Jackie Robinson, Barry Goldwater, the 1964 GOP Convention and the Beginning of MAGA

The Dirty Little Secret Republicans Don’t Acknowledge

Sometimes people wonder how the Republican Party devolved to the point that it became a proto-Fascist Party unrelated to the Party of Lincoln. It was 1964, and in San Francisco’s Cow Palace, the Republican Party turned its back on Lincoln.

Now it is true that after Ulysses Grant’s Presidency, the GOP abandoned civil rights protection and became the party of the Robber Barons. Of course, Teddy Roosevelt repudiated the Robber Barons and was progressive except regarding race and civil rights. Dwight Eisenhower took action to enforce Supreme Court Rulings after Brown v. Board of Education, and was as progressive in many ways as Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman.

In 1964 the GOP turned South and, in nominating Barry Goldwater shook off moderation, leading to its defeat. But it was Richard Nixon who took advantage of the Southern Strategy 1968 to continue the transformation of the GOP into a party dominated by un-reconstructed Southerners and Christian conservatives. After Nixon, the party's takeover continued under slightly less obvious means under Ronald Reagan and both George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. But even more pivotal was the speakership of Newt Gingrich beginning in 1994, the nomination of Sarah Palin as the 2008 Vice Presidential candidate, the Tea Party, and the Freedom Caucus that repudiated the last nominal moderates and cemented the power of the hard-line, uncompromising, Christian Nationalists who later supported Trump and became MAGA.

Some trace the beginning of the GOP's regression into reactionary authoritarianism to Trump, occasionally to the Tea Party or Gingrich, but that is not the case. Trump satisfied what is called “the Base” was looking for an unapologetic strongman who would “fight for them.”

But the embryo that spawned the Republican MAGA was born at the 1964 GOP National Convention. It was a watershed moment in modern American politics. It was the moment that kickstarted the Republican Party down the path that has led to today. Unsurprisingly, the convention was a direct, primal, racist response to the Civil Rights Movement, the Freedom Summer, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Northern Democrats, as well as some Southern Democrats like President Lyndon Johnson, supported the Civil Rights movement, and Southern Democrats, known as “Dixiecrats” led by Senator Strom Thurmond, abandoned the Democratic Party for the Republicans.

I spent 32 years of my life as a Republican, until I left the Party following a tour in the outer reachers of Iraq’s Al Anbar Province, and the nomination of Sarah Palin. During my time as a Republican, I repeated the argument that the GOP that helped pass the Voter’s Rights Act of 1964 and Civil Rights Act of 1965, as I slammed to “racist” Democrats who opposed them. While it is true that most Republicans voted for both the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, there was a notable exception, Barry Goldwater, who became the nominee. But, the part of the story that isn’t told is that Republicans that voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 were considered “liberals” and treated shamefully at the convention, whose delegates voted down the measure in the Party platform supporting the Civil and Voting Rights Acts.

Of the Democrats that voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, almost all came from the Deep South, a region which within a decade become a Republican stronghold. It became a key part of the Southern Strategy of every GOP Presidential Candidate since Richard Nixon. A Republican aide at the 1964 convention told a reporter that “the nigger issue was sure to put Goldwater in the White House.” (See Freedom Summer by Bruce Watson p.163)

The ugliness of the racism displayed in San Francisco by the GOP rank and file was demonstrated in how they treated baseball icon, and civil rights pioneer, Jackie Robinson, who was a delegate invited by the moderate Governor of New York, and candidate for the nomination, Nelson Rockefeller.

Though the events happened some fifty-nine years ago, they are not ancient history. The spirit and ideology that characterized them is all too present today, especially in the MAGA Republican Party, not just Trump.

Jackie Robinson was an American sports hero and cultural icon. He was an amazing athlete who served as an Army Officer in the Second World War. His military career was cut short by a bus driver who ordered him to the back of the bus. As an officer he refused, for which he was tried by what amounted to a drumhead Court Martial, however he was acquitted, and missed seeing action in the war. Robinson remembered his defense attorney’s closing argument.

“My lawyer summed up the case beautifully by telling the board that this was not a case involving any violation of the Articles of War, or even of military tradition, but simply a situation in which a few individuals sought to vent their bigotry on a Negro they considered ‘uppity’ because he had the audacity to exercise rights that belonged to him as an American and a soldier.”

Twenty years later, Robinson, who became a Republican because of the racist attitudes of many Democrats, was a supporter of the progressive Republican Governor or New York, Nelson Rockefeller. When he arrived at the convention as Rockefeller’s guest, he was confronted with the most vile and racist behavior by the GOP delegates imaginable. He wrote:

“A new breed of Republicans had taken over the GOP. As I watched this steamroller operation in San Francisco, I had a better understanding of how it must have felt to be a Jew in Hitler’s Germany.” Jackie Robinson on his observations of the 1964 Republican National Convention.”

Robinson was appointed as a special delegate to New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller who was running against Goldwater and attended the convention. He had given up his job as a spokesman for and Vice President of the Chock Full O’Nuts Coffee Company to assist Rockefeller’s campaign in 1964.

Robinson knew what it was like to be the “point man” in the integration of baseball and in his career was threatened with physical violence and death on many occasions. Some teammates circulated petitions that they would not play for a team that had a “black” on it. Robinson, encouraged by Rickey persevered and became an icon in baseball, the Civil Rights movement and the history of the United States. However, not even 10 years after his retirement from baseball and 2 years after he was elected to the Hall of Fame he once again discovered just how deep racism still ran in this country. As he attended the convention FBI agents and other Federal authorities attempted to find the bodies of three young Voting Rights staff who were part of the 1964 Freedom Summer campaign in Mississippi. Eventually, later in the summer the bodies of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner would be discovered buried in the base of a dam near Philadelphia Mississippi. Their killers were local law enforcement officers and members of the Ku Klux Klan.

Maybe I lived in my own fantasy world when it came to the Republican Party when I joined it and worked for the Ford campaign before I could vote. My experience growing up was on the West Coast living in a military family in small towns and big cities. I am proud to be part of the first class that attended high school in my home town when the courts ordered desegregation in our schools. That experience at Edison High School of Stockton, California, from 1975-78 changed me, as did having a black roommate in college.

However, that being said it took me a long time to realize that things really haven’t changed that much from 1964 in many parts of the country, especially since I have lived most of my adult live in the historic States that comprised the Confederacy. I can say from practical observation and knowledge that racism and other forms of more acceptable prejudice live on in this country. There is not a day that goes by that I do not run into the vestiges of the hate that lived during the Freedom Summer of 1964. It is more subtle in some cases, but other times is so blatant that is sickening. I never expected that I would ever be called a “nigger lover” or “wigger” until I had people made those comments on my old website in response to articles that had nothing to do with race relations or civil rights, nor did I expect physical threats from people who call themselves “Christian.” Those were learning experiences that I have never forgotten.

Robinson wrote of his experience at the 1964 Convention:

“I wasn’t altogether caught of guard by the victory of the reactionary forces in the Republican party, but I was appalled by the tactics they used to stifle their liberal opposition. I was a special delegate to the convention through an arrangement made by the Rockefeller office. That convention was one of the most unforgettable and frightening experiences of my life. The hatred I saw was unique to me because it was hatred directed against a white man. It embodied a revulsion for all he stood for, including his enlightened attitude toward black people.

A new breed of Republicans had taken over the GOP. As I watched this steamroller operation in San Francisco, I had a better understanding of how it must have felt to be a Jew in Hitler’s Germany.

The same high-handed methods had been there.

The same belief in the superiority of one religious or racial group over another was here. Liberals who fought so hard and so vainly were afraid not only of what would happen to the GOP but of what would happen to America. The Goldwaterites were afraid – afraid not to hew strictly to the line they had been spoon-fed, afraid to listen to logic and reason if it was not in their script.

I will never forget the fantastic scene of Governor Rockefeller’s ordeal as he endured what must have been three minutes of hysterical abuse and booing which interrupted his fighting statement which the convention managers had managed to delay until the wee hours of the morning. Since the telecast was coming from the West Coast, that meant that many people in other sections of the country, because of the time differential, would be in their beds. I don’t think he has ever stood taller than that night when he refused to be silenced until he had had his say.

It was a terrible hour for the relatively few black delegates who were present. Distinguished in their communities, identified with the cause of Republicanism, an extremely unpopular cause among blacks, they had been served notice that the party they had fought for considered them just another bunch of “niggers”. They had no real standing in the convention, no clout. They were unimportant and ignored. One bigot from one of the Deep South states actually threw acid on a black delegate’s suit jacket and burned it. Another one, from the Alabama delegation where I was standing at the time of the Rockefeller speech, turned on me menacingly while I was shouting “C’mon Rocky” as the governor stood his ground. He started up in his seat as if to come after me. His wife grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

“Turn him loose, lady, turn him loose,” I shouted.

I was ready for him. I wanted him badly, but lucki.ly for him, he obeyed his wife…” From Jackie Robinson “I Never Had it Made” Chapter XV On Being Black Among the Republicans.

Belva Davis, then a young journalist wrote of her experiences at that convention which corroborates those of Robinson:

While the Goldwater organization tried to keep its delegates in check on the floor, snarling Goldwater fans in the galleries around us were off the leash. The mood turned unmistakably menacing…

Suddenly Louis and I heard a voice yell, “Hey, look at those two up there!” The accuser pointed us out, and several spectators swarmed beneath us. “Hey niggers!” they yelled. “What the hell are you niggers doing in here?’”

I could feel the hair rising on the back of my neck as I looked into faces turned scarlet and sweaty by heat and hostility. Louis, in suit and tie and perpetually dignified, turned to me and said with all the nonchalance he could muster, “Well, I think that’s enough for today.” Methodically we began wrapping up our equipment into suitcases.

As we began our descent down the ramps of the Cow Palace, a self-appointed posse dangled over the railings, taunting. “Niggers!” “Get out of here, boy!” “You too, nigger bitch!” “Go on, get out!” “I’m gonna kill your ass!”

I stared straight ahead, putting one foot in front of the other like a soldier who would not be deterred from a mission. The throng began tossing garbage at us: wadded up convention programs, mustard-soaked hot dogs, half-eaten Snickers bars. My goal was to appear deceptively serene, mastering the mask of dispassion I had perfected since childhood to steel myself against any insults the outside world hurled my way.

Then a glass soda bottle whizzed within inches of my skull. I heard it whack against the concrete and shatter. I didn’t look back, but I glanced sideways at Louis and felt my lower lip began to quiver. He was determined we would give our tormentors no satisfaction.

“If you start to cry,” he muttered, “I’ll break your leg.” ( Belva Davis “Never in My Wildest Dreams: A Black Woman’s Life in Journalism)

The sad thing is that in many states the new GOP has taken a page out of the past and has been either passing legislation or attempting to pass legislation that makes it harder for Blacks and other minorities to vote. Groups have shown up armed at heavily black polling sites in recent elections and efforts have been made to ensure that minorities cannot vote. They challenged the 1964 Voter’s Rights Act in Court and Justice Antonine Scalia who called it a “racial entitlement” and “violation of State sovereignty”, helped the Supreme Court strip the Department of Justice’s ability to enforce it in 2012.

It was ironic that the candidate who first brought the former Democrats and conservative Christians into the GOP in 1964 realized his error in 1994. None other than Barry Goldwater said: “Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.” November, 1994, in John Dean, Conservatives Without Conscience.

The tactics are quite similar to those used in the Deep South prior to 1964 which made it virtually impossible for a Black man or woman to cast a vote, and if they tried even to register to vote did so at the peril of their lives or families. The opponents of integration, voter’s rights and equal rights used some of the same lines used today against those that support these rights. “Communists sympathizers, Socialists, Atheists, Anti-Christian, Anti-American, Anti-Constitution,” you name it the same labels are being applied to those that simply want to be at the table. The sad thing that many of the most vicious users of such untruths are my fellow Christians.

These are hard things to look at and it is far easier to believe myth than it is to actually seek truth. But, if we are indeed dedicated to the proposition that all are created equal, then we must not be silent.