
The Necessity of History
Greetings, everyone! It is hard to believe we are already in the second month of 2025. It seems that it was just yesterday I was celebrating Christmas with my grandsons down in Texas Hill Country. So, how many of you are still holding true to those New Year’s Resolutions? I do not go to gyms and workout centers, but wonder if they are already seeing a drop off in attendance?
Ya know, it was not too long ago that something else was happening in our America. It was mobs of progressive socialist leftists going about and defaming, destroying, and tearing down historical monuments and statues. I suppose the lessons and necessity of history are lost on some people. History does not exist for us to manipulate and revise that which we feel fits a certain ideological agenda. History, — good, bad, and indifferent — exists for us to learn from, so as to not make the same mistakes all over again. Ya know, like going about supporting an Islamic terrorist organization that has as its charter the extermination, elimination, and eradication of an entire race of people. Yes, I am speaking of Hamas and their charter which affirms such towards the Jewish people.
We are now in a month that is dedicated as Black History Month. It never ceases to amaze me just what Black history is being remembered. During that period of abject idiocy and insanity when leftists were tearing down memorials and monuments, there were some that were quite disconcerting. One would have to ask, why did leftists defame remembrances to the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln? After all, it was a Republican Party, established in 1854 in Ripon, Wisconsin, that had as its charter a single issue, to abolish slavery. It was Abraham Lincoln, with the advice of former slave and abolitionist, Frederick Douglass, who issued the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 freeing slaves held in the southern states. Did I mention they were Democrats? It was Abraham Lincoln who pushed for and was successful in ending slavery with the passing of the 13th Amendment. Did I mention the Democrats opposed the 13th Amendment?
During the period of leftist assault upon American history, these chuckleheads even tore down the statue of Frederick Douglass in Rochester, New York. I guess they did not like that whole abolitionist thing, or perhaps because Douglass was a Republican. And, to boot, the delusional leftists not only tore down Frederick Douglass’ statue, they also defaced the memorial to the 54th Infantry Regiment of Massachusetts. The 54th was the first uniformed and organized unit of Black soldiers in our Army. Perhaps these Marxists never saw the Academy Award-winning film “Glory.”
It was Spanish-American political philosopher, poet, and novelist George Santayana who once asserted, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Some of us may recognize a derivative of his quote, those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
In this Black History Month, it is imperative for Republicans, especially those of us here in Texas, to learn the history of the relationship of our Party to the American Black community.
Case in point, two years after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, a Black unit of Union soldiers landed in Galveston on June 19, 1865, to inform Blacks in Texas that they were free. The internet just did not reach across the Mississippi River at the time. That date has become known as Juneteenth. Joe Biden did not create Juneteenth, it came about because of the promise of the Republican Party, and the efforts of Abraham Lincoln. It was two years later, on July 4, 1867, American Independence Day, that the nation’s largest state Republican party was created, the Republican Party of Texas, in Houston by 150 freed Black men.
I was humbled and honored to have been the Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, and now Chairman of the Dallas County Republican Party. However, I was not the first American Black man to Chair the Republican Party of Texas. That distinction goes to one Norris Wright Cuney who served as Chairman from 1886-1896. Cuney Homes in Houston Texas is named after him; he deserves a better remembrance than having Section 8 housing. As well, it was Texas State Senator Matthew Gaines, another freed slave, who was instrumental in the founding of Texas A&M and Prairie View A&M Universities, State Senator Gaines is buried on the campus of Texas A&M University. During the time of Cuney and Gaines, in the late 1890s, there were more than 100,000 Blacks who were voting Republican. Did I mention that the Democrats created the Ku Klux Klan to prevent and intimidate Blacks from voting?
This Black History Month, my challenge to all Republicans in Dallas County, and indeed Texas, is to remember the contributions and relationship of the Republican Party to the American Black community. And, lest we forget, the “Yellow Rose of Texas” was a Black mulatto woman named Emily West Morgan, maybe a distant relative? There at The Alamo today stands a bronze statue in her honor, and across the street is the beautiful Emily Morgan Hotel, where I have had the pleasure of staying.
Me? What will I do special for Black History Month 2025? Well, I am heading to the place where my philosophical mentor, Booker T. Washington, made history, Tuskegee, Alabama. There I will be with my Airborne Brothers and Sisters of the Round Canopy Parachute Team-USA to do commemorative jumps from World War II vintage C-47 aircraft in remembrance of the first Black paratrooper unit, the 55th Parachute Infantry Regiment (the Triple Nickels). Those brave men, although they did not deploy to Europe, deployed to the Pacific Northwest and were the first Smokejumpers. They pioneered tactics, techniques, and procedures that are still used today as they fought forest fires set off by Japanese incendiary balloons and bombs. We will also be jumping to honor the 332d Fighter Squadron, the famed Tuskegee Airmen, who trained at Moton Field, which is where we will be jumping.
Ya know, these men did not ask for DEI programs. They did not seek equality of outcomes. They only wanted the equality of opportunity to evidence that they were just as good as anyone else. Now, ain’t that a great part of American history to teach our current and future generations?
Steadfast and Loyal.
Chairman West's #MondayMessage
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