Ronald Reagan - Our First "Black" President - Granite Grok

Ronald Reagan – Our First “Black” President

The Daily Tribune News  has an article from two years ago, written by Michael Reagan, former president Ronald Reagan’s son.  In it, he reminds us that Ronald Reagan did more economically for African Americans than our first ‘Black’ president.  And that in contrast to the lefts portrayal of Conservatives, and the media’s recycling of that narrative, Ronald Reagan wanted everyone do the best they could, and to succeed, regardless of where they came from, what they looked like, or who they voted for.

Before he was elected, in speech after speech, my father said that his economic plan would improve the lives of African-Americans. In a February 1977 CPAC address, he said, “The time has come for Republicans to say to black voters: ‘We offer principles that black Americans can and do support. We believe in jobs, real jobs; we believe in education that is really education; we believe in treating all Americans as individuals and not as stereotypes or voting blocs.'”

In a White House Rose Garden ceremony in 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill honoring Dr. King with a federal holiday on the third Monday of January every year. On Dr. King’s birthday that year, my father said, “Abraham Lincoln freed the black man. In many ways, Dr. King freed the white man. . . . Where others — white and black — preached hatred, he taught the principles of love and nonviolence.”

On the anniversary of Dr. King’s birthday, less than a month before the hundredth birthday of Ronald Reagan, it’s fitting to note that Ronald Reagan did more to improve the lives of African-Americans than any other president since Abraham Lincoln. Unfortunately, we have to acknowledge that America’s first black president has made life worse for us all — and especially for black Americans.History does not judge presidents by the color of their skin, but by the content of their policies.

The entire Tribune article is worth a read:  The Daily Tribune News – Ronald Reagan Our first black president

And thanks to John Ruberry – Marathon Pundt, for pointing it out.

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