Open Letter To The Pro-Life Movement
Congressman Robert Smalls [R-SC5 and SC7]
Meet The First Black Captain Of A Vessel In The Service Of The United States …
Robert Smalls (Friday, April 5th, 1839 – Tuesday, February 23rd, 1915) was a Black American slave who, during and after the American Civil War, became a ship’s pilot, sea captain, and politician. He freed himself, his crew and their families from slavery on Tuesday, May 13th, 1862, by commandeering a Confederate transport ship, the CSS Planter (a “wood-burner” launched in 1860), in the Charleston, South Carolina harbor, and sailing it to freedom beyond the Union Army’s blockade. As one of the first Black Americans to serve in the United States Congress, all of whom were Republicans during the Reconstruction Era, Smalls authored legislation that created the first free and compulsory public school system in America in South Carolina, founded the Republican Party of South Carolina,1 and with Frederick Douglass successfully convinced President Abraham Lincoln to accept Black Americans as soldiers in the Union army.2 Most notably, Smalls was the first and last Republican to represent South Carolina until Republican Tim Scott became the first Black United States Congressman and now United States Senator to represent South Carolina since Reconstruction after the Civil War. 3
Slave, Husband, Father and Freeman
“After waiting apparently in vain, for many years for our deliverance, a party consisting of nine (9) men, myself included, of the City of Charleston, conferred freedom on ourselves, five (5) women and three (3) children; and to the Government of the United States we gave the Planter, a gunboat which cost nearly thirty thousand dollars ($30,000), together with six (6) large guns, from a twenty-four (24) pounder howitzer to a hundred (100) pound Parrott rifle. We are all now in the service of the navy, under the command of our true friend, Rear Admiral Dupont, where we wish to serve till the Rebellion and Slavery are alike crushed out forever.” 4 — Robert Smalls, Washington, D.C., Wednesday, August 27th, 1862.
Born into slavery in the “Dependency House” (i.e., a cabin behind the house of his master Admiral Henry McKee on 511 Prince Street in Beaufort, South Carolina) Robert Smalls received a sense of pride, self worth, dignity from his mother, Lydia Polite (who was also a slave held by McKee) and a set of skills from his owner.5 Instead of sending Robert out to the slave fields, when Robert was twelve (12) years old McKee sent him to his sister-in-law in Charleston where he would be hired out to work in the city.6 Hiring a slave’s time out to other persons in the city was simply another form of slavery that allowed the owner of the slave to profit from the slave’s labor. Here Robert would learn new skills and eventually find work on the docks. By 1854 Robert was fifteen (15) years old and earning fifteen dollars ($15.00) a month which belonged to Mckee who in turn would allow Robert to keep one dollar ($1.00).7 With his one dollar ($1.00) Robert would purchase things like tobacco and candy and then sell it on the docks.8 As a young man Robert had learned to start a business and save his money. By 1856 Robert would meet a hotel maid named Hannah Jones and marry her.9 By 1858 Hannah and Robert had their first child, Elizabeth Lydia.10 
Understanding that Hannah was being physically abused by her master and could be sold, Smalls attempted to buy his family’s freedom with the money he saved. However, Hannah’s freedom would cost him eight hundred dollars ($800.00) and because he only had one hundred ($100.00) to his name, escaping to the North was Smalls’ only option to save his family and the clock was running.11 By 1860 the tensions between the North and the South over the future of labor (paid-labor versus slave-labor) were so heated that the secession of states was more than a possibility, it was imminent and South Carolina was at the heart of it all.12 By 1861 Southern slave states declared their secession from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America (CSA) and the 
American Civil War was on.13 By 1862 Robert Smalls was a twenty–three (23) year old illiterate slave in the employ of Confederate Commander Brigadier General Roswell S. Ripley who commanded the CSS Planter.14 The Planter was a three hundred (300) ton side wheel steamship, built for commercial purposes, but during the Civil War served the Confederate Army as a heavily armed transport and dispatch vessel.15 Early on the morning of Tuesday, May 13th, 1862, the Confederate commander at Charleston, South Carolina, Brigadier General Roswell S. Ripley, was astounded to learn his dispatch boat, stationed at a wharf directly in front of his headquarters, had disappeared.16 Dressed as the Planter Captain C. J. Relyea,17 familiar with the waters and where the mines were, because as a slave he had laid them himself,18 Robert Smalls used the correct signals for safe passage through the five (5) Confederate gun batteries including Fort Sumter and boldly sailed and surrendered the CSS Planter to Union forces currently blockading the ports.19 In so doing Smalls freed himself, his wife, two children, and twelve other slaves by approximately 4:30 A.M. that morning.20
Be Free Or We Perish Together!
“One of the most heroic acts of the war” 21
“As soon as the officers [on the Planter] were gone, Smalls and his fellows consulted and all agreed: the time had come. Word was sent to the sailor on the other boat and to the women and children: Proceed. Quietly, on the Planter, Smalls broke into the cabin to secure the captain’s straw hat and jacket and any small arms he could find. It was firmly understood among the conspirators that if they met with any interference they would resist and, if it came to that, rather than suffer capture, they would sink the Planter and all aboard. If scuttling failed, they ‘would all take hands … and jump overboard and perish together.'” 22
The First Black American Civil War Hero
“My race needs no special defense, for the past history of them in this country proves them to be equal of any people anywhere. All they need is an equal chance in the battle of life.” 23 — Robert Smalls
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As a result of the fame that came from Robert Smalls’ daring theft of the CSS Planter, he was awarded an audience with President Abraham Lincoln where he sat at the conference table next to Frederick Douglass in an effort to convince President Abraham Lincoln to enlist Black men to fight for the Union forces in the Civil War. Smalls and Douglass helped recruit nearly 5,000 Black American men for the Union army.24 Smalls boldly backed his beliefs by fighting the Confederate Army as a pilot on the now USS Planter (the ship that he had commandeered to freedom) in the fall of 1862. As a solider, Smalls led the Union Navy efforts to deactivate mines that he had helped plant while enslaved by the Confederacy and then guided the Union forces to Confederate outposts and assisted in the destruction of railroad bridges in the harbor area.25 By 1863 Smalls piloted the USS Keokuk (i.e., one of the Casemate Ironclad gunships) in the Union attack on Fort Sumter. 
The attack failed miserably.26 Understanding former slaves were traitors to the Confederacy and would be executed without question, Smalls took command of the ship from the surrendering Captain James Nickerson (who was hiding in a coal bunker below deck), navigated it out of harm’s way and rescued the crew just minutes before the USS Keokuk sank.27 Nickerson was dismissed as a coward and Smalls became the first Black Navy Captain in the service of the United States.28 By 1865 Smalls would return to Fort Sumter with the USS Planter to witness the Union’s “Stars and Stripes” raised marking the defeat of the Confederate Army and the end of the Civil War. As the first hero of the Civil War declared by the United States Congress, Robert Smalls would later be appointed to the rank of Major General in the South Carolina Militia during the Reconstruction period.29
Serving in the United States Congress
Representing South Carolina’s 5th and 7th Districts
“The party of Lincoln which unshackled the necks of four million human beings.” In his campaign speeches he said, “Every colored man who has a vote to cast, would cast that vote for the regular Republican Party and thus bury the Democratic Party so deep that there will not be seen even a bubble coming from the spot where the burial took place.” Later in life he recalled, “I can never loose [sic] sight of the fact that had it not been for the Republican Party, I would have never been an office-holder of any kind from 1862 to present.” 30 — Robert Smalls
Robert Smalls founded the Republican Party of South Carolina, served in the South Carolina House and Senate from 1865 to 1874, was a delegate to the South Carolina Constitutional Convention in 1868 and served in Congress off and on from 1875 to 1887.31 The gap in Smalls congressional service took place after the Compromise of 1877 when Republican President Rutherford Birchard Hayes withdrew Union troops from the south 32 and was due to false accusations that he took a $5,000.00 bribe in connection with the award of a printing contract in January of 1873 while serving as a state senator.33 Due to the “the uncorroborated testimony of an admitted felon” who was testifying to save his own hide, 34 Smalls was arrested at home on Saturday, October 6th, 1877, 35 found guilty and sentenced to three (3) years of hard labor.36 In the absence of Union troops, racists Southern White Democrats called the “Redeemers” (i.e., members of the Klu Klux Klan who wanted to return the state to its pre-war status of white supremacy) used violence and election fraud to regain control in the state legislature.37 Ultimately Smalls fought back and was pardoned by South Carolina Governor William Simpson.38 As part of the agreement that pardoned Smalls, charges were also dropped against the Democrats who had been accused of election fraud.39 Having regained his congressional seat, Smalls continued to fight to protect the civil rights of Black Americans, promote their representation and participation in state politics and move forward legislation for a public school system in South Carolina.40
South Carolina Constitutional Convention
By 1895, Benjamin Ryan “Pitchfork Ben” Tillman, Jr. and the “Redeeming” Democrats (i.e., Ku Klux Klan and Red Shirt White Supremacist) in South Carolina had succeeded through violence, terror, and election fraud to reduce the number of Black Americans registered to vote in the state from 81,000 in 1868 to less than 10,000 in 1894.41 Tillman called for a constitutional convention in 1895 to rewrite South Carolina’s constitution of 1868 and to take away the right to vote of Black Americans in South Carolina.42 After leaving the convention to attend to the illness and eventual death of his second wife, Annie Wigg Smalls, Robert returned to the convention and refused to sign the new constitution that changed South Carolina’s suffrage requirements and disenfranchised Black Americans.43 Without the aid of 
Union troops on guard in the South, the Redeemers gained the upper hand through fear and violence and by 1890 “Pitchfork Ben” became the 84th Governor of South Carolina.44 By 1912, and even though a Republican President William Howard Taft was in office, South Carolina’s two Democratic Senators, Benjamin Tillman and Ellison D. Smith, successfully blocked Smalls’ reappointment as South Carolina’s Collector of Customs for the Port of Beaufort.45 By 1915 Robert Smalls would die of diabetes.46 By 1940 a statue of Governor Tillman was unveiled on the state capitol grounds in Columbia, South Carolina. 47
Robert Smalls Was Concerned About The U.S. Navy
” [ Robert ] Smalls told Samuel Francis Du Pont, commander of the U.S. Navy’s South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, that he worried more about the U.S. Navy shooting at Planter than the Confederates.” 48
Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont Was A True Friend
“One of the coolest and most gallant naval acts of war.” 49 — Samuel Francis duPont
“The bringing out of this steamer would have done credit to anyone … This man Robert Smalls is superior to any who has yet come into lines, intelligent as many of them have been. His information has been most interesting, and portions of it of the utmost importance.” 50
— Samuel Francis duPont
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Samuel Francis Du Pont was a direct descendent of Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours. His uncle was Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, the founder of E.I. du Pont de Nemours Company, which today is the multinational DuPont chemical corporation.51 During the American Civil War, DuPont was one of the chief suppliers of black powder to the United States military.52 According to the Hagley Museum & Library exhibition entitled: “An Oath of Allegiance to the Republic: The du Ponts and the Civil War,” Flag Officer Samuel Francis Du Pont at Port Royal praised Smalls for his heroism and promised to take care of him, his family and his crew.53 Being a man of his word and in need of Robert’s extensive knowledge of the waters around Charleston and the Confederate military signals and approaches,54 Du Pont not only took care of the nine (9) crew members, five (5) women and three (3) children on the Planter by helping them get settled in Union occupied territory near Port Royal, South Carolina, he then made Robert the pilot of his flagship, USS Wabash.55 As the relationship between Smalls and DuPont grew, DuPont lobbied for Robert and his crew. 
On Friday May 30th, 1862, the United States Congress passed an act for the relief of Robert Smalls and the Planter crew. This legislation directed the Navy Department to appraise the steamer and its cargo and pay them one half of the value. Du Pont was charged with obtaining the appraisal and dividing out the money. The Planter and her cargo was valued at $9,168.00, leaving $4,584.00 for Smalls and his crew. As architect of the Planter’s rebellion and ranking member of the slave crew, Robert received $1,500.00 and the rest was split among the crew and their families.56 In the month of June 1862, Rear Admiral DuPont appointed Smalls as his personal representative to oversee a program designed to help former slaves successfully work on the land abandoned by slave plantation owners called the “Port Royal Experiment“.57 Because Smalls spoke both Gullah and “regular” English 
and he understood the views of both Blacks and Whites, he was needed to meet with and facilitate the efforts of private Northern charity organizations stepping in to help the former slaves become self-sufficient.58 Smalls was so successful, that on Wednesday, August 20th, 1862, at the request of Major General David Hunter, Smalls met with United States Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. A few days later Smalls, Hunter and Stanton met with President Abraham Lincoln.59 Thank you Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont, the “Port Royal Experiment” was indeed a rehearsal for reconstruction and Robert Smalls was the right man for the job. By Monday, August 25th, 1862 Secretary of War Edwin Stanton authorized the enlistment of Black troops into the Federal Army.60 By declaration on Wednesday, May 10th, 1865 the American Civil War ended 61 and then Democratic President Andrew Johnson ended the “Port Royal Experiment” by returning the land to its previous White owners.62
Open Letter To The Pro-Life Movement
2013 Marks The 40th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade
“I will go, and where you die, I will die.” — Hannah Smalls 63
“How can I expect to keep my freedom if I’m not willing to pay for it?” — Robert Smalls 64
We’re in the fortieth (40) year of legalized abortion in the United States of America. At this point, we’ve lost over fifty-six (56) million lives to surgical abortion on demand alone and counting.65 The enormous impact of fifty-six (56) million lives lost to abortion on demand, is equivalent to the population of our eighty-two (82) largest cities,66 from New York all the way down to cities the size of Chandler, Arizona. To put it another way, fifty-six (56) million abortions are equal to twenty-two (22) times the human lives lost from ALL the wars America has ever fought (from the American Revolutionary War in 1775 to the Iraq and Afghanistan War today).67 Further still, the toll includes some eighteen (18) million Black American babies 68 and thirty-seven (37) million others. Honestly, that’s about 3,796 times as many Black Americans as were lynched since the American Civil War.69 All this adds up to a 30% loss in the younger generation under age forty-five (45). These numbers amount to a holocaust against Blacks and against the young. Without question, this is the greatest loss ever inflicted on any generation in the history of our country. 
Could it be, that now is the time to take a page from Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont and seriously invest in communities of color to end abortion on demand? Could it be, that with Black and Hispanic Americans representing the number one (1) and number two (2) customers of the Abortion Industrial Complex 70,71 now is the time to lead with color? Could it be, that because communities of color speak the language and understand the views of both the franchised and disenfranchised, they hold the key to the reconciliation of a country split evenly over the issue? Could it be, that because communities of color have been both courted and targeted by BIG Abortion, like Robert Smalls we have extensive knowledge of the dangers in the waters of life and understand the signals and approaches needed to safely navigate the way to victory over abortion on demand in America? Could it be, that just as Republican President Rutherford Birchard Hayes compromised in 1877 and Democratic President Andrew Johnson scuttled the “Port Royal Experiment“, the solution to the problems that perplex the Pro-Life movement isn’t political? Could it be, that after forty (40) years of 
legally protected abortion on demand in America combined with the loss of over fifty-six (56) million lives with thirty (30) percent of those babies being Black Americans, it’s now clear that like Robert Smalls, Pro-Life leaders in communities of color will have to commandeer the Pro-Life movement’s ship and rescue our people? Could it be, that at the rate Black America is aborting her children,72 that at the rate her children are being born to unwed mothers,73 that at the rate her children acquire STDs,74 that at the rate her children account for the people living with HIV in the United States,75 that at the rate her children in High School are below basic proficiency in math,76 that at the rate her children are being incarcerated,77 that time is running out on her future? Could it be, that like Hannah Smalls “I will go, and where [ my people will ] die, I will die trying to reach them for Christ’s sake?”
I think it could.
Brothers, we need to talk.
Reference(s):
01. Robert Smalls, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/7lSdB7).
02. Avis Thomas-Lester, “Civil War hero Robert Smalls Seized The Opportunity To Be Free”, The Washington Post (http://bit.ly/YfCtec).
03. Joel Allen, “”Scott Sworn In As 1st Black Republican in Congress From The Deep South Since reconstruction”, CarolinaLive.Com, WPDE News Channel 15 (http://1.usa.gov/S3TKnv).
04. Robert Smalls, “Letter From The Negro Robert Smalls”, The Washington Repuplican (http://bit.ly/16ZMaQz) or (http://bit.ly/12ygyhd).
05. Robert Smalls, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/7lSdB7).
06. Ibid.
07. Dennis Adams, “Robert Smalls War Hero And Legislator (1839-1915)” (http://bit.ly/9MqIcI).
08. Public Broadcasting System (PBS), Slavery And The Making Of America – Episode 4: “The Challenge of Freedom” (http://to.pbs.org/12d6wSO).
09. Robert Smalls, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/7lSdB7).
10. Ibid.
11. The Robert Smalls Collection, “Who Was Congressman Robert Smalls? (1839-1915): The Early Years” (http://bit.ly/RwMGBs).
12. Public Broadcasting System (PBS), Slavery And The Making Of America – Episode 4: “The Challenge of Freedom” (http://to.pbs.org/12d6wSO).
13. Confederate States of America, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/TFxeY).
14. USS Planter (1862), Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/1bixAqx).
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. History Revived, “Smalls’ Contributions” (http://bit.ly/16joe8v).
19. Robert Smalls, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/7lSdB7).
20. Ibid.
21. Howard Westwood, “Black Troops, White Commanders And Freedmen During The Civil War”, SIU Press, October 1st, 1991, p.74 (http://bit.ly/12ddveD).
22. Ibid.
23. Robert Smalls Annual Lecture Series, The University of South Carolina African American Studies Program, 2012 Lecturer (http://bit.ly/16jsyEA).
24. The Robert Smalls Collection, “Who Was Congressman Robert Smalls?: Smalls During The Civil War” (http://bit.ly/18486OM).
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid.
27. Michael Canaan, “05/13/1862 – Robert Smalls Comandeers His Way to Freedom and Greatness”, BlackHistory.Com (http://bit.ly/1a6MTBj).
28. Robert Smalls, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/7lSdB7).
29. Andrew Billingsley, “Yearning to Breathe Free: Robert Smalls of South Carolina and His Families”, University of South Carolina Press, 2007, p. 1 (http://bit.ly/12SZS32).
30. Robert Smalls, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/7lSdB7).
31. Ibid.
32. Walter Hoye, “Environmental Products (4): The Compromise of 1877: The Republican Party Preferred Power”, Issue No.: 2012.149 (http://bit.ly/K13YAe).
33. African American Registry, “Naval Hero And Politician, Robert Smalls”, Date: Friday, April 5th, 1839 (http://bit.ly/HnurI7).
34. Andrew Billingsley, “Yearning to Breathe Free: Robert Smalls of South Carolina and His Families”, University of South Carolina Press, 2007, p. 147 (http://bit.ly/12U2WjG).
35. Andrew Billingsley, “Yearning to Breathe Free: Robert Smalls of South Carolina and His Families”, University of South Carolina Press, 2007, p. 142 (http://bit.ly/1bjzoQg).
36. Andrew Billingsley, “Yearning to Breathe Free: Robert Smalls of South Carolina and His Families”, University of South Carolina Press, 2007, P. 132 (http://bit.ly/15sciUO).
37. Redeemers, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/1WW9bS).
38. The Robert Smalls Collection, “Who Was Congressman Robert Smalls?: Reconstruction and Smalls’ Political Career” (http://bit.ly/12zyjNo).
39. Eric Foner, “Freedom’s Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders During Reconstruction” Oxford University Press, 1993, p. 198. (http://bit.ly/184Zd7I).
40. The Robert Smalls Collection, “Who Was Congressman Robert Smalls?: Reconstruction and Smalls’ Political Career” (http://bit.ly/12zyjNo).
41. Benjamin Tillman, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/aJFC4c).
42. Fox Butterfield, “All God’s Children: The Bosket Family and the American Tradition of Violence” (http://bit.ly/10K8IDM).
43. The Robert Smalls Collection, “Who Was Congressman Robert Smalls?: Robert Smalls at the 1895 South Carolina Constitutional Convention” (http://bit.ly/12zyjNo).
44. Mark Yost, “From Slave to Statesman”, Wall Street Journal, May 9, 2012 (http://on.wsj.com/Jwa9gw).
45. The Robert Smalls Collection, “Who Was Congressman Robert Smalls?: Robert Smalls During the Latter Years” (http://bit.ly/14FlyUu).
46. Dennis Adams, “Robert Smalls War Hero And Legislator (1839-1915)” (http://bit.ly/9MqIcI).
47. Ben Tillman Statue, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/12A694S).
48. Hagley Museum & Library, “The duPonts And The Civil War”, Robert Smalls: Freedom (http://bit.ly/13y6oUg).
49. Howard Westwood, “Black Troops, White Commanders And Freedmen During The Civil War”, SIU Press, September 9th, 2008, p.74 (http://bit.ly/12A7d8H).
50. Andrew Billingsley, “Yearning to Breathe Free: Robert Smalls of South Carolina and His Families”, University of South Carolina Press, 2007, p. 60 (http://bit.ly/15sPBjf).
51. Samuel Francis Du Pont, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/12A7WXo).
52. DuPont, “1804 Black Powder” (http://bit.ly/184doq6).
53. Hagley Museum & Library, “The duPonts And The Civil War”, Robert Smalls: Freedom (http://bit.ly/13y6oUg).
54. Blain Roberts and Ethan J. Kytle, “Robert Smalls’s Great Escape”, The New York Times, Saturday, May 12th, 2012 (http://nyti.ms/18L7jls) and Robert Smalls, “Service to the Union”, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/1856ReX).
55. Hagley Museum & Library, “The duPonts And The Civil War”, Robert Smalls: Freedom (http://bit.ly/13y6oUg).
56. Ibid.
57. Andrew Billingsley, “Yearning to Breathe Free: Robert Smalls of South Carolina and His Families”, University of South Carolina Press, 2007, p. 67 (http://bit.ly/12p97b6).
58. Ibid, p. 68 (http://bit.ly/12WgKG1).
59. Blain Roberts and Ethan J. Kytle, “Robert Smalls’s Great Escape”, The New York Times, Saturday, May 12th, 2012 (http://nyti.ms/18L7jls) and Robert Smalls, “Service to the Union”, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/1856ReX).
60. National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, “Appomattox Court House: Black Soldiers on the Appomattox Campaign” (http://1.usa.gov/12jJNba).
Did You Know: “Several regiments of United States Colored Troops fought on the front line in the Battle of Appomattox Court House on the morning of April 9, 1865. Blacks served in segregated units under white officers. The U.S. Army would not be integrated until the Korean War.”
61. American Civil War, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/BWGAf) and IMPORTANT PROCLAMATIONS, “The Belligerent Rights of the Rebels at an End. All Nations Warned Against Harboring Their Privateers. If They Do Their Ships Will be Excluded from Our Ports. Restoration of Law in the State of Virginia. The Machinery of Government to be Put in Motion There.”, The New York Times, Wednesday, May 10th, 1865 (http://nyti.ms/1dfjYL0).
62. Port Royal Experiment, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/15bHWDM).
63. Andrew Billingsley, “Yearning to Breathe Free: Robert Smalls of South Carolina and His Families”, University of South Carolina Press, 2007, p. 65 (http://bit.ly/18Lfm1q).
64. Edward A. Miller, “Gullah Statesman: Robert Smalls from Slavery to Congress, 1839-1915”, University of South Carolina Press, 1995, p. 17 (http://bit.ly/12jNptP).
65. Dennis M. Howard, “The Abortion Index” (http://bit.ly/9FPAN1).
66. Ibid.
67. Lori Hoye, “Practicality, Pragmatism And Polls”, Thursday, March 4th, 2010 (http://bit.ly/aUt60q).
68. Dennis M. Howard, “The Abortion Index” (http://bit.ly/9FPAN1).
69. Ibid.
70. According to the Guttmacher Institute, “Facts on Induced Abortion in the United States: Who Has Abortions?”, August 2011 (http://bit.ly/12p97b6) “non-Hispanic Black women for 30%, Hispanic women for 25%” have abortions.
71. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) the most recent “Abortion Surveillance Report” of 2009 (http://1.usa.gov/T6gz7H) “non-Hispanic white women and non-Hispanic black women accounted for the largest percentages of abortions (37.7% and 35.4%, respectively).”
Please Note: That of the 52 reporting areas (the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and New York City) the above CDC report excludes data from California, Delaware, Maryland, and New Hampshire. Still further note that according to the latest information available from the Guttmacher Institute “State Facts About Abortion: California”, January 2011 (http://bit.ly/11QeYuT), California could be considered, by its sheer numbers, the nation’s Abortion Capital. For more information click here: http://bit.ly/12Wyndk.
72. Ibid., See the Guttmacher Institute report and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s above.
73. Kirsten West Savali, “72 Percent of African-American Children Born to Unwed Mothers”, HuffPost BlackVoices: By The Black Spin, Monday, November 8th 2010 (http://aol.it/9zXmYc).
74. Walter Hoye, “The Urgency Of Abstinence Education”, Monday, June 6th, 2011 (http://bit.ly/185l0Zq).
75. AIDS.Gov, HIV/AIDS 101: United States Statistics (http://1.usa.gov/MZTIWX).
76. California Department of Education, Assessment and Accountability Division, Revised: Tuesday, February 5th, 2013 (http://bit.ly/RR0BSy).
77. Prison Policy Initiative, “Incarceration Rates By Race and Ethnicity, 2010” (http://bit.ly/5j9yYI).
In 1857, Hinton Rowan Helper (1829-1909), a rabid racist and the son of a western North Carolina farmer, published one of the most controversial books ever written about slavery. In his book entitled “The Impending Crisis of the South,” Helper argued that slavery was incompatible with economic progress. Using statistics drawn from the 1850 census, Helper maintained that the North was growing far faster than the South and that slavery was the cause of the South’s economic failure. Helper believed slavery doomed the South because it was inefficient, wasteful, degraded labor, inhibited urbanization, thwarted industrialization, and stifled progress.12 Not only did slavery choke commerce and malign manufacturing, it also impacted the South’s ability to fight the war. As the slave population increased, so did the demand for the human resources (i.e., fighting men), financial resources (i.e., gold) and natural resources (i.e., land) to manage the very real threat of an internal rebellion from a very hostile slave population. This is clearly seen in the decennial census tables below.13
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How we as Christians vote tomorrow will either signal a renewal of our hearts and minds toward Christ or reflect the depth of the depravity in our souls. Voting is a blood bought and thereby precious privilege we inherited from those who died for our freedom before us. John Jay, a leading opponent of slavery, was an American Statesman, Patriot, Diplomat, a Founding Father of our country, and when nominated by George Washington became the first (1st) Chief Justice of the United States of America. 30 Chief Justice Jay believed that the most effective way of ensuring world peace was through propagation of the Christian gospel. Perhaps Jay, in a letter addressed to Pennsylvania House of Representatives member John Murray, dated Saturday, October 12th, 1816, said it best:
In 1973, just sixty-seven (67) days after Merlin K. DuVal, Assistant Secretary to the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW), wrote to Dorothy P. Rice, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), to terminate the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment in 1972, the United States Supreme Court decided both Roe and Doe, establishing a constitutional right to abortion on demand. 42
I am often asked to explain “how can” and “why do” Black American’s embrace Obamacare. Frankly … While Black Americans have already experienced the manifold blessings of “free health care” under both White Democratic and White Republican administrations, the Democratic Party has publicly acknowledged America’s racist tendencies and boldly invested in Black America by way of Black Americans. This is not to say that the Democratic Party’s investments in my community have been “sincere,” “sound” or even “good-faith” investments. Not at all. However, this is to deliberately say, that “sincere,” “sound” and “good-faith” investments are exactly how New Order Investments by the Republican Party can and will effectively reach voters in communities of color. So what does this look like? “Sincere,” “sound” and “good-faith” investments have always had the power to make amends. “Sincere” investments will acknowledge and accept responsibility for the harm caused by past failures to love communities of color and model genuinely new behavior by spending the time, talent and treasure required to renew and reconcile the relationship. “Sound” investments will overcome the damage to communities of color caused by “politically expedient” spending on entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid by getting resources out of Washington, D.C. and back into the private sector where they can be used productively to create businesses and jobs. “Good-faith” investments will make room at the decision table for members from communities of color and meet the physical needs of women, children and broken families without violating their religious convictions.
It’s interesting to note that January 2004 marked the death of Ernest Hendon, the last survivor of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. Hendon was in the control group that did not have syphilis. He was 96 years old. It’s also interesting to note that January 2012 marked the 40th year since the termination of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. Furthermore, it’s very interesting to note that January 2013 will mark the beginning of the 40th year of legalized abortion on demand that deliberately targets communities of color. As I earnestly reflect on these dates, I can’t help but wonder … Could all this just be interesting? Or am I seeing a pattern? To be more specific and more to the point … Could all this just be coincidence? Or am I actually seeing the reality of an old, evil and eugenic effort to eliminate communities of color still at work in America? In the privacy of my heart, I know the answer. Don’t you? In the privacy of our hearts, don’t we all know the answer?
Homer Adolph Plessy was born on St. Patrick’s Day in 1862, when Union troops under General Benjamin Franklin Butler had freed Black Americans in New Orleans. At that time Black Americans could then marry whomever they chose, sit in any streetcar seat, and even attend integrated schools. However, as a thirty (30) year–old adult, Plessy found that those gains from the American Civil War (1862–1865) and the Radical Reconstruction of the South (1863–1877) were abolished after Union troops were withdrawn in the Republican Compromise of 1877. 2
“That [the Separate Car Act] does not conflict with the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery … is too clear for argument … A statute which implies merely a legal distinction between the white and colored races — a distinction which is founded in the color of the two races, and which must always exist so long as white men are distinguished from the other race by color — has no tendency to destroy the legal equality of the two races … The object of the [Fourteenth A]mendment was undoubtedly to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law, but in the nature of things it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political equality, or a commingling of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either.” — Henry Billings Brown, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court 9
“Our Constitution is color–blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law … In my opinion, the judgment this day rendered will, in time, prove to be quite as pernicious as the decision made by this tribunal in the Dred Scott case … The present decision, it may well be apprehended, will not only stimulate aggressions, more or less brutal and irritating, upon the admitted rights of colored citizens, but will encourage the belief that it is possible, by means of state enactments, to defeat the beneficient purposes which the people of the United States had in view when they adopted the recent amendments of the Constitution.” — John Marshall Harlan, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court 10
For years political analysts have pointed out that the prevailing power of the presidency lies in the office holder’s United States Supreme Court appointments. The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land, interpreting the “Supreme Law” of the land. As the Judicial Branch of our government, 16 the Supreme Court stands as the final word on matters of law and balances the powers of both the Legislative and Executive branches. Once the Supreme Court has made a decision, no other court can overturn or even review that decision. The average justice serves for fourteen (14) years and retires at age seventy-one (71). 17 Supreme Court justices are appointed for life so they never have to face re–election or make sure that their decisions please the president who appointed them. 18
In 1876 the Republican Party had been hurt by financial corruption charges during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant and thus needed a new candidate for the Presidency. 3 The safe liberal politics, party loyalty, and solid war record of the Governor of Ohio, made Rutherford Birchard Hayes the best hope for the Republican Party in the 1876 presidential election. 4 In the end Hayes lost the popular vote to Democrat Samuel J. Tilden. The count was 4,284,757 or 51% of the vote for Tilden against 4,033,950 or 48% for Hayes. 5 However, in order to win a candidate needed 185 electoral votes. 6 With 51% of the popular vote Tilden controlled 184 electoral votes and with 48% of the popular vote Hayes controlled 165. 7 Nevertheless, Hayes became the 19th President of the United States (1877-1881) in one of the most contentious, controversial, and morally bankrupt elections in American history. 8 When the dust was settled, and the now infamous Compromise of 1877 in the bag, Hayes had won the presidency by a single electoral vote (185-184). 9 
During the American Civil War, the national debt had increased by a staggering 4,000 percent (4000%). 25 After the war most White Northerners, preoccupied with the economic problems of unemployment and falling farm prices, were less concerned about violent acts of White Southerners against Black Americans in the South. So by 1870, “Waving The Bloody Shirt” 26 with the blood stains of carpetbaggers (i.e., Northerners who moved to the South) whipped by the Ku Klux Klan had lost its appeal. Furthermore, by 1876 it was clear that the North was satisfied that legislation such as the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments had solved the “race problem” in the South and wanted the Republican Party to move on from social issues to economic issues. 27 This sounds so very familiar to me.
Today, the Republican Party, wanting to move on from social issues to economic issues, 28 is facing the same temptation to satisfy the conscience of her socially conservative constituents with a Pro-Life presidential candidate that has pledged to limit abortion to only instances of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother. 29 This is the Republican Compromise of 2012. Limiting abortion with an executive order that reinstates the Mexico City Policy, with legislation that repeals, restricts, regulates, reduces and defunds abortion and with the appointment of Supreme Court justices who support reversing Roe v. Wade will not end abortion.
Abortion is a business, businesses are born with a product and customers are the lifeblood of businesses. Reducing abortion will not end abortion. Removing government subsidies from abortion providers will not end abortion. Reversing the current direction in Washington D.C. will not end abortion. Until the Republican Party embraces the biblical truth that only human life is sacred from the beginning of our biological development until death. Until the Republican Party understands that the only stronghold, strategy and sadistic sanctuary the abortion industrial complex can retreat to, in order to maintain their illegitimate air of credibility, is to portray itself as the only option caring enough to help poor women in communities of color. Until the Republican Party moves the hearts and minds of people in a way that meets the physical, spiritual and emotional needs of women and children helpless, homeless, hungry or without healthcare. Until the Republican Party learns to communicate compassion in a way that helps the poor realize that the golden promises of socialized healthcare only serve to hide the huge economic loss those social programs will cost their children and grandchildren in the future for putting these programs on the government’s credit card. Until the Republican Party fiscal conservatives unite with her social conservatives on the common ground of abortion’s $45 trillion dollar cost to our country 32 (please note, that’s roughly three times our national debt) and build a strong solidified party presence in America … 
Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) was the 18th President of the United States from 1869–1877. 3 As President he led the Radical Republicans in their effort to eliminate all remaining vestiges of Confederate nationalism, slavery and effectively destroyed the first incarnation of Ku Klux Klan in 1871. 4 The First Klan founded in 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee, by six veterans of the Confederate Army flourished in the South following the American Civil War and has been called America’s first true terrorist group. 5 Members utilized white costumes: robes, masks, and conical hats, designed to mystify, terrify and hide their true identities. 6 Today the Ku Klux Klan is splintered into several independent chapters with no apparent connections between them and is rightly classified as a hate group with an estimated membership between 3,000 and 5,000 as of 2012. 7
After the North’s victory and during Reconstruction, The State of Tennessee ratified the Fourteenth (14th) Amendment and gave Black American’s the right to vote. 9 As a result, Tennessee’s August gubernatorial election of 1867 was the first time in the Tennessee’s history that Black Americans would be allowed to vote. Actually and more significantly, this was the first time since President Abraham Lincoln’s Friday, January 1st, 1863 Emancipation Proclamation that Black American’s in the South would vote at all. Nevertheless, in the 
dark background of election politics, former Confederate Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest who was serving as the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, was keeping his Klansmen in line in an effort to deflect the attention of the United States Military (i.e., Union soldiers) away from the Klan’s terrorist program that sought to restore White Supremacy by threats and violence, including murder, against freed Black Slaves and White Republicans. 10 Working with “Conservatives” (a coalition of Democrats and old-line Whigs) Lieutenant General Nathan Forrest tried to convince former Black Slaves that their 
former Slave Masters were their best friends and that they held their best interest at heart. 11 To the Klans surprise, the former Black Slaves in Tennessee did not believe them and overwhelmingly voted for the Radical Republicans. Knee deep in denial, the Ku Klux Klan believed that freed Black Slaves voted Republican because “carpetbaggers” (a derogatory term Southerners gave to Northerners who moved to the South) and “scalawags” (a derogatory term for Southern Whites who supported the Radical Republican Party) told them to and once freed from such, former Black Slaves would gladly return to being the “good niggers” they were before the American Civil War. 12 However, nothing was ever farther from the truth. Below is an explanation for why freed Black Slaves endorsed the Radical Republicans by a delegation of freed South Carolina Black Slaves.
[You] derided the idea of granting us the right to vote; when your legislature met in 1865-66, you passed that infamous Black Code … Your laws provided for taking and binding-out our children and subjecting us to all manner of disabilities. We could not pursue any trade or calling in this State without written permission from some White man; we could not sell any article of barter without the consent first obtained from some magistrate. With all these facts before us, and your Negro Code before us … do you not see why we have been constrained to trust in strangers rather than to those who claim that they are our natural friends? Can you have the heart to ask colored men to vote for men who deny that they are capable of voting intelligently? 
After the 1867 Radical Republican victory in Tennessee the former Confederate Lieutenant General and then present Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest released his army of Klansmen and by October 1867 twenty-five (25) murders, thirty-five (35) assaults with intent to kill, eighty-three (83) assaults and batteries, four (4) rapes and four (4) arsons were reported to Major General Oliver Otis Howard of the United States Army (formerly the Union Army) in Tennessee. 14 Thank God for the former Commanding General of the Union Army and then present Radical Republican President Ulysses S. Grant.
It is not difficult for me to imagine what life would be like for Black America today without the righteous and right-minded efforts of the Radical Republicans of the past. Still, the question before us is: are there any Radical Republicans today? Today our country is split over the incontestable evil of abortion on demand and same-sex marriage. The answer will not be found in compromise legislation that restricts, regulates or reduces abortion or the promotion of homosexuality. The answer will be found in the hearts of men and women who are steadfastly committed to an uncompromised biblical worldview that can not only see the end of abortion on demand and same-sex marriage but also see a day where the needs of women, children and communities of color are met. The Radical Republicans of the past picked a platform to stand on and refused to settle for anything less than “equality of man before his Creator,” 23 even at the expense of their public office.
Nevertheless, I have long wondered what happened to the Radical Republicans of the past? It seems to me history suggests that after 1868 the “Radicals” lost interest in the fate of the Freedmen, became more concerned about fiscal policies, began to view Black Americans as “potentially dangerous to the economy because they might prove to be labor radicals” and jumped the Radical Republican ship to become members of the Liberal Republican camp. Furthermore, I cannot help but wonder if conservative fiscal policies that lead to the preservation of personal profit is where the heart and soul of the Republican Party is today? With the moral compass of our country broken and November quickly coming into view, I’ve been asked on more than one occasion: Are there any Radical Republicans today?
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