AZProgressive
AZProgressive's JournalHalf a Century Before Colin Kaepernick, Jackie Robinson Said, 'I Cannot Stand and Sing the Anthem.'
A segregationist senator tried to use Robinson to destroy Paul Robeson. Instead, Robinson called out racism.
By Peter Dreier
Seventy years ago today—on July 18, 1949—right-wing and segregationist members of Congress orchestrated a confrontation between the two most well-known and admired African Americans in the country: Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson. The media salivated at the opportunity to portray the clash of these larger-than-life titans as a surrogate for the Cold War between capitalism and communism.
A few weeks earlier, Robinson—who had integrated Major League Baseball when he signed with the Dodgers in 1947—received a telegram from Congressman John Wood (D- GA), an arch segregationist and former Ku Klux Klan member, who chaired the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). He invited Robinson to address a hearing on “Communist infiltration of minority groups.”
Specifically, he wanted Robinson to attack Robeson for being a disloyal American and Communist agitator who didn’t speak for black people.
The pretext for the hearing was a statement that Robeson had made that April at a left-wing conference in Paris. The media ignored Robeson’s main point—that most Americans, including blacks, did not want to go to war with the Soviet Union. Instead, most news outlets used the Associated Press report, which quoted Robeson saying that if a war broke out between the United States and Russia, “It is unthinkable that American Negroes would go to war on behalf of those who have oppressed us for generations against a country which in one generation has raised our people to the full dignity of mankind.”
https://www.thenation.com/article/huac-jackie-robinson-paul-robeson/
Greg Stanton is for impeachment
From an email from Greg Stanton
Thank you for contacting me to share your thoughts about impeachment. Like you, this is an issue I take very seriously.
I believe it is time for the House of Representatives to move to the next stages of holding the President accountable, including the extraordinary step of opening an impeachment inquiry.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller's redacted report detailed Russia's sweeping attack on America's democracy. Yet the President has refused to defend our nation and his inaction leaves us vulnerable to further attack. I am disappointed that, to this day, the President accepts Russian President Vladimir Putin's denials of interference at face value. The Special Counsel also uncovered significant evidence that the President obstructed justice but, as he explained during his July 24 testimony before the House Judiciary Committee - of which I am a member - he was prohibited by Department of Justice policy from filing charges. If the evidence the Special Counsel discovered is accurate, I believe it surpasses the Constitutional threshold of high crimes and misdemeanors.
Since the release of the Special Counsel's report, the President and his Administration have sought to undermine the checks and balances that are the foundation of our democracy. The President defied lawful requests from Congress and attempted to exempt himself and his Administration from oversight by claiming an extraordinary and overly-broad interpretation of executive privilege, an interpretation that no court has recognized. No person is above the law, and the situation we find ourselves in is solely a result of the President's own actions.
I accept that this conclusion will be unpopular with some, but it is the right thing to do. I swore an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies - foreign and domestic - and Congress must now use all means necessary to protect it and the rule of law.
I appreciate you taking the time to share your views on this matter. If you would like to know more about the work I'm doing in Congress to make a positive difference for Arizona, please visit my website and sign up for my newsletter at stanton.house.gov.
Sincerely,
Greg Stanton Signature.
Greg Stanton
Member of Congress
Kaepernick releases powerful video on police killings to mark anthem protest anniversary
Kaepernick asks: ‘How can you stand for the national anthem of a nation … that is so unjust to many of the people living in it?’
Three years to the day since he first began his protest against racist police violence, Colin Kaepernick has posted a stirring and emotional video to remind us that the fight is far from over.
https://twitter.com/Kaepernick7/status/1161758390999298049
(snip)
In the video, which features graphic footage of a number of high-profile police killings, Kaepernick asks: “How can you stand for the national anthem of a nation that preaches and propagates freedom and justice for all, that is so unjust to many of the people living in it?”
Also appearing in the video are family members of people who have been killed by police, including Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile.
“Basically, he took a knee for all these families that are out here today for freedom,” says Felicia Thomas, mother of Nicholas Thomas, who was killed by police in 2015.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/aug/15/colin-kaepernick-take-a-knee-police-killing-video-protest-anniversary?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Facebook&fbclid=IwAR3iH5GLFyTzmH5ZRHwHJkSF_w9bUtx-YIzC2rpraOKwzC5I8lCN7tuhH1g
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