vietnam, teaching English and mass media skills, under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of State John Kerry. He says he belongs to no political party.