Right-Wing Co-Opts Civil Rights Movement History, p. 3

TheA PUBLICATION OF POLITICAL R PublicEyeESEARCH ASSOCIATES Summer 2010 • Volume XXV, No.2 Basta Dobbs! Last year, a coalition of Latino/a groups suc - cessfully fought to remove anti-immigrant pundit Lou Dobbs from CNN. Political Research Associates Executive DirectorTarso Luís Ramos spoke to Presente.org co-founder Roberto Lovato to find out how they did it.

Tarso Luís Ramos: Tell me about your organization, Presente.org. Roberto Lovato: Presente.org, founded in May 2009, is the preeminent online Latino advocacy organization. It’s kind of like a MoveOn.org for Latinos: its goal is to build Latino power through online and offline organizing. Presente started with a campaign to persuade Governor Edward Rendell of Pennsylvania to take a stand against the verdict in the case of Luis Ramírez, an undocumented immigrant t t

e who was killed in Shenandoah, Pennsyl - k n u l vania, and whose assailants were acquitted P k c a

J by an all-white jury. We also ran a campaign / o t

o to support the nomination of Sonia h P

P Sotomayor to the Supreme Court—we A Students rally at a State Board of Education meeting, Austin, Texas, March 10, 2010 produced an “I Stand with Sotomayor” logo and poster that people could display at work or in their neighborhoods and post on their Facebook pages—and a few addi - From Schoolhouse to Statehouse tional, smaller campaigns, but really the

Curriculum from a Christian Nationalist Worldview Basta Dobbs! continues on page 12 By Rachel Tabachnick TheTexas Curriculum IN THIS ISSUE Controversy objective is present—a Christian land gov - 1 Editorial ...... 2 n May 21,Texas School Board mem - erned by Christian principles.” The board then voted nine to five, along party lines, Ober Cynthia Dunbar opened the Is Abortion “Black Genocide”? . . . . 3 board’s meeting with an invocation: to adopt new standards that will be used to Book Review ...... 23 “Whether we look to the first charter of Vir - teach the state’s 4.8 million students— ginia, or the charter of New England, or the resisting the pleas of educators, historians, Reports in Review ...... 26 and even Rod Paige, a former U.S. secre - charter of Massachusetts Bay, or the Fun - Eyes Right ...... 27 damental Orders of Connecticut, the same From Schoolhouse to Statehouse continues on page 17

THE PUBLIC EYE 1 SUMMER 2010 The Public Eye

EDITORIAL ThePublicEye ’ve been lucky in my career. For most of my adult life I’ve worked both for pay and as Publisher Tarso Luís Ramos Ia volunteer at vital if underfunded publications, where I’ve done meaningful jobs and Editor been surrounded by smart, politically committed colleagues, many of whom have been Amy Hoffman quite eccentric, and many of whom have become life-long friends. I haven’t gotten rich, Design/layout but I’ve learned a lot. So, when I heard that the position of editor of The Public Eye was Hird Graphic Design open, I could not resist applying. Printing The Public Eye has been on my regular reading list for years. As a source of informa - Red Sun Press tion about the activities, ideas, and influence of the Right, it’s sometimes been very scary— Editorial Board not bedtime readin g—but it is also a source of hope, a link with the many like-minded Chip Berlet • Pam Chamberlain people courageously doing good, progressive work, persisting in even the bleakest of times. Thomas Cincotta • Frederick Clarkson Amy Hoffman • Gillian Kane It’s an honor to join the knowledgeable, experienced staff of PRA. Preserving the legacy Surina Khan • Jean Hardisty and high quality of The Public Eye , and the unique service it provides by reporting with Tarso Luís Ramos • Holly Sklar accuracy and sophistication on the Right, is a great responsibility —especially since The Public Ey e is in a transitional period.The potential of the Internet combined with finan - PRA Political Research Associates cial pressures are forcing us to evaluate whether printing and mailing the magazine still Founder and President Emerita makes sense; or whether online publication would be more timely, energy-efficient, and Jean V. Hardisty, Ph.D inexpensive.The optimism many of us felt at the election of the country’s first Black pres - ident has dissipated in the ensuing toxic political environment.TheTea Party movement Staff Tarso Luís Ramos, Executive Director has people on both the Left and the Right flummoxed. Anti-immigrant organizing has Chip Berlet, Senior Analyst revived traditional American racism and xenophobia. Pam Chamberlain, Senior Researcher But no matter what the day’s headlines, and whether it’s in this format or another, The Thomas Cincotta, Project Director Public Ey e will continue to publish vital, original research and analysis of the Right: in Amy Hoffman, Editorial Director future issues, you can look for articles about New Orleans five years after Hurricanes Kat - Cindy Savage-King, Operations Manager Charles Ocitti, Finance Director rina and Rita; how the U.S. Christian Right promotes homophobia in Africa; strategies Jean Smith, Development Associate for the reproductive justice movement since healthcare reform; green jobs and greenwashing; Maria Planansky, Program Associate and many others. We also plan more reporting on resistance movement s—the interview Aramis Tirado, Data/Web Master in this issue with Roberto Lovato about the successful Basta Dobbs! campaign to remove Interns the anti-immigrant newscaster Lou Dobbs from CNN is just one example of this focus. Aram Boghosian In the face of today’s challenges, it’s as important as ever for progressives to understand James Huettig Kate Malone the opposition; but we must also celebrate and learn from our victories. Hilary McCaunaghey Ilana Rothkopf – Amy Hoffman Board of Directors Janet Jakobsen Surina Khan Pardis Mahdavi Read the best analysis of the Christian Right on Supriya Pillai Talk2Action.org! Emelia Rallapalli Marcy Westerling

Talk2Action is a group blog led by Public Eye writer and The Public Eye is published by Political Research Associates, 1310 Broadway, Suite 201, editorial board member Frederick Clarkson. Read weekly Somerville, Massachusetts 02144-1837. 617.666.5300 fax: 617.666.6622

contributions from Fred, Political Research Associates PRA is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization. All donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted researcher Chip Berlet, and the rest of the best thinkers by law. © Political Research Associates, 2010. about the Christian Right. Website: www.publiceye.org All rights reserved. ISSN 0275-9322 Visit Talk2Action.org. ISSUE 67

THE PUBLIC EYE 2 SUMMER 2010 The Public Eye Is Abortion “Black Genocide”? By Kathryn Joyce his February, a highly provocative Tseries of 65 billboards went up around t s e

Atlanta, which featured an African Amer - t a l / s ican infant and the proclamation, “Black d e e f = f

Children Are an Endangered Species.”The e r ? 8 signs directed viewers to a website, 4 1 7 2 4

TooManyAborted.com, created by the - C

Radiance Foundation—a vague anti- O D / s c abortion and “personal transformation” o d / m nonprofit founded by biracial advertising o c . n n

executive Ryan Bomberger—with funding c . t 1 r o from Georgia Right to Life. p e r i / / At the unveiling of the billboards, Geor - : p t t gia Right to Life Minority Outreach Direc - h tor Catherine Davis explained their One of the Georgia “Black Children Are an Endangered Species” billboards, “corrected” by activists. justification: “Planned Parenthood’s Negro Project,” she said, “is succeeding.” 2 She was referring to a 1939 project begun by movement holds that Black and Brown and HB1155) into the state’s legislature. Planned Parenthood founder Margaret populations are being targeted by abortion The bill, which the Atlanta Journal- Sanger that has inspired decades of claims providers who deliberately place clinics in Constitution reports 4 was crafted to pose an that family planning is a racist plan to inner-city, low-income neighborhoods. immediate challenge to Roe v.Wade before wipe out populations of color. It’s an old the composition of the Supreme Court argument, with roots in the Black Power changes, would criminalize race- and sex- and Black Nationalist movements. But in selective abortions and has been fast- recent years it has become the province of Anti-abortion groups tracked through Georgia’s legislature.The anti-abortion groups who are selectively co- Senate passed it on March 26, and although opting civil rights rhetoric to present abor - are selectively co-opting the original House bill floundered in the tion and even contraception as eugenicist House special judiciary committee, SB529 plots disguised as voluntary reproductive civil rights rhetoric to quickly replaced it and is currently before choices, which are leading to a slow “Black the House Judiciary Committee. genocide.” present abortion and The bill, which rests on the assertion that Recent studies by the Guttmacher Insti - many women are coerced into abortions as tute found that abortion rates are indeed even contraception as a result of race or gender biases, goes on to 3 higher among women of color. African establish “the offense of criminal solicita - Americans, in particular, are thirteen per - eugenicist plots. tion of abortion” and to require doctors to cent of the population but account for 37 prove patients have not been pressured percent of all abortions. However, into abortion. On April 15, Georgia Right Guttmacher determined, this is due to For the past several years Black History to Life launched a series of robocalls that their greater incidence of unwanted preg - Month has brought an onslaught of anti- featured 2008 presidential candidate and nancies, resulting from economic inequal - abortion activities related to this “Black Fox talk show host Mike Huckabee, stump - ity and poor access to contraception and genocide” strategy.This year was no excep - ing for the bill on the grounds of its “pow - education. Nonetheless, the anti-abortion tion. At the same time that the Georgia bill - erful implications for the sanctity of human boards appeared, white Republicans life nationwide.” 5 The Network of Politi - Representative Barry Loudermilk and Sen - cally Active Christians has made a similar Kathryn Joyce is a freelance journalist and the ator Chip Pearson introduced the so-called pitch, and Focus on the Family may soon author of Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act (SB 529 join the fight. Patriarchy Movement (2009).

THE PUBLIC EYE 3 SUMMER 2010 The Public Eye

Reproductive-rights advocates of color if we murder the children?” 10 She takes fre - borhoods to publicize an appearance by the have been appalled by these campaigns, quent aim at a speech delivered on behalf Black right-wing radio personality, the with their implicit accusation that women of Martin Luther King Jr. by his wife, Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson. The pamphlets of color are either dupes or agents of geno - Coretta Scott King, in acceptance of the denounced “Klan Parenthood” and juxta - cide against their own people. (Not to 1966 Margaret Sanger Award.The speech posed images of lynchings with those of mention that the language of the bill - includes a lament about the number of aborted fetuses, under the slogan “lynch - boards implies a tone-deaf comparison unwanted children among poor Blacks. ing is for amateurs.” between Black children and animals.) Alveda King suggests that Martin Luther Anti-abortion activists have long com - “We’re calling the bill the OB/GYN King didn’t write the speech—to her ears, pared Roe v. Wade to the 1857 Dred Scott criminalization and racial discrimination it sounds like it was written by a woman— decision, which opened the territories to act,” says the director of the women-of- and that his wife’s delivery of it was due to slavery.They have also pointed to the Con - color organization SPARK Reproductive a marital disagreement. On Alveda King’s stitutional mandate to count Blacks as 3/5 Justice NOW, Paris Hatcher. 6 She notes that website, 11 she annotates the speech with of a person to further their “abortion as slav - the burden of proof the bill puts on doc - quotations from the Rev. King that she ery” analogy. Their strategy now includes tors would greatly impede healthcare deliv - believes refute his apparent support for the merging this rhetoric with the wave of ery. In an email campaign that has birth-control movement. fetal “personhood” amendment campaigns generated hundreds of complaints about in place in eight states—and building in the “endangered species” billboards to the dozens more. In January, the American Life owner of the signs, CBS Outdoors, SPARK League and Father Frank Pavone, the tweaked a common refrain in the pro - “In the African national director of Priests for Life, hosted choice community—“trust women”— a meeting about overturning Roe v.Wade, calling on people to “trust Black women” American community, which focused both on recruiting sup - over those demonizing their decisions. “I porters in Black communities and passing think what you have here is tokenized if you shout conspiracy, fetal personhood bills. “There’s a lot of per - leaders within a White movement floating sonhood legislation nationally,” agrees an agenda,” says Hatcher. “You see White they’ll listen, because of Childress, “and that’s going to remind organizations capitalizing off of Black bod - most African Americans that there was a ies and the shaming and blaming of Black the history they’ve had question about our personhood with Dred women.” 7 Scott. ”14 in this country.” In an email interview, Pavone said 15 Civil Rights Rhetoric and that the language of the Civil Rights Move - “Black Genocide” ment lends itself seamlessly to the anti- he token leaders to whom Hatcher is Alveda King and other “Black genocide” abortion cause. After visits to Martin Treferring are a small but busy cadre of spokespeople make ample use of imagery Luther King’s Ebenezer Baptist Church Black activists working in White-run anti- that aligns the anti-abortion cause with the with the King family, Pavone said, “I have abortion organizations. For example, in Civil Rights Movement.There is no short - thought to myself, the message is exactly late 2008, Pro-Life Unity hired a Black vice age of high-emotion analogies. The Rev. right. Nothing has to change except to president, Samuel Mosteller, 8 and in Janu - Johnny Hunter, the president of the Life include one more group of people—the ary 2009, after years of failed attempts to Education and Resource Network unborn.” Pavone and Alveda King both reach out to African Americans, Georgia (LEARN), talks often about “womb lynch - sample civil rights language in their out - Right to Life hired Davis to spread the word ings.” 12 The president of LEARN’s North - reach to Black pastors, explaining that that reproductive healthcare providers such east chapter, the Rev. Clenard Childress, the “beloved community” must include the as Planned Parenthood have a “mission to who founded the website BlackGeno - unborn, and “that nonviolence includes eliminate blacks from America.” 9 cide.org, frequently partners with the Cal - nonviolence to children in the womb” 16 — Most visible of these leaders is Alveda ifornia-based group Genocide Awareness messages they are furthering this summer King, the niece of Martin Luther King Jr., Project, which hosts “photo-mural” through a series of “freedom ride” bus whose full-time position with Priests for demonstrations on university campuses, tours kicking off in Birmingham on April Life was the first funded role for a “Black comparing abortion to the Rwandan geno - 27, led by Alveda King and a host of genocide” activist. Her main strategy— cide. 13 In 2007, 10,000 pamphlets pub - “Black genocide” leaders. and critics say her sole qualification—has lished by the Waco, Texas-based The apparent success of such rhetoric has been capitalizing on her uncle’s legacy, anti-abortion group Life Dynamics Incor - encouraged mainstream anti-abortion often asking, “How can the dream survive porated were mailed to inner-city neigh - groups to ask their donors to support out -

THE PUBLIC EYE 4 SUMMER 2010 The Public Eye reach to Blacks, arguing that these converts white elitists.” Its chief villain is Planned steadfast ally of the “Black genocide” cause. to the anti-abortion cause have the poten - Parenthood founder, Margaret Sanger. Later, Alveda King and others held a screen - tial to revive the movement. Last Decem - “In the African American community, ing of the film for congressional aides. In ber, Pavone told his donors, “With your if you shout conspiracy, they’ll listen, early March, Maafa 21 was the feature pres - help today we will help African Americans because of the history they’ve had in this entation at the Jubilee Film Festival at the take their rightful place in the pro-life country,” Childress told me .19 “I come 45th anniversary of the “Bloody Sunday” movement … men and women who know from the conspiracy tone whenever I’m attacks outside of Selma. 21 The film has what it means to be persecuted and treated speaking, especially to African Americans, been shown at numerous Black churches as ‘non-persons’ … men and women who so they understand you’ll have to do some and colleges. In April, Childress, spon - will re-energize the movement.” 17 digging, you’ll have to go beneath the sored by the Christian student group Every veneer.” (Apparently operating under the Nation Campus Ministries, discussed the Promoting Conspiracism same philosophy, Alveda King dismisses the film at Florida A&M, the largest histori - n 1999, Childress helped lead 1,500 studies citing higher rates of unwanted cally black college in the country—an Ipeople, mostly Black activists, on the pregnancy among Black women as the event he predicts will exponentially spread “Say-So” anti-abortion march from cause for high abortion rates by suggesting his message into the Black community. 22 Newark, New Jersey, to Washington, D.C., that Planned Parenthood intentionally In a March fundraising appeal seeking where they laid 1,452 roses—the number distributes faulty contraception to minor - support to fill requests for the film, of abortions black women were then hav - Crutcher claimed that 13,000 copies had ing daily—on the steps of the Supreme already been distributed. He triumphantly Court. Childress, a 2007 candidate for the announced, “Life Dynamics has hit pay state assembly who often says that “the Intellectuals in the dirt” with Maafa 21, as the film rages “like most dangerous place for an African Amer - a wildfire” through the Black community. ican to be is in the womb of their African anti-abortion movement The film, he said, is “the stone our pro-life American mother,” was recruited to the anti- movement would use to bring the abortion abortion movement by a White Catholic have long counseled linking Goliath to his knees.” activist who convinced him to attend a 1994 conference featuring the Rev. Johnny abortion with female “Black Genocide” and Hunter. 18 Healthcare Reform While other organizations contribute infanticide and sex-selective or close to fifteen years, the “Black money or materials, Childress supplies Fgenocide” movement has drummed bodies for protests from his 200-member, abortion. up publicity by capitalizing on discussions Montclair, New Jersey, congregation, New of race or Black history in the media and Calvary Baptist Church. His young promoted the posturing of White anti- “zealots” frequently volunteer for high- ity teens so they’ll need abortions. 20 ) Chil - abortion activists laying claim to Rosa commitment activism, such as a bus trip dress’s loose attitude toward historical Parks’s legacy. But from these awkward ori - to Birmingham in 2003, where they accuracy seems representative of the broader gins, the movement has grown enormously crashed a mainstream Civil Rights Move - “Black genocide” movement.Thus, Maafa over the past year. In January, Lou Engle, ment celebration, and recent trips to 21 sidesteps historical hurdles to suggest the White founder of the anti-abortion NAACP conventions to protest the exclu - that Sanger’s support for sterilization on group Bound4Life as well as of a group that sion of “Black genocide” concerns. mental illness grounds (see sidebar) was a campaigned to pass California’s Proposition Childress is featured in Maafa 21: Black coded effort to target Blacks; that a eugen - 8 forbidding same-sex marriage, convened Genocide in 21st Century America, a 2009 ics movement mobilized to legalize abor - a Martin Luther King Day march on a large film produced by Mark Crutcher, a White tion to market it to Black women; and that Planned Parenthood clinic under con - Texan who runs Life Dynamics Incorpo - the government “hired Planned Parent - rated—the producer of the “Klan Parent - hood” to continue eugenics programs. hood” brochures. Maafa is a Swahili word The film, which received support from The Reproductive Rights that refers to the African holocaust of Priests for Life, premiered at the United Activist Resource Kit abduction and slavery. The film argues States Capitol Visitor Center last year on that the maafa didn’t end with slavery but Juneteenth, an African American holiday is now available online at rather continues in a plot to exterminate that marks the issuance of the Emancipa - www.publiceye.org! the black population through ongoing tion Proclamation.The host was the White eugenics programs created by “wealthy Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ)—a

THE PUBLIC EYE 5 SUMMER 2010 The Public Eye

MARGARET SANGER AND EUGENICS “The argument has always been there,” says Alex Sanger, 1 Margaret should be voluntary and individualistic. Eugenics is unquestionably at Sanger’s grandson and the chair of the International Planned Parent - odds with today’s reproductive-rights principles, says Chesler, but hood Council—echoing other leaders who can’t remember a time when Sanger was ahead of her time in an era when the majority of people accusations of racism weren’t made against reproductive-rights activists. believed in forced eugenic sterilization. 9

Over the years, the name of the early twentieth-century birth-control One of eleven children, Sanger was motivated by her experience of advocate Margaret Sanger has become toxic. Recently, when Secretary growing up in crowded tenements with high rates of infant and mater - of State Hillary Clinton received the Margaret Sanger Award, anti- nal mortality. “She believed women were natural eugenicists,” explains abortion stalwart Senator Chris Smith (R-NJ) raised such a stir that Alex Sanger, “and that birth control, which could limit the number of Clinton asked Ellen Chesler, the historian and author of Woman of children and improve their quality of life, was the panacea to accom - Valor: Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement in America plish this.” 10 (1992), to submit testimony regarding Sanger’s history to the Congres - sional Record. 2 Likewise, Gloria Feldt, the author of The War on Choice When Sanger began her work, Black communities were ignored by the (2004) and a former president of Planned Parenthood, recalls that medical establishment. So, from early on, Sanger’s clinics in Harlem when Sanger was nominated for the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame, were welcomed by esteemed black leaders of the day including W.E.B. the debate was so heated that the Arizona legislature de-funded the Du Bois and Mary McLeod Bethune, the founder of the National entire Hall of Fame. 3 Council of Negro Women. In 1939 Sanger founded the Negro Project, a birth control campaign for southern Blacks. As soon as it secured Much of the ire comes from epic misrepresentation of Sanger’s work, funding, the project was wrested from her control by the White men especially her ideas about eugenics, or human “selective breeding,” running the Birth Control Federation of America—a merger between explains Alex Sanger. “Her discussions of eugenics are very complex Sanger’s Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau and the American and nuanced. She said a lot of stuff that nobody at Planned Parenthood Birth Control League—and by Robert Seibels, the chairman of the agrees with today, but she’s also quoted as saying things she never said.” 4 Committee on Maternal Welfare of the South Carolina Medical Associ - Among the quotations frequently and incorrectly credited to Sanger is, ation. 11 The new leadership dismissed Sanger’s plan to introduce the “More children from the fit, less from the unfit—that is the chief issue project with a widespread educational campaign that would be run by of birth control.” It is so widely misattributed to her that it appeared on Black experts and leaders. It was in this context that Sanger had written, the wall of an International Center for Photography exhibit on eugenics. “We don’t want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro Another common offender showed up in a recent fundraising letter population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that from Priests for Life: “Colored people are like human weeds and have to idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.” Sanger be exterminated.” The historian Esther Katz, director of the Margaret meant that she didn’t want rumors to spread of nefarious intentions Sanger Papers Project at New York University, explains that Sanger behind family planning 12 (a key reason, Alex Sanger adds, why she never said anything of the sort. 5 never allowed herself to profit from her birth control innovations). However, generations of activists have presented Sanger’s remark that According to the “Black genocide” movement, Sanger worked in she didn’t want word to “go out” as proof that she secretly intended cahoots with the Ku Klux Klan and the Nazis to advance a theory of genocide. Sanger had nothing to do with the project’s implementation, White supremacy and forced sterilization. The truth is more compli - and indeed, as the Margaret Sanger Papers Project holds, it was a fail - cated than this caricature. Sanger did embrace ideas about eugenics that ure, enacted without regard for Black needs and in terms that today were popular in the 1920s; the eugenics movement offered her legiti - sound blatantly racist. Nevertheless, her early involvement is still cited macy, says Chesler, adding that by the Black genocide movement as evidence that she supported coercive programs. Margaret Sanger had no choice but to engage eugenics. It was a mainstream movement, like public health or the In years past, says Esther Katz, these arguments spread slowly, as only environment today. It was to sanitize birth control and zealots sought out materials like the lurid 1979 pamphlet, Margaret remove it from the taint of immorality and the taint Sanger: Father of Modern Society, which paints Sanger as a promiscuous of feminism, which was seen as an individualistic and Nazi sympathizer. 13 But starting in the mid-1990s, the Internet enabled antisocial group that addressed the needs of women only, accusations to fly farther and faster, and unsourced, unchecked material and immoral women at that. 6 built a mountain of false allegations and attributions, with Wikipedia a key battleground. “It fits in with the tendency to use the Big Lie as a This was an era when President Teddy Roosevelt condemned birth con - tool. You can take the smallest phrase and make a whole industry out of trol as immoral, fearful that it would lead to the “race suicide” of white it. It’s a deliberate refusal to address the complexity of our past and its Protestants. 7 Like the president, most eugenicists didn’t believe in birth figures,” says Katz. 14 control and were hostile to the idea of women’s bodily autonomy. Sanger, conversely, derided what she called “cradle competition” 8 by In fact, Katz says, Sanger was among the few family planning activists leaders angling for higher birthrates among the White upper class and who sought to partner with those Black leaders who believed uncon - said women’s first procreative duty was not to the state, nor to their trolled reproduction was harming their communities. Not all of them race, but to themselves. She believed women’s reproductive choices did. Du Bois envisioned a “talented tenth”—a Black elite made possible

THE PUBLIC EYE 6 SUMMER 2010 The Public Eye

op-ed essays in the conservative Washington by family planning in poor Black communities, but Black separatist figures such as Marcus Times, written by prominent Black leaders Garvey opposed birth control. Sanger was also opposed by many mainstream churches, both of the “abortion as genocide” cause, which Black and White. The Catholic Church called Sanger an antisemite when she opened a clinic urged Republicans to adopt the issue in in a Jewish neighborhood, despite her marriage to a Jew, and alleged she was trying to elimi - their fight against healthcare reform. At nate the poor during the Depression, despite her own roots in urban poverty. press conferences throughout the sum - Of course, serious abuses sprang from the eugenics movement with which Sanger was allied, mer, Alveda King and her colleagues kept including forced or coerced sterilizations of tens of thousands of women, mostly Black or Latina . the rhetoric heated, telling the media that Although Sanger opposed racially based eugenics and generally believed that sterilization “genocide is not healthcare.” In an open let - should be voluntary, she made an exception in the cases of people she thought were unable to ter to President Obama in August, a writer parent their children, such as the mentally ill—a position upheld by the Supreme Court in its for the creationist Discovery Institute 1927, eight-to-one Buck v. Bell decision concerning an allegedly “feebleminded” White woman. But while this is downplayed in biographies of the judges involved, Sanger’s association with implied that John Holdren, Obama’s pick eugenics has been so overemphasized it often eclipses her role in promoting birth control. to head the Office of Science and Tech - nology Policy, was a eugenicist targeting Reproductive rights advocates have successfully refocused population-control programs from people of color in developing nations. 25 abusive tactics such as sterilization to women’s choices. Yet we’re too close historically to the abuses of eugenics to ignore them—especially since the abuses aren’t all in the past. Most Sex- and Race-Selective recently, in 2008, John LaBruzzo, a Republican member of the Louisiana House, proposed Abortion paying poor women $1,000 to sterilize themselves. Alex Sanger concludes that his grand - mother’s attempt “to co-opt eugenics in a bid for respectability” was a resounding failure, t the end of February, Representative with dangerous fallout that continues to this day. 15 AFranks upped the ante in the “Black genocide” debate, telling a blogger that with “half of all black children” being End Notes 1 Interview with author, February 15, 2010 aborted, “Far more of the African Ameri - 2 Interview with author, January 5, 2010 can community is being devastated by the 3 Interview with author, February 5, 2010 politics of today than were devastated by the 26 4 Interview with author, February 15, 2010 policies of slavery.” After his statement, a 5 Interview with author, January 14, 2010 lineup of leaders from the “Black genocide” 6 Interview with author, January 5, 2010 movement came to his defense. Alveda 7 “Eugenics, Race, and Margaret Sanger Revisited: Reproductive Freedom for All?,” Hypatia (http://www.kin - King declared that any critics of Franks tera.org/atf/cf/%7B4FA48DB8-CE54-4CD3-B335-553F8BE1C230%7D/AlexanderSanger_Hypatia.pdf) shared “the slave owner’s mindset.” 27 Day 8 Alex Sanger Interview with author, February 15, 2010 Garder of the National Black Pro-Life 9 Interview with author, January 5, 2010 Union said Franks “should be revered as a 10 Interview with author, February 15, 2010 great modern day abolitionist.” 28 11 “Birth Control or Race Control? Sanger and the Negro Project,” Margaret Sanger Papers Project Franks’ activism on the subject is long - (http://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/secure/newsletter/articles/bc_or_race_control.html) standing. In 2008, he said a “Black geno - 12 “Birth Control or Race Control? Sanger and the Negro Project,” Margaret Sanger Papers Project (http://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/secure/newsletter/articles/bc_or_race_control.html) cide” protest in Washington, D.C., inspired 13 “The Demonization of Margaret Sanger,” Margaret Sanger Papers Project him to sponsor a bipartisan House bill that (http://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/secure/newsletter/articles/demonization_of_ms.html) would prohibit “discrimination against 14 Interview with author, January 14, 2010 the unborn on the basis of sex or race, and 15 “Eugenics, Race, and Margaret Sanger Revisited: Reproductive Freedom for All?,” Hypatia (http://www.kin - for other purposes.” 29 The bill, which ben - tera.org/atf/cf/%7B4FA48DB8-CE54-4CD3-B335-553F8BE1C230%7D/AlexanderSanger_Hypatia.pdf) efited from the collaboration of “Black genocide” leaders like King and Childress, was reintroduced by Franks last spring as struction in Houston, calling it an “abor - as the abortion debate overwhelmed health - the Susan B. Anthony and Frederick tion supercenter that targets the minority care reform. In mid-July, the White con - Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act 23 community.” The march drew promi - gressional representative Todd Tiahrt of 2009. It has 42 sponsors. nent White anti-abortion leaders, includ - (R-KS) argued against President Obama’s Intellectuals in the anti-abortion move - ing the Family Research Council’s Tony healthcare bill on “Black genocide” ment have long counseled linking abor - Perkins and the president of the Southern grounds, suggesting that Obama’s mother tion with female infanticide and Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious might have aborted him if she’d had the sex-selective abortion, as a method of 24 Liberty Commission, Richard Land. option of “taxpayer-funded abortions.” converting moderates who would recoil The stage had been set earlier in the year, Tiahrt was backed up by a series of five at the thought of reproductive choice as

THE PUBLIC EYE 7 SUMMER 2010 The Public Eye a weapon of gender inequality.This argu - other communities of color.” In fact, Sis - votes indicate that they care about ment is making the rounds in states as well. ter Song has heard reports that a Repub - children of color once they’re here. 33 Oklahoma passed a law banning sex- lican legislator in Arizona may soon Indeed, during the three hours of debate selective abortion in 2009 (it was struck introduce a bill on race- and sex-selective preceding the passage of SB 529 in Geor - down this February on technical grounds). abortion aimed at finding support among gia’s Senate, Black Democratic Senator Expanding the strategy to race may be the Latino community. Vincent Fort indicated his skepticism 34 by even more potent. In addition to Georgia, SPARK’s Paris Hatcher agrees: introducing an amendment to it address - with its Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act, We know Georgia is a testing ground ing racial profiling—an issue tackled in an Arizona, Mississippi, and New Jersey have for harmful legislation. It started earlier Senate bill that never made it out of proposed bans on race- and sex-selective with the “personhood” amendment committee. His amendment was ruled abortions. in 2008. We know that if it happens unconstitutional. When Franks first introduced his bill in here in Georgia, it will happen in While in recent years conservative Chris - 2008, the Catholic anti-abortion and anti- other places, and if there is a victory tian groups have made efforts, both cal - contraception group, Population Research here in Georgia, it will increase the culated and sincere, to address racism, the Institute, mused that the bill’s premise— momentum in other states where Religious Right has an undeniable history that there is discrimination through abor - bills are located. 32 of antipathy to civil rights and minority tion—could be as powerful as the campaign concerns.The quasiprogressive language of against so-called partial-birth abortion. “Black genocide” rings hollow when politi - “Even those who believe in the absolute cians such as Representative Joe Wilson (R- right to destroy a child under any and all “Not allowing women SC), a Confederate flag defender, sign on circumstances, it is safe to predict, will be to Franks’s bill; when Tony Perkins, who uncomfortable defending such an extreme of color to have access managed the Louisiana Senate campaign position,” PRI President Steve Mosher that famously bought White supremacist 30 suggested. to medically accurate David Duke’s mailing list, 35 protests Hous - There’s a clear sense among abortion- ton’s Planned Parenthood on antiracist rights activists in Georgia that the cam - information and health - grounds; or when Pro-Life Radio’s Stephen paigns there are deliberate efforts to splinter Peroutka calls for “the defunding of the alliances between reproductive-rights and care is itself part of a racist agenda of Planned Parenthood,” 36 racial-justice organizations, as well as to lay while he and his brother and law partner the groundwork for a national push. Dur - mass plot to hold back Michael are the principal sponsors of the 31 ing a March press call organized by the Institute on the Constitution 37 : a thinktank blog Reproductive Health Reality Check, communities of color.” closely tied to the far-right Constitution Loretta Ross, the national coordinator of Party, which calls for repealing the Voting Sister Song: Women of Color Reproduc - Rights Act. tive Justice Collective, explains that because Anti-Abortion Movement Alfred Ross, the founder and president Georgia has the highest number of Black Cynicism of the Institute for Democracy Studies, elected officials in the country, the anti- n the basis of their past votes on issues which researches antidemocratic move - abortion movement is using the state as test of concern to Black voters, says Ross, ments in the U.S., studied right-wing case for enshrining the “Black genocide” O the Georgia bill’s sponsors are not con - organizations in the early 1990s for the argument into law. The issue has been vincing advocates for civil rights. She notes Planned Parenthood Federation of Amer - deployed, she says, in classic wedge-poli - that ica. He tracked ties between the anti-abor - tics fashion, to draw Blacks and South tion movement and fringe groups such as It’s really hard to persuade African Asians—who are allegedly the targets of theTaxpayer Party (now the Constitution American women in the city of providers promoting sex-selective abor - Party) that, he says, represented “the first Atlanta [that this bill], headlined by tions—into the conservative base. underground movement that justified the rural White Republicans, is truly “I actually see this as an opening salvo,” creation of a militia.” These groups pro - about saving Black or South Asian says Ross, “because if the Right can deliver moted antisemitic conspiracy theories that children.These are the same legisla - this bill in the state of Georgia as a suc - condemned legal abortion as a Jewish plot. tors who, when we look at their vot - cessful trial balloon, I think it will More recently, attacks on Planned Par - ing records, when it comes to embolden them to believe that around the enthood have found ammunition in the improving schools or getting guns off country they can drive a wedge into the work of the anti-abortion ingénue Lila the streets, are not people whose African American community and into Rose, a White University of California

THE PUBLIC EYE 8 SUMMER 2010 The Public Eye

Los Angeles student who gained fame for White fundamentalist outreach to the because they reinforce Black people’s a “sting operation” that caught several Black church as destructive. It has shifted historically justified sense that they’ve been Planned Parenthood clinics accepting the Black church away from liberation lied to. donations targeted to fund abortions for theology, he says, and toward conservative But the comparison between the Black women. (Rose was inspired, boasts social action, particularly through the pros - Tuskegee experiment and abortion is a Childress, by reading his BlackGenocide.org perity gospel movement, which has flour - false one, says Faith Pennick, the director website.) Rose’s collaborator in the scheme ished in Black churches by promising and producer of Silent Choices, a 2007 was James O’Keefe, the right-wing activist financial rewards to the faithful. documentary about Black women and behind a similar 2009 sting against the Likewise, the organizations screening abortion. The Tuskegee victims had no community organizing group ACORN, in Maafa 21 for black audiences, such as the opportunity to give informed consent— which O’Keefe posed as a pimp. In phone Frederick Douglass Foundation, Global unlike women seeking abortions. Nonethe - calls to Planned Parenthood, O’Keefe Outreach Campus Ministries, and the less, says Pennick, who is African American, claimed he was donating out of concern Network of Politically Active Christians the genocide argument “hits a nerve with that affirmative action would harm the (NPAC), which is now lobbying for Geor - Black people, particularly those who are prospects of his (fictitious) child. However, gia’s “Black Genocide” bill, “have close ties uncomfortable with abortion, because complicating the “gotcha” appeal of his with religious right powerhouses Focus on they say, here’s another example of us being script are revelations that O’Keefe’s racist the Family and Family Research Council,” messed with.” 41 The sad reality is that playacting isn’t far removed from his col - says Sarah Posner, the author of God’s rumors about eugenics experiments keep lege history of holding an “affirmative Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican many young women of color from access - action bake sale” or his later involvement ing what’s often the only affordable in a 2006 Race and Conservatism con - medical care in their communities. ference, sponsored by the Robert A.Taft Pamela Merritt, an African Ameri - Club, a paleoconservative organization The “Black genocide” argument can blogger and the statewide e-orga - affiliated with a network of racist groups, has remained a male-driven nizer for Planned Parenthood affiliates which drew an audience of noted anti - in Missouri, witnessed this firsthand in semites and White supremacists. conversation that shuts out 2003, when she volunteered in a tran - O’Keefe was arrested this winter for sitional home for teen mothers in St. breaking into the office of Senator Mary women of color and ignores Louis. In a discussion about where the Landrieu (D-LA). women could obtain affordable Alfred Ross warns, though, that over - the role they have played in the HIV/AIDS tests, their first reaction stressing the relationship between the was, “Not the Planned Parenthood!” anti-abortion movement and racism reproductive justice movement. When Merritt asked them why, they may be missing the mark. “Some peo - told her that at Planned Parenthood, ple who make that argument aren’t women are given shots that will keep from the racist right, they’re just using an Crusade for Values Voters (2008). Some them from ever having babies. “It wasn’t the opportunistic moment to recruit sup - groups, like the NPAC, which shares same thing as the prolife rhetoric that you porters,” he says. From the late 1980s on, offices with the Family Research Council, shouldn’t even walk through the door,” says right-wing groups such as Ralph Reed’s were created specifically “to bolster Reli - Merritt. “It’s the sense that, if I walk Christian Coalition attempted to recruit gious Right and Republican outreach to through that door, they’re going to do Black churches using social issues such as Blacks,” Posner says. 39 something to make me not have this LBGT rights, on which these churches baby.” 42 took conservative positions. “In spite of the The Power of Rumor The big issue, for Merritt, is sex educa - barbarism of their agenda,” says Ross, aafa 21, says Posner, argues “that tion. She has met a stream of young women “they’re marginally creative enough to MBlacks have been ‘hoodwinked’ by in her community who have been taught make up reasons why people who aren’t diabolical, eugenics-promoting family so little about reproduction that a number allies should become allies.They’re bottom planning advocates.”The film, she says, “is aren’t really sure where children come feeding: whatever bait they can throw up, intended to tap into anger about the from, and there is a vicious cycle of STD no matter how rancid, they use.” 38 Tuskegee syphilis experiment and invol - re-infection among the St. Louis popula - Kevin Alexander Gray, an African untary sterilizations of the early- to tion. Into this knowledge vacuum come American civil rights leader and the author mid-twentieth century.” 40 NPAC Executive out-of-state groups such as Lou Engle’s of Waiting for Lightning to Strike: The Director Dean Nelson told Posner that Bound4Life, which tour local churches to Fundamentals of Black Politics (2008), sees Maafa 21 screenings have been successful promote the idea of Planned Parenthood’s

THE PUBLIC EYE 9 SUMMER 2010 The Public Eye

“Black genocide” agenda. “Call me mili - river.” (Gray, who was Jackson’s South breakdown of political education in Black tant,” Merritt says, “but from my per - Carolina presidential campaign manager politics. He says, spective, not allowing more women of in 1988, instead suggests that Jackson’s The result of it is that we have peo - 47 color, without fear or dogma or this crazy understanding of the issue evolved.) ple claiming that the maafa is the conspiracy theory, to have access to med - The argument leaves Black women fac - abortion of black kids, instead of ically accurate information and health ing the accusation that they are either fools what it really is: the great catastrophe care, is itself part of a mass plot to hold back or murderers—and either way complicit in related to the slave trade. It means a 43 communities of color.” what Mark Crutcher says is Planned Par - bunch of frauds can rewrite your enthood’s sinister plan for “convincing the history and make it everything that 48 “Dupes” and “Sell-Outs” target group to commit mass suicide.” The it’s not. The freedom movement, n the 1990s, when Alex Sanger, Margaret accusation cuts to the heart of an inter - which is what civil rights is about, is ISanger’s grandson and the chair of the section of sexism and racism for Black about the freedom of citizens to International Planned Parenthood Coun - women, who have historically been pressed determine their lives for themselves cil, ran Planned Parenthood New York to choose allegiance between two aspects and make their own opportunities. City, he observed that the Black escorts of their beings: their gender and their race. And not, Grays says, to become a mother working at the city’s clinics were particular It continues today. Maame Mensima- “because these people think you ought to targets of protesters, who would single Horn, an African American activist based be a mother.” 51 them out and accuse them of committing in Miami who consulted for Sister Song, says that the “Black genocide” argument has genocide against their own people. Sanger Women of Color at the sees the problem as originating in older splits remained a male-driven conversation that Intersection in the various Black rights movements, shuts out women of color and ignores the he question of how to counter the which, he says, were often along gender role they have played in the reproductive “Black genocide” argument is almost lines, as Black women leaders demanded the justice movement. Mensima-Horn sees a T as complicated as its history. Ellen Chesler, ability to control their fertility while male new generation of male activists relegating historian and author of Woman of Valor: leaders were more concerned about “the women to “breeder” status and blaming 49 Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control genocide issue.” 44 them for a deficit in the Black population. Movement in America (1992) says that, Co-opting this old fight, anti-abortion It seems a neat return to the 1920s after one hundred years of variations on the groups claim that Blacks who support debate in the Black community about how argument, she’s not sure what the response choice are either genocidal elitists or dupes. to best uplift the race. W.E.B. DuBois should be. 52 Alex Sanger says it’s the same Alveda King suggests that a White-led argued for “quality versus quantity,” say - dilemma that faces the larger prochoice birth control movement “cultivate[d] Black ing that Black interests were best met by movement, of boiling down a complex leaders” to coerce them into targeting other family planning that allowed parents to argument to a catchphrase, to counter anti- people of color. 45 Day Gardner likewise invest more in fewer children, not by sim - abortion slogans that claim abortion is refers to the Black politicians, ministers, and ply birthing greater numbers. In 2010, murder, or now, genocide. 53 community organizers who worked with Catherine Davis of Georgia Right to Life Gloria Feldt, author of The War on Margaret Sanger in Harlem as Judases seems to take the latter position, saying that Choice (2004) and a former president of “who sold their souls for ‘thirty pieces of sil - if Black women hadn’t had abortions, “we Planned Parenthood, says that many repro - ver’” when they were hired to enact “eth - would be 59 million strong.” 50 ductive-rights activists who came out of the nic cleansing.” 46 The emphasis underscores a history of sex - Civil Rights Movement are so horrified by Childress and Maafa 21 focus on main - ism in the Civil Rights Movement and its accusations of racism that they haven’t stream Black organizations, such as the institutions, says Gray, in which Black been able to look at their history. NAACP, and leaders such as Jesse Jackson, women’s intellectual and physical labor was who at one time opposed abortion rights, the backbone of the movement yet was We’re not pure in this country, but depicting them as formerly principled rarely acknowledged. Today, “Black geno - Margaret Sanger was probably on the advocates who bought into Planned Par - cide” movement leaders, such as Childress leading edge of those looking for a enthood lies in exchange for campaign and King, emphasize male leadership in different way. It does take a certain support. In Maafa 21, the Dallas, Texas, both the movement and church—not sur - amount of energy and research to put pastor Stephen Broden, a leader in the prising in conservative circles, but the destruc - the truth out there, but the truth is “Black genocide” movement who has tive effect on women of color continues. that for any woman of any race, eth - addressedTea Party conventions, remarks For Gray, this kind of sexism is a result nicity, or economic level, the first and of Jackson, “There’s never been a shortage of White fundamentalist outreach as well most important thing she must have of Black leaders willing to sell us down the as a symptom of a larger problem: the is the right to make her own repro -

THE PUBLIC EYE 10 SUMMER 2010 The Public Eye

ductive decisions. “To own and con - End Notes 27 “Martin Luther King Jr’s Niece: Congressman Correct 1 http://www.theradiancefoundation.org/ourstory.html That Abortion Hurts Blacks,” Lifesite News trol her own body,” as Sanger herself (http://www.lifenews.com/nat6062.html) 54 2 “Black Children Are an Endangered Species,” Georgia says. 28 Right to Life (http://georgialife.wordpress.com/ “Black Pro-Life Leader Defends Congressman Trent 2010/02/05/black-children-are-an-endangered-species/) Franks on Abortion-Slavery,” Lifesite News Part of the answer could be more dis - (http://www.lifenews.com/nat6055.html) 3 cussion of the issue led by women of color. Abortion and Women of Color: The Bigger Picture, 29 Guttmacher Institute (http://www.guttmacher.org/ “Planned Parenthood Accused of Racism,” CBN News Feldt notes the need for more diversity in pubs/gpr/11/3/gpr110302.html); Trends in the Char - (http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/363785.aspx? the reproductive-rights movement, and acteristics of Women Obtaining Abortions, 1974 to option=print) more women of color in visible leadership 2004, Guttmacher Institute (http://www.guttmacher. 30 “A New Front in the Abortion Wars,” Population org/pubs/2008/09/18/Report_Trends_Women_Obtain - Research Institute (http://www.pop.org/20080930915/ roles. Faith Pennick agrees that inadequate ing_Abortions.pdf) september-30-a-new-front-in-the-abortion-wars) outreach by prochoice groups to women of 4 “A brewing fight over an anti-abortion bill aimed at the 31 RHRC Press Call, March 9, 2010 U.S. Supreme Court,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution color, and insufficiently direct attempts to 32 Interview with author, March 26, 2010 (http://blogs.ajc.com/political-insider-jim- address the complicated history of Sanger galloway/2010/04/15/a-brewing-fight-over-an-anti- 33 RHRC Press Call, March 9, 2010 and eugenics, has “left a door open for pro - abortion-bill-aimed-at-the-u-s-supreme-court/) 34 “Senate passes abortion bill, would make it a crime to life organizations to come in and say, ‘they 5 “Gov. Mike Huckabee Endorses GA Senate Bill 529 and convince woman to abort child,” Atlanta Journal- 55 Asks Georgians to CallTheir Georgia House Members,” Constitution (http://blogs.ajc.com/gold-dome- don’t care about you, but we do.’” Georgia Right to Life (http://www.christiannewswire. live/2010/03/26/senate-debating-abortion-bill/) “That’s my motivation for addressing it, com/news/676413634.html) 35 “Justice Sunday Preachers,” The Nation (http:// because this is what makes someone feel not 6 Interview with author, March 26, 2010 www.thenation.com/doc/20050509/blumenthal) comfortable in joining a movement we 7 Ibid. 36 “Stephen Peroutka calls for “the defunding of the racist agenda of Planned Parenthood,” The American View 8 “Pro-Life Unity Appoints Vice-President Major Samuel need more women of color joining,” says (http://www.theamericanview.com/index.php?id=1118) 56 Mosteller,” Christians Unite (http://news.christian - Pamela Merritt. sunite.com/Religion_News/religion07886.shtml) 37 http://www.iotconline.com/ Another part of the solution, many 9 “GRTL Hires Catherine Davis to Help Preserve the 38 Interview with author, March 2, 2010 activists agree, must be more discussion of Legacy in the African American Community,” Georgia 39 Interview with author, March 3, 2010 Right to Life (http://www.christiannewswire.com/ sexuality and reproductive issues in com - 40 news/333129079.html) Ibid. munities of color. Gray says that’s a prob - 41 10 Interview with author, January 8, 2010 Interview with author, February 6, 2010 lematic absence in the Black community, 42 11 http://www.priestsforlife.org/africanamerican/king- Interview with author, February 15, 2010 which avoids discussions of abortion just planned-parenthood-1-8.pdf 43 Ibid. 12 as it has shunned talk of AIDS and gay issues. Maafa 21 44 Interview with author, January 29, 2010 13 When you don’t talk about it, it gives http://abortionno.org/index.php/the_genocide_ 45 Interview with author, January 8, 2010 awareness_project_gap all these other folks who have their 46 “Day Gardner, National Black Pro-Life Union Says: ‘As 14 Interview with author, January 15, 2010 own political agenda room to step in America Celebrates Black History Month Planned Par - 15 Interview with author, February 15, 2010 enthood Continues in the Tradition of the KKK’” and shape the argument as they have National Black Pro-Life Union (http://www.dfw - 16 Ibid. with the Black church, as it relates to catholic.org/day-gardner-national-black-pro-life-union- 17 Gospel of Life Ministries fundraising email, December says-as-america-celebrates-black-history-month-planned- gay rights and women’s rights. Noth - 17, 2009 parenthood-continues-in-the-tradition-of-the- kkk7928/.html) ing is being said, so they’re filling up 18 Interview with author, January 15, 2010 57 47 Interview with author, March 2, 2010 the space. 19 Ibid. 48 Maafa 21 “There is a need to have more conver - 20 Interview with author, January 8, 2010 49 Interview with author, January 14, 2010 sations,” agrees Paris Hatcher. She points 21 Life Dynamics fundraising letter, April 2010 50 “Antiabortion activists see a racial conspiracy,” The Los 22 Interview with author, January 15, 2010 out that the Georgia billboards and leg - Angeles Times (http://mobile.latimes.com/inf/infomo? islative campaign have had the unintended, 23 “Pro-Life Advocates Plan to Protest Opening of view=page1&feed:a=latimes_1min&feed:c=nation - Largest Abortion Clinic in U.S.,” CNSNews.com news&feed:i=52509298&nopaging=1) positive effect of drawing hundreds of peo - (http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/59334) 51 Interview with author, March 2, 2010 ple into the debate—to rallies, email cam - 24 “Rep. Tiahrt: With Tax-Funded Abortions Obama 52 Interview with author, January 5, 2010 paigns, and public comment on media Might Not Have Been Born,” Lifesite News 53 stories about the issue. The conversation (http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/ Interview with author, January 29, 2010 jul/09072001.html) 54 Interview with author, February 5, 2010 itself affirms a long unacknowledged truth: 25 “An Open Letter to President Obama Regarding the 55 Interview with author, February 6, 2010 that abortion is a Black issue. “There is Appointment of Science Advisor John Holdren by 56 ample silence in our communities, and it’s Michael Egnor, Discovery Institute,” Biblical Perspec - Interview with author, February 15, 2010 tives (http://onemansthoughts.wordpress.com/2009/ 57 Interview with author, March 2, 2010 important that we are vocal about what’s 08/03/an-open-letter-to-president-obama-regarding- 58 going on and talking about what’s going on the-appointment-of-science-advisor-john-holdren-by- Interview with author, March 26, 2010 michael-egnor-discovery-institute/) with our bodies,” says Hatcher. “If we’re not 26 “GOP’s Trent Franks: Abortion worse than slavery for talking about them, they’re being divvied blacks,” Salon (http://www.salon.com/news/poli - up by other people.” 58 I tics/war_room/2010/02/26/franks)

THE PUBLIC EYE 11 SUMMER 2010 The Public Eye BASTA DOBBS! cont’d from page 1 What was your personal Any other reasons for targeting Dobbs interest in this? and CNN? I’m a journalist, and I came During the campaign, people would tell out of retirement as an me, “Yo siento mucho ódio hacia Lou organizer to do this cam - Dobbs” — “I feel a lot of hatred for Lou paign. During the 1994 Dobbs.” But I would say, “We have to work campaign against Califor - not from a place of hatred but from a place nia’s anti-immigrant ballot where we love ourselves enough to say, initiative, Proposition 187, ‘Stop! Ya basta! No more!’” It’s like that I was the head of the coun - moment when a woman who’s being try’s largest immigrant- abused steps up and says, “I love myself rights organization, in Los enough to protect myself from abuse’”— Angeles —the Central and her life changes. Our campaign had Roberto Lovato, co-founder, Presente.org American Resource Center, everything to do with love. CARECEN. So I know who’s who in the immigrant- Others also targeted Dobbs. How did one that put us on the map was the Basta rights movement. [Proposi - Basta Dobbs relate to those campaigns? Dobbs [“Enough with Dobbs”] campaign. tion 187 passed but was declared Sure, other groups had tried it, but they unconstitutional by the U.S. District weren’t national, they weren’t online, and Of all the anti-immigrant individuals, Court.] they didn’t really have a broad strategy. organizations, and media pundits out I took on this campaign for a few reasons. They threatened a boycott, but they never there, why did you decide to target Lou First, I wanted to get Lou Dobbs out. Our fulfilled that promise. If you make a Dobbs? campaign called him the most dangerous threat and don’t back it up, you’re doing Lou Dobbs probably had the broadest man for Latinos in the United States. He us all harm. reach of any anti-immigrant pundit in had a website, a radio show, columns, pub - A couple of campaigns—one called Drop the United States. Every day at 7:00 pm, lic appearances, books—a multimedia Dobbs and another called Enough is prime time, on CNN, he would spout empire dedicated to the hatred of immi - Enough, organized by Democracia anti-immigrant sentiments and provide a grants and Latinos. We had to do some - USA—were launched at the same time as platform for the most extreme elements, thing, if only for our own self-respect. ours, and there was some level of coordi - like the Federation for American Number two, it was important to show how nation. But, we were the only one that Immigration Reform [FAIR] and the to win. You don’t build movements with - focused on organizing the people most vigilante Minutemen organization, whose out victories. affected by Lou Dobbs: Spanish-speaking members were responsible for killing Raul immigrants. If you don’t reach out to the Flores and his nine-year-old daughter Number three, I wanted to complement the organizing that was being done online. If people most affected, what kind of an Brisenia during a home invasion in May impact can you have? 2009 . you’re only online, you’re bloodless. Organ - izing in many ways is about linking per - So, we stayed very focused. Our group’s CNN has aspirations of being a serious sonal, cultural, and other narratives to the confluence of strategy, skills, intelligence, news organization, and most people there larger political narratives of our time. Sto - passion, and disposition to fight not only really resented being affiliated with a net - ries are what move people. As a writer and contributed to the demise of Lou Dobbs work that was showcasing Lou Dobbs. organizer, I’m ecstatic when I see two but also defeated one of the most power - We also had some internal intelligence things that I love to do—strategy and sto - ful media companies on earth. Because at from people at CNN telling us that the net - rytellin g— combined. I mean, they have the end of the day, our target was not Lou work was concerned about a drop in always been combine d— look at the Zap - Dobbs; it was CNN.That was another big Dobbs’s ratings. atista s— but I never saw it as clearly as I do difference between Basta Dobbs and other now. The Basta Dobbs campaign was a campaigns. great stor y— a community rising up to Tarso Luís Ramos is the executive director of defend itself against a powerful media PRA. Before joining PRA, he served as the adversary. It’s the combination of online Keep PRA Healthy founding director of the Western States and on-the-ground organizing that will DONATE NOW Center’s racial justice program and as direc - become the central mode of organizing in tor of its Wise Use Public Exposure Project. our time. www.publiceye.org

THE PUBLIC EYE 12 SUMMER 2010 The Public Eye

What are the most dangerous lies Dobbs he felt like he was being surveilled or that of disruption to the cultural system behind told about immigrants? there was a leak of information. And he the violence. Where do I start? Lou Dobbs explained all was right. How did you put your strategy into kinds of social problems by pointing at At the center of our strategy was online action? immigrants. He claimed that one of every organizing and getting people to use their Initially, we planned to create a credible three people in the U.S. prison system is an computers, cell phones, video, and social threat, in the form of 100,000 signatures immigrant—a fabrication. On the Democ - networks to become politically engaged. on a petition, which would allow us to tar - racy Now! television and radio show, the Something like ninety percent of the pop - get advertisers—just as our sister-organi - host, Amy Goodman, confronted Dobbs ulation has a cell phone. When everybody zation Color of Change did last year, when with the fact that fewer than six percent of has a movie house, television set, computer, it successfully persuaded companies like prisoners are immigrants, and even fewer Internet, and a radio in their pocket—and Wal-Mart, CVS, and Best Buy to pull are undocumented. [Dobbs responded that’s only going to grow—you have an their ads from the Glenn Beck show. We that he “misspoke.” ] He’s said immi - opportunity to organize and tell stories like had reached the magic number of 100,000 grants are responsible for a rise in leprosy never before. when Dobbs was ousted. in the United States. That’s something We knew, and CNN knows, that in the anybody with access to the Centers for Dis - I’m recording this interview on my cell future, no media company will survive ease Control website could show is a total phone. fabrication. without capturing a segment of the 50 mil - Exactly—it’s a new era. But alongside of the lion-strong Latino market. So, a major Anti-immigrant groups like the Federation online organizing, you still have to deal with tactic was to threaten the CNN brand.The of Americans for Immigration Reform network was previewing its Latino in [FAIR] have invested a lot of money America documentary, hosted by to create a cultural meme that equates Soledad O’Brien, in cities around the “immigrant” with “criminal,” a false - We have to work not from a place country. We organized in the top 25 hood that Dobbs promoted. When he Latino cities in the United States, and wasn’t doing it himself, he brought on of hatred but from a place where everywhere the show went, we’d give it groups such as FAIR or the Minute - a “welcome.” CNN realized that it was men to lie for him. Actually, that may we love ourselves enough to say, going to be trashed on a regular basis— be his biggest and most dangerous lie: daily if possible.The network sent cam - giving these groups a national media “Stop! Ya basta! No more!” eras to many of the cities where we platform, as if they had some expert - mobilized, but the demonstrations ise, as if they were anything but the never appeared on any CNN program. bearers of marginal, extremist, dan - CNN people told me that the network was gerous messages. people in the streets. Some people think, trying to figure out how massive and effec - “Now that there is online organizing, we tive our movement was. What was the Basta Dobbs campaign don’t need to do offline organizing”—a stu - strategy? pid and dangerous idea if ever there was one! Organizing in the streets matters as much as ever. Your adversaries won’t tell you that From the beginning we knew we were We worked with groups that had a base they’re watching you, but they are. They going to target CNN, and we actually offline to complement our work. care because their brand is being crushed opened up a front inside of CNN. We had Another component of our campaign was with every step that you march. the audacity, the ambition, and the ability public relations. I appeared on Spanish- to develop networks of journalists and language radio and television all over the other sources to gather information about United States. We live in a media age, and NOW AVAILABLE CNN and Lou Dobbs’s position there. the private media is no less predisposed to We got a lot of inteligencia popular, pop - censorship than a totalitarian state is. It is Platform for Prejudice: ular intelligence, from CNN employees. not going to put out your message for How the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative Invites The decision to let go of Dobbs was up to you, especially when you’re criticizing it. Racial Profiling, Erodes Civil Liberties, CNN President Jon Klein, so we knew he I believe the media promotes violence and Undermines Security was the one we had to go after, more than against women and, in the case of Lou By Thomas Cincotta we were going after Lou Dobbs. At one Dobbs, against entire communities. And A Publication of Political Research Associates point during the campaign, Klein told one of the great pleasures of the campaign someone close to hi m— and to u s— that for me was being able to plant a little seed V..is.i.t.w..w.w..p.u.b.l.i.c.e.y.e..o.r.g .

THE PUBLIC EYE 13 SUMMER 2010 The Public Eye

We were also planning to hit CNN beyond campaigns, the internal discontent at of Girl Scouts who said they were ready to U.S. borders. We were ready to launch Basta CNN, and Dobbs’s drop in ratings. But we march from their home in southern Geor - Dobbs en América Latina in ten Latin knew that our pressure helped CNN Pres - gia to Atlanta, to take it to CNN. We were American countries on November 13th, ident Jon Klein make the right decision. gearing up to do that when the campaign but Dobbs was fired on the 12th. We had ended. Maybe that’s really what caused the been in discussions with partners in Mex - What was the campaign’s relationship demise of Lou Dobbs—the invincible ico, the Dominican Republic, and other with its organizing partners and to force of the Girl Scouts! Latin American countries. We’d also been what extent did Presente build its own in discussions with Latin American media base over the course of the campaign? What about the people who signed the outlets.They were hungry to go after CNN, Basta Dobbs was a unique coalition of Basta Dobbs petition—were they newly because it’s the number-one network in immigrant-rights organizations from across activated or had they been involved in Latin America—their primary competi - the United States—the Florida Immigrant other campaigns? tor. So we would have received massive cov - Coalition, the Dolores Street Mission, I don’t have statistics, but I have an anec - erage in Latin America along with support Derechos Humanos, Centro Presente, and dotal sense about the tens of thousands of on the ground in what would have become others—and media justice groups like people who signed on via text messaging: a hemispheric fight between U.S. Latinos Magnet, New Mexico Media and Literacy the majority had probably never been and Latin Americans, on the one hand, and organized before—on- or offline. They one of the most powerful media companies were working people, Spanish-speaking on the planet, on the other. In the future, no media immigrants. I really regret that we didn’t get to do that. When I would appear on Spanish-lan - Increasingly, our adversaries on any given company will survive guage radio, we would run a public serv - issue are of a global nature—global cor - ice announcement. All we had to do was porations. Let’s not even mention BP! If without capturing a let Lou Dobbs speak.That was the beauty you’re going to take on a global adversary of our campaign. We gave Lou Dobbs the it makes strategic sense to mount a global segment of the 50-million- platform to do what he does best: hate! or at least a hemispheric campaign. Then I’d get on and say, “Okay, if you don’t strong Latino market. like what he’s saying, and you want to do Was CNN aware of your plans? something about it, take out your tele - At the end it was. I don’t know if that was phone, text 30644 with the word “Basta,” the deciding factor, and Basta Dobbs can’t and deliver a jab to the ribs of Lou Dobbs take total credit. There were the other Project, and the Esperanza Peace and and CNN.” Each time, we would get Justice Center. We wouldn’t have been between 500 and 1,000 people messaging. able to do it without them. At the local level That gives you some sense of that disposi - INTERNS WANTED! these groups provided spokespeople, ideas, tion to fight, that spirit. You also saw it in access, and people power. Also, a bunch of people’s willingness to come out and march bloggers were posting regularly about our in 25 different cities. The Public Eye issues and hitting their audiences. The Public Eye welcomes interns We got support from Latino groups like the Presente’s public service announcements to join us in producing PRA’s Willie Velasquez Institute, the National implied that Lou Dobbs was morally quarterly magazine . Hispanic Media Coalition, and the Latino responsible for anti-immigrant violence Political Research Associates Policy Institute, and we got solidarity from such as the Minuteman killings. How did Political Research Associates, non-Latino groups like AlterNet, Credo CNN react to that? the parent think tank of The Mobile, MoveOn, Democrats.com, and We attached CNN’s brand to the hateful Public Eye, offers a research Color of Change. speech of Lou Dobbs. We said that as long internship, and a communica - Also important were our friends in the as CNN continued to employ someone tion and development internship. media, especially inside CNN. Lou Dobbs who was telling dangerous lies, and pro - made a lot of enemies. moting hate groups and ultimately violence To apply, just email a letter and against Latinos and immigrants, the red in resume identifying the internship Any particularly unusual partners in the CNN logo would stand for blood, that interests you to your coalition? which was staining “the most trusted name [email protected] . We got a call from a mostly Latina troop in news.” We didn’t even have to make the

THE PUBLIC EYE 14 SUMMER 2010 The Public Eye case. Lou Dobbs made it himself. that insurgent energy—not because All we had to do was connect the of any moral authority, but because dots. It was an easy campaign at of their financial authority and that level: Lou Dobbs was the gift media access. that kept on giving. The Washington groups promoting CNN’s own personnel were com - comprehensive immigration reform plaining, and their complaints have spent tens of millions of dol - were amplified by an external echo lars—perhaps hundreds of millions chamber. The combination of —yet they’ve failed to energize the internal and external pressure movement in a way that could bring made the life of Jon Klein impos - us victory. We can’t just blame the sible. Klein may never admit that Republicans for obstructing legis - Basta Dobbs had any part in his lation.There’s no excuse, and this is e decision to get rid of Lou Dobbs, g a mission-critical issue. We have to n a h but he knows in his heart of hearts C win. I’d like to see a change of heart. y t i n

that we forced him to confront the u Recently, some of the D.C. leaders m issues of Dobbs’s hate speech and m were arrested for civil disobedience. o C r promotion of violence. o That’s a positive development. f r e t n e A lot depends on foundations. I C ,

Dobbs is not the only high-pro - o n challenge them to evaluate the a j e file media figure to contribute to t n results of the tens of millions they’ve o a climate in which acts of vio - M o invested inside the Beltway. I chal - n e r lence against targeted commu - o lenge them to reconsider and start M y nities become more probable. r a spending some of that money else - I’m mindful of Bill O’Reilly’s M An anti-Lou Dobbs protester where. There’s a lot of talent, abil - recurrent “Tiller the baby killer” ity, and even political genius out refrain in the months preceding there, and I encourage our friends in the 2009 assassination of George philanthropy to start distributing Tiller, one of the only doctors in the powerful militaries have been defeated by money to grassroots immigrant and media- country who provided late-term abor - highly motivated forces. justice groups. tions. Still, as you point out, the situa - The immigrant-rights movement should tion with Dobbs at CNN was different really think about that. Look at the con - Where did Presente get its funding for from that of the anchors at Fox, because dition of immigration policy right now, Basta Dobbs ? CNN was concerned about maintaining with Barack Obama and the Democrats When you build an online organization like its image as a reputable news organiza - becoming even more aggressive and right MoveOn, with a massive list, you don’t have tion. So, are any of the lessons from your wing. Obama is militarizing the border; to depend on anybody except your mem - campaign applicable to other situations? Homeland Security is targeting immi - bers. That’s where Presente has to go. We The principles of organizing, of political grants with increasing fervor and contin - receive funding from our mem bers and pri - warfare, apply in all situations. You have ued impunity—and yet Washington, vate individuals; we’re just now starting to to align your resources, human and oth - D.C.-based immigration groups are still get a little foundation support. erwise, with your ultimate objectives. You largely uncritical of Obama.Their decision have to disarm your adversaries to the to bring immigrant rights under the con - How much did Basta Dobbs cost? degree possible—or even better, to make trol of the Democratic Party has had a dev - I don’t know precisely, but I can tell you it them disarm themselves, from within. But astating effect on the morale of our didn’t cost a million. It didn’t cost half a mil - the primary factor in war, politics, and love communities, which have not been allowed lion. It didn’t cost all that much for what is spiritual. By spiritual, I mean the psy - to unleash the power we saw on May 1, we got. Small, tightly focused organizations chological, the emotional, the aspira - 2006—the largest simultaneous marches with clear strategies often more efficiently tional—the things that help us deal with in U.S. history! The groups in D.C. had deploy resources and are better invest - fear. We need to stir peoples’ passions. Just pretty much nothing to do with those ments than organizations with massive look at the United States in Iraq and in Viet - massive marches. Yet, in the media, the infrastructures, multiple issues, and rud - nam. Throughout history, even the most Washington groups are asked to speak for derless direction.

THE PUBLIC EYE 15 SUMMER 2010 The Public Eye

Since Dobbs was dislodged from CNN, the final authority over the activities of the the situation for immigrants in this Department of Homeland Security and county has arguably worsened, with the ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforce - passage of Arizona’s SB1070 being the ment. He’s made no statement about the clearest indicator. What’s next for Pre - cold-blooded murder of fourteen-year- sente, and what lessons and resources old Sergio Hernandez by a U.S. Border from the Basta Dobbs campaign will it Patrol agent outside Ciudad Juarez on bring to the broader struggle? June 7th. He’s been silent about human- I don’t have all the answers to that. Right rights violations by ICE, the most milita - now Presente is supporting the Trail of rized component of the federal government Dreams. We’re providing media and strat - except for the Pentagon. When ICE ter - z e u

g rorizes adults and children in its raids, it’s

i egy support to four undocumented stu - r d

o ultimately President Obama—not Ari -

R dents—Felipe Matos, Gaby Pacheco, a n

n zona Governor Janice Brewer or Sheriff Joe

a Carlos Roa, and Juan Rodriguez—who i v a

F walked from Miami, Florida, to Wash - Arpaio—who is responsible. Across the y b

n United States, the flood of trauma that is g ington, D.C., to educate people about the i s e

d destroying the lives of immigrants is ulti - r importance of passing the Dream Act, e t s

o mately caused by President Obama. Pre - P which would create a path to citizenship Presente.org pro-Sotomayor poster for undocumented youth who complete a sente is planning a campaign to educate the college degree or two years of military larger community about this, in conjunc - service. In April, another group of six tion with the National Day Laborer Organ - Are grassroots campaigns like Basta izing Network. Dobbs and comprehensive immigration reform complementary, or are they Are you working on SB1070, pulling the immigrant-rights movement We didn’t even have the Arizona law that encourages the in different strategic directions? racial profiling of Latinos as suspected The anti-Dobbs campaign provided a vic - to make the case. Lou criminals? tory to a movement that, thanks to failed SB1070 must be defeated at all costs. leadership, had been stuck in a profoundly Dobbs made it himself. There are a lot of actors involved in fight - defensive and dangerous position. Basta ing it. We thought we could make a con - Dobbs created a channel for the expression All we had to do was tribution by doing what other of frustration, anger, and aspiration for a communities have done around race issues new direction. In so doing we delivered a connect the dots. in Arizona, which is to get a major sports devastating blow to the anti-immigrant event to pull out. [When Arizona rescinded organizations in this country—FAIR and Martin Luther King Day in 1991, the the others—who in Lou Dobbs had had a National Football League moved the 1993 daily platform for their hateful messages undocumented students began a second Super Bowl site from Phoenix to Pasadena, and their lies. walk, from New York City. California.] Presente has started a cam - The beyond-the-Beltway groups in the All these students are heroic figures. The paign to persuade Major League Baseball network that Basta Dobbs mobilized are not original Dream walkers met with President Commissioner Bud Selig to pull the 2011 necessarily part of the current compre - Obama on June 16 to demand that he issue All-Star Game out of Arizona. In one hensive immigration-reform coalition. an executive order stopping deportations week we gathered 100,000 signatures, Reform is failing right now. If you read of Dream Act-eligible students. Depend - and about a million people have signed up immigration-reform proposals you’ll find ing on his response, we’ll either celebrate on Facebook. There have been actions in that out of 800 pages or so, fewer than 100 another major victory for the immigrant New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, are about legalization; the other 700 are rights movement, or we will have to push and San Francisco. So far, Selig has sim - about prosecution, incarceration, depor - harder, this time not against Lou Dobbs but ply pointed to the racial diversity of Major tation, border militarization, and so on. against the president of the United States, League Baseball as a reflection of his com - This is a bad bargain for immigrants. the commander in chief of the war on mitment to civil rights. Still, we’re confi - immigrants. dent that we’ll persuade him to do the right thing, just as we persuaded Jon Klein to do As the head of the government, Obama has the right thing. I

THE PUBLIC EYE 16 SUMMER 2010 The Public Eye SCHOOLHOUSE TO STATEHOUSE continued from page 1 tary of education under President George W. Bush.The new standards represent a shift DAVID BARTON toward a Christian nationalist history world - In addition to serving as an appointee on the Texas State view, which can already be found in numer - Board of Education advisory board on social sciences curricu - ous textbooks for homeschooling and lum, David Barton founded and leads Wallbuilders, based in private schools. The outcome is not sur - Aledo, Texas. The organization produces media promoting prising, since the appointed advisory board a Christian nationalist view of history and removal of the included one of the nation’s most active pro - traditional wall of separation between church and state. Wallbuilders has regular television and radio broadcasts, and moters of this brand of revisionist history, host conferences for legislators and pastors. David Barton. (See sidebar.) A NewYorkTimes editorial pointed out Recently Barton has been a frequent guest on Fox News and that the Texas board did back down on a is one of the instructors for Glenn Beck’s online “university.” few of its “most outrageous efforts”—such Barton spoke at Beck’s American Revivals, which drew thousands to stadiums in March and April. The rallies were described by the conservative publication Human Events as as renaming the slave trade, the “Atlantic “creating a pathway to enable Americans to walk away from the nightmare of government triangular trade”—but it nevertheless man - control and back to the freedom-loving founders of the United States and the Constitu - aged “to justify injecting more religion tion.” 44 Barton led his own Great Awakening Tour this summer, in which participants into government.” According to the Times, traveled for ten days meeting special guests including former House Speaker Newt the curriculum differentiates between the Gingrich, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, former Senator Rick Santorum, Founders’ protection of religious freedom Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, and “Seven Mountains” campaigner, and “separation of church and state,” 2 Lance Wallnau. 45 which it deplores. Other states will feel the People for the American Way (PFAW) calls David Barton “the Right’s favorite pseudo- effects of the Texas decision, since the historian.” 46 The Texas Freedom Network has described him as a “professional propagan - state is the second-largest purchaser of dist,” 47 while Senator Arlen Specter, when he was still a Republican, said that Barton’s textbooks in the United States (behind “pseudoscholarship would hardly be worth discussing, let alone disproving, were it not California) and, as the Chronicle of Higher for the fact that it is taken so very seriously by so many people.” 48 Rob Boston of Ameri - Education noted, “national publishers cans United for Separation of Church and State described Barton’s right-wing classic, often tailor their texts to [Texas] stan - The Myth of Separation (1989), as “riddled with factual errors, half truths and distortions.” dards.” 3 A California state senator Boston, along with other researchers and historians, has debunked many of Barton’s 49 responded by introducing a bill that would claims. In 1995, Barton was forced to admit that more than a dozen quotes in his book could not be reliably confirmed. More recently Chris Rodda has challenged Barton’s ensure his state would not be using any of writing in her 2006 book. 50 the new Texas guidelines. 4 The historian Eric Foner says that the Nevertheless, Barton has become an increasingly potent political force. Barton served as problem with the changes in the Texas the vice chair of the Texas Republican Party from 1998 to 2006, during which time, in 2004, the Texas GOP platform asserted that “America is a Christian Nation” and referred standards is not the inclusion of the role that to the “myth of separation of church and state.” 51 That same year, the Texas Freedom Net - modern conservatism has played. His own work reported, “Barton served as a political consultant for the Republican National Com - textbook, Give Me Liberty! (2004), includes mittee, traveling the country and speaking at about 300 RNC-sponsored lunches for local a chapter titled “The Conservative Resur - evangelical pastors ... and encouraged pastors to endorse political candidates from the gence.” Rather, he says, the problem is pulpit.” 52 Barton teamed up with Newt Gingrich in 2008 to bring together economic and “what the new standards tell us about con - social conservatives through Gingrich’s organization, Renewing American Leadership, servatives’ overall vision of American his - whose mission is to promote religious conservatives’ political activism “to preserve Amer - tory and society and how they hope to instill ica’s Judeo-Christian heritage by defending and promoting the three pillars of American that vision in the young.” 5 Foner explains, civilization: freedom, faith and free markets.” 53 The standards run from kindergarten The State of the First Amendment 2007 national survey found that “65% of Americans through high school, and certain believe that the founders intended America to be a Christian nation and 55% believe that 54 themes obsessively recur. Judging the Constitution establishes America as a Christian nation.” Barton can claim some credit for this. In an affidavit posted on his website from a case in Kentucky he says, from the updated social studies cur - I work as a consultant to national history textbook publishers and have been appointed by the State Boards of Education in States such as California and Rachel Tabachnick is an independent Texas to help write the American history and government standards for stu - researcher and contributor to Talk2Action. dents in those States. Additionally, I consult with Governors and State Boards of Education in several other States and have testified in numerous State org, the group blog about the Christian Legislatures on American history. 55 Right.

THE PUBLIC EYE 17 SUMMER 2010 The Public Eye

riculum, conservatives want students Of the school’s sixty-one graduates ance, stating, “It’s a theory, the theory of to come away from aTexas education through the class of 2004, two have evolution, and I don’t accept it as a theory.” 10 with a favorable impression of: jobs in the White House; six are on Creationist instruction has a direct women who adhere to traditional the staffs of conservative members of impact on public policy. Increasingly sophis - gender roles, the Confederacy, some Congress; eight are in federal agen - ticated “young earth creationist” texts and parts of the Constitution, capitalism, cies; and one helps Senator Rick museums, 11 which claim that the earth is the military and religion.They do not Santorum, of Pennsylvania, and his only a few thousand years old, describe coal, think students should learn about wife, Karen, homeschool their six gas, and oil as formed in the relatively women who demanded greater children. Two are at the F.B.I., and recent past, not over millions of years. equality; other parts of the Consti - another worked for the Coalition Social science texts written from this bib - tution; slavery, Reconstruction and Provisional Authority, in Iraq. 6 lical point of view, which are widely used the unequal treatment of nonwhites A recent poll indicated that nearly a third by Christian homeschoolers, teach that generally; environmentalists; labor of Texans believed that humans and the availability of natural resources to a unions; federal economic regulation; dinosaurs walked the earth at the same time, nation depends on its righteousness or lack or foreigners. and skepticism about evolution has become thereof. For example, the textbook Amer - He continues, widespread and mainstream throughout ica’s Providential History tells students, 7 Students in several grades will be the United States. The website of Rick A secular society will lack faith in required to understand the “benefits” Warren’s Saddleback megachurch used to God’s providence and consequently (but none of the drawbacks) of cap - men will find fewer natural italism.The economic system, how - resources…The secular or socialist ever, dares not speak its name—it is has a limited resource mentality and referred to throughout as “free enter - The Texas board did views the world as a pie (there is prise.” Labor unions are conspicuous only so much) that needs to be cut by their absence... Clearly, theTexas back down on a few of up so that everyone can get a piece. Board of Education seeks to inculcate In contrast, the Christian knows that children with a history that cele - its “most outrageous the potential in God is unlimited and brates the achievements of our past that there is no shortage of resources while ignoring its shortcomings, and efforts”—such as in God’s earth.The resource are wait - ing to be tapped. that largely ignores those who have renaming the slave struggled to make this a fairer, more ...All the five billion people on the equal society. trade, the “Atlantic earth today could live in the state of Texas in single family homes with Expanding the Reach of the triangular trade.” front yards and back yards and be fed Fundamentalist Worldview by production in the rest of the f course, children who learn from United States. 12 Otextbooks that teach these ideas grow David Barton serves on the board of the up to be adults who vote, hold office, and state unequivocally that “Man and Providence Foundation, publisher of Amer - make public policy; the curricula they are dinosaurs lived at the same time,” and ica’s Providential History, and the book’s taught have a broad impact. Significant that man was given dominion over co-author, Stephen McDowell, serves on numbers of homeschooled students, many dinosaurs, but after the statements drew the board of David Barton’s Wallbuilders. raised on creationism and Christian nation - attention from the press, the site was The worldview described in America’s alist history textbooks, have already entered revised. 8 During the most recent presi - Providential History is being expressed and professions such as law, education, and dential election, three Republican candi - acted upon in statehouses around the politics. In a 2007 article in the NewYorker , dates—Sam Brownback, Tom Tancredo, United States. Florida State Representative Hanna Rosin described Patrick Henry Col - and Mike Huckabee—raised their hands Charles Van Zant, during questioning on lege, the first college founded specifically for during the first GOP primary debate to a bill that would allow offshore drilling as the advanced education of Christian home - indicate that they do not believe in bio - close as three miles to the Florida coast, said, schooled students. It “trains young Chris - logical evolution. 9 Texan Ron Paul, a med - of the idea that the world’s petroleum sup - tians to be politicians,” Rosin writes. During ical doctor, did not raise his hand, but later ply is limited: the George W. Bush administration, when clarified his beliefs in a campaign appear- the article was written, Rosin stated, Some people would like to think that. Estimates might show that. But

THE PUBLIC EYE 18 SUMMER 2010 The Public Eye

that doesn’t mean that at all. We hap - pen to worship a God who made it all out of nothing any - way. And if we ran out, I certainly believe he could make some more. 13 (Van Zant is the same legislator who proposed a sweeping anti-abor - tion bill in the Florida House this year, which would make any attempt to induce an abortion a first-degree felony.) 14 State Senator Sylvia Allen of Arizona was captured on video by the Arizona Guardian, during a hearing about opening up uranium mining, claiming that 16 “the earth has been here 6,000 years, long talism,” the teaching that an unregulated As Frederick Clarkson points out in his before anybody had environmental laws, market system is mandated by God and dic - article “History is Powerful,” in the Spring 17 and somehow it hasn’t been done away tated in the Bible. The Reconstructionist 2007 issue of The Public Eye, “the contest theology of the late Rousas J. Rushdoony for control of the narrative of American his - with. 15 In a statement in which Allen twice says the earth is 6,000 years old, she adds, and his son-in-law, Gary North, merges the tory is well underway.” Rushdoony, Clark - “It is time to focus on the technology that son says, believed that “God actively we have and look forward to the future.” intervenes in and guides history, and that What was once considered obscure revi - God’s role can be retroactively discerned, sionism by little-known Religious Right Homeschooled students from creation to the predestined Kingdom propagandists can now be heard regularly of God on Earth.” In Rushdoony’s 1965 from politicians. raised on creationism book, The Nature of the American System, he claims that the Founding Fathers were The Battle for the and Christian revisionist not men of the secular Enlightenment but Social Sciences rather were planning a “Christian nation.” hris Rodda, a senior researcher at the textbooks have already Considered the father of modern Chris - CMilitary Religious Freedom Foun - tian homeschooling, Rushdoony believed dation, who has challenged the revisionist entered professions such as that children should be removed from histories of Barton and other Christian public schools and raised in pure envi - nationalists, has collected hundreds of law, education, and politics. ronments, where they could be trained for examples of their “faux history” quotes a holy war against liberalism and secular - being repeated on the floor of the U.S. Con - ism, which he viewed as a competing reli - gress. Like creationism, the Right’s revi - gion. North explains the strategy’s ultimate sionist history is a not only a religious “free market gospel” with biblical law to goal: phenomenon but also an effort to control form the foundation for biblical capitalism. So let us be blunt about it: we must public policy. Evangelical and fundamen - Many fundamentalist textbooks are based use the doctrine of religious liberty talist children are indoctrinated into what on this foundation and promote political to gain independence for Christian is sometimes referred to as “biblical capi - activism to achieve the biblical mandate. schools until we train up a generation

THE PUBLIC EYE 19 SUMMER 2010 The Public Eye

of people who know that there is no national average, according to the lastest sta - property taxes. And that directly religious neutrality, no neutral law, no tistics: NCES estimates that the number of impacts the schools’ ability to operate. neutral education, and no neutral homeschooled students in the United States civil government.Then they will get has increased from approximately 850,000 Looking at theTextbooks busy in constructing a Bible-based in 1999 (or 1.75 percent of the school-age n 2003, Frances Paterson, an associate social, political, and religious order population) to 1,508,000 in 2007 (or 2.9 professor at Valdosta State College in which finally denies the religious percent). I Georgia and an expert on religion and edu - liberty of the enemies of God. Mur - The Alliance for the Separation of cation, conducted a study of the texts der, abortion, and pornography will School and State, 21 whose stated goal is the published by A Beka Press, Bob Jones be illegal. God’s law will be enforced. elimination of public education, claims that University Press, and the School of Tomor - It will take time. A minority religion the numbers are even higher, with almost row/Accelerated Christian Education, 22 cannot do this.Theocracy must flow which are used by Christian home - from the hearts of a majority of cit - schoolers, in adult education programs, izens, just as compulsory education and in “as many as 10,000 evangelical and came only after most people had fundamentalist Christian schools. (And their children in schools of some Nearly a third of Texans you may be paying for them with your sort. 18 taxes. Paterson found that vouchers were believed that humans and being used to subsidize private schools in Undermining Public Education dinosaurs walked the earth Milwaukee and Cleveland that used the lthough parents may decide to home - texts she studied). 23 Aschool their children for any number Paterson describes the message of the of reasons, the proportion of parents who at the same time. texts: “Democrats are deluded, liberals homeschool in order to “provide religious are villains, and conservatives are heroes. or moral instruction increased from 72 per - This is part of a pattern where descriptions cent to 83 percent” between 2003 and used for people, groups, and movements 2007, says the National Center for Educa - clearly imply that some are unaccept - two-million students being homeschooled. tional Statistics (NCES). 19 Such home - able.” 24 Another theme she identifies is Signatories of the alliance’s proclamation, schooling has begun to take a bite out of the that “the lack of material progress in vari - “I publicly proclaim that I favor ending budgets of state education systems, because ous Third World countries and among government involvement in public edu - state support is based on number of enrolled indigenous peoples can be attributed to cation,” include such conservative notables students. As Time reported in 2001, “The their religious beliefs... All the texts are as Rep. Ron Paul; Don Hodel, the energy state of Florida has 41,128 children (1.7 per - imbued with an arrogance and hostility secretary under Ronald Reagan; Dinesh cent) learning at home this year, up from toward non-Western religions that is truly D’Souza, a policy analyst under Reagan; 10,039 in the 1991 – 92 school year; those breathtaking.” 25 Paterson explained in Tim LaHaye, minister and the author of kids represent a loss of nearly $130 million recent correspondence with me that she the apocalyptic Left Behind novels; from school budgets in that state.” 20 And the now hears politicians repeating the fun - Howard Phillips, the founder of the U.S. percentage of students homeschooled in damentalist teachings of the texts she stud - Taxpayer’s Party (now the Constitution Florida at the time is actually well-below the ied. “No doubt they strike a resonant note Party); Joseph Farah, the editor of the con - with individuals who read the same ideas servative website Worldnet Daily; and in their school books,” she said. John Rosemond, a syndicated columnist on The A Beka texts are particularly pop - child rearing. Help PRA and The Public Eye ular for homeschooling and private schools The effect of all this? The article Time teaching a fundamentalist Christian world - quotes Ray Simon, the director of the Expose the Right! view. They are published by Pensacola Arkansas Department of Education (later Christian College, founded by Arlene and appointed U.S. Deputy Secretary of Donate $30, $60, $100 Beka Horton, who later added their pub - Education), who said, or whatever you can! lishing arm after becoming disgruntled ...... A third of our support for schools with what they viewed as the secularization comes from property taxes. If a large of teaching techniques by Bob Jones Uni - Visit www.publiceye.org number of a community’s parents do versity. 26 A Beka curricula are carefully not fully believe in the school system, written: “Entire lessons were scripted so that it gets more difficult to pass those no open-ended discussion leading to ques -

THE PUBLIC EYE 20 SUMMER 2010 The Public Eye

Title/Author Publisher In Use Since Number in circution Themes Quotes Economics, Work and A Beka 1989 Approximately 90,000 Economics blended with a literal “Global environmentalists have said Prosperity biblical interpretation that God and written enough to leave no in Christian mandates unregulated markets; U.S. doubt that their goal is to destroy Perspective 29 losing sovereignty to globalism, the prosperous economies of the Russell Kirk U.N. and E.U., perhaps leading to world’s richest nations.” 30 Antichrist; global warming is a “What communists achieve through myth; national healthcare and revolution and bloodshed, socialists other programs presented as having accomplish through gradua l failed in Sweden and Canada. legislation.” 31

United States History: A Beka 1982 Approximately 160,000 The damaging influences of “Liberal - The Depression is described as exag - Heritage of Freedom 32 ism in American Life” described as gerated by socialists, including in John beginning in the 1920s, including the Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, in social gospel, socialism, progressive order to enable the New Deal. education, secular humanism, the “Other forms of propaganda doctrine of evolution, and then a included rumors of mortgage fore - national moral decline after the closures, mass evictions, and hunger removal of prayer from schools. riots and exaggerated statistics rep - resenting number of unemployed and homeless people in America.” 33 The Taft-Hartley Act removed “certain labor abuses…to curb the growing power of labor unions over individuals and employers. ”34

What Would Thomas Bluestocking Press 1994 The Uncle Eric series Christian Libertarian text used “Unions did not bring better lighting Jefferson Think about (11 titles including this widely for home schooling, attack - to the factories, Thomas Edison did.” 35 This? one) advertised as ing “statist myths” of those whom “Statist writers accept the so-called Richard J. Maybury 300,000 copies sold the author claims have made govern - benefits of child labor laws without ment their “de facto God.” question and without examining the cost.”

America’s Providential Providence 1989 Approximately 150,000 Three ways of looking at history are “There may come a time when we History Foundation, which the “pagan view,” in which the state must resist unlawful authority. ”39 Mark A. Beliles and also provides adult rules the people; the “modern Chris - The Revolutionary War is called the education in Stephen K. McDowell tian view,” in which God rules the “American Christian Revolution” “biblical world - church but has nothing to do with and Confederate troops are view” in the U.S. politics; and the “biblical view,” in described as in a constant religious and other nations which God “is sovereign over man, revival, “with up to 150,000 South - with publications out of which flows the government ern troops saved.” 40 and articles in of the state and the church and the German, Russian, home.” “After the [Civil] [W]ar an ungodly, radical Republican element gained Spanish, and Void left by Christian abdication of Chinese. control of the Congress. They leadership filled by the conspiracies wanted to centralize power and of men : ACLU, big bankers, World shape the nation according to their Council of Churches, homosexuals, philosophy. ”41 feminists, the Communists, the Democrats, the pope. “Foreign policy in this Christian world order will be conducted by missionaries and members of Chris - tian businesses and trade commu - nity who know how to represent the cause of Christ abroad.” 42

THE PUBLIC EYE 21 SUMMER 2010 The Public Eye tions that might challenge theTruth would ington Post Online , The Answer Sheet, May 22, 2010, 26 Adam Laats, “Forging a Fundamentalist ‘One Best 27 http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/his - System:’ Struggles over Curriculum and Educational occur,” said one critic. A Beka advertises tory/california-bill-takes-aim-at-n.html. Philosophy for Christian Day Schools 1970 - 1989 ,” that 40,000 homeschool students were 5 Eric Foner, “Twisting History in Texas,” The Nation, History of Education Quarterly, Vol 50, Issue 1, pp. 55 -83 registered in their A Beka Academy pro - March 18, 2010; http://www.thenation.com/doc/ http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/full - 20100405/foner . text/123265723/PDFSTART. grams in the school year 2009 – 2010. (This 27 6 Hanna Rosin, “God and Country,” The New Yorker, Quote by Milton Gaither, author of Homeschool, An number does not include the home - April 21, 2010; http://www.newyorker.com/archive/ American History, at http://gaither.wordpress.com/2010/ schoolers who use A Beka texts but not its 2005/06/27/050627fa_fact?currentPage=2. 03/01/laats-on-a-beka-bob-jones-and-ace-curricula/. 28 service program, which provides a structure 7 Ross Ramsey, “Meet the Flintstones,” Texas Tribune, http://www.abekaacademy.org/AcademicPrograms/ Overview.html. for grading and transcripts; nor does it February 10, 2010, http://www.texastribune.org/ stories/2010/feb/17/meet-flintstones. 29 Russell Kirk, Economics,Work and Prosperity in Christian include private schools that use A Beka 8 The author has a copy of the original which can also be Perspective, Second Edition (Pensacola, FL: A Beka Book, texts. 28 ) viewed at http://www.pamshouseblend.com/upload/ 1999). Note that this edition was printed several years after Kirk’s death. Building on Paterson’s research, I exam - Autumn/Saddlebackfamily.comSmallGroupQuestion - sAboutSaddlebackChurch.pdf. 30 Kirk, p. 253. ined U.S. history and economics text - 9 Debate in 2007; http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLI - 31 Kirk, p.237. books published by A Beka and others. TICS/06/05/debate.evolution/index.html. 32 United States History: Heritage of Freedom, Second Although most were originally published 10 http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2007/12/ron_paul Edition (Pensacola, FL: A Beka Book, 1996). _rejects_evolution.php. Note that the Libertarian jour - in the 1990s or earlier, they are still very 33 United States History, 537. nal, Reason Magazine, covered the controversy over this much in use. A sample of my study, sum - video at http://reason.com/blog/2007/12/28/is-ron- 34 United States History, 592. marized in the accompanying chart, pro - paul-an-evolution-denie and http://reason. 35 Richard Maybury, What Would Thomas Jefferson Think vides a window into the narratives of the com/blog/2008/01/02/ron-paul-evolution-denial-upda . AboutThis? (Placerville, CA: Bluestocking Press, 1994). 11 Christian nationalist worldview and how http://www.nwcreation.net/museums.htm. 36 Maybury, 44. 12 Mark A. Beliles and Stephen K. McDowell, America’s 37 Maybury, 30 -31. these are echoed in the new Texas cur - Providential History (Charlottesville, VA: Providence riculum standards; the purposes that these Foundation, 1989), 197. 38 http://www.providencefoundation.com/writings.php. narratives serve in determining public 13 Bruce Ritchie, senior writer for the Florida Tribune 39 Beliles and McDowell, 30. policy; and a warning of what we can monitoring the house floor on the Florida Channel; 40 Beliles and McDowell, 237. http://bruceritchie.blogspot.com/2009/04/quote-of- 41 expect in future battles over public school week-god-will-make-more-oil.html Beliles and McDowell, 243. 42 curricula. 14 http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2010/ Beliles and McDowell, 224. Progressives watching Tea Party and 02/fineout-sweeping-anti-abortion-bill-gets-cretuls- 43 http://www.wallbuilders.com/ blessing.html anti-healthcare rallies may find it easy to 44 Terry Easton, “Can America Be Revived?” Human 15 Arizona State Senator Sylvia Allen filmed by the Arizona Events, April 13, 2010; http://www.humanevents.com/ poke fun at misspelled signs and racist Guardian , June, 2009; http://www.youtube.com/ article.php?id=36482. watch?v=PtzJhTfQiMA. outbursts, and to disregard the social and 45 http://www.skylinechurch.org/images/NGAtourB - political potential of Christian nationalism. 16 For a definition and short history of biblical capitalism rochure.pdf. see http://www.talk2action.org/story/2010/2/10/ 46 However, the warriors against secular pub - 223656/720/Front_Page/Biblical_Capitalism_The_Sacr Report for People for the American Way at alizing_of_Political_and_Economic_Issues http://www.pfaw.org/media-center/publications/david- lic education are sophisticated, disciplined, barton-propaganda-masquerading-history 17 persistent politicians, who have moved Frederick Clarkson, “History is Powerful,” The Public Eye , 47 Spring 2007. http://www.tfn.org/site/PageServer?pagename=relig - their battle from the schoolhouse to the ious_right_watch_david_barton 18 North, “The Intellectual Schizophrenia of the New 48 statehouse and are continuing to expand Christian Right,” pp. 24 -25. “David Barton, Propaganda Masquerading as History,” Special Report of People for the American Way, 2006; their reach.They are working to transform 19 http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009030.pdf . http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/davidbarton.pdf. the United States to fit the images found 20 John Cloud and Jodie Morse, “Seceding from School,” PFAW quotes Specter from the Harvard Journal of Law in their textbooks, and their recent success Time, November 11, 2001; http://www.time. and Public Policy. in Texas has brought them closer to their com/time/covers/1101010827/cover.html . 49 http://site.pfaw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=report_ I 21 http://www.schoolandstate.org/home.htm . david_barton goal. 50 22 Frances R. A. Paterson, Democracy and Intolerance: http://www.liarsforjesus.com/ Christian School Curricula, School Choice, and Public 51 http://www.adl.org/PresRele/RelChStSep_90/4519_ Policy, (Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa, 2003). 90.htm End Notes 23 Rob Boston, “Troubling Textbooks: Why Vouchers 52 http://www.tfn.org/site/PageServer?pagename= Would Force You To Subsidize Hate,” The Wall of 1 http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/individua - rrreportarchive#SORR2006 Separation, March 13, 2009; http://blog.au.org/ ls/cynthia-dunbar 53 2009/03/13/troubling-textbooks-why-vouchers-would- http://www.torenewamerica.com/who-we-are 2 “Politicized Curriculum inTexas”, NewYorkTimes, May force-you-to-subsidize-hate/ 54 http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/ 25, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/opin - 24 Frances Paterson, “With God on Their Side,” Rethink - news.aspx?id=19031. ion/26wed4.html?src=mv. ing Schools Online, http://www.rethinkingschools.org/ 55 http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=87 3 Katherine Mangan, “Ignoring Pleas,Texas Board Approves archive/16_02/god162.shtml Controversial Curriculum Standards, The Chronicle of 25 Frances Paterson, “Teaching Religious Intolerance,” Higher Education , May 23, 2010, http://chronicle.com/ Rethinking Schools Online, http://www.rethink - article/Texas-Board-Approves/65661/. ingschools.org/special_reports/voucher_report/v_in 4 “California BillTakes Aim at NewTexas Standards,” Wash - to162.shtml

THE PUBLIC EYE 22 SUMMER 2010 The Public Eye Book Review The War Against the Panthers dered Hampton at the behest of the FBI. Haas tells the story The Assassination of Fred Hampton: chronologically, peeling back the layers of truth in the same order How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther that Haas and the heroic legal team at his People’s Law Office By Jeffrey Haas (PLO) discovered it during an epic, thirteen-year-long civil rights Chicago, IL: Lawrence Hill Books, 2009, 424 pp., $26.95, paperback lawsuit. Reviewed by Thomas Cincotta Although Hampton was very young, I was born in 1971, two years after the many in Chicago recognized his unique death of the Black Panther Party leader Fred leadership potential. He was born in Hampton. Working as a union represen - Chicago and grew up in Maywood, a sub - tative in Providence, Rhode Island, I first urb just west of the city. At age seventeen, took an interest in the Black Panther Party he started the West Suburban Youth Chap - in the summer of 1995 to fill a gap in my ter of the NAACP, which grew to more than political education. My curriculum 200 members in less than a year in 1965. included David Hilliard’s book This Side Haas writes that under Hampton’s lead - of Glory: The Autobiography of David ership, young Black people in Maywood Hilliard and the Story of the Black Panther accelerated the campaign for a public pool Party (Lawrence Hill Books, 2001); Mario and ultimately a recreational center. One Van Peeble’s 1995 film Panther ; and a play member of the Maywood Village Board about the Panthers followed by a rousing wrote, “Fred was a master orator. His rhet - talk by Bobby Seale. For all this schooling, oric was stunning as he confronted his however, I never bought into the line that White audience with a picture of America’s “the FBI murdered Fred Hampton.” unjust society that most had never imag - Although I would feign assent when ined before.” activists mentioned Hampton’s assassina - In 1968, Hampton joined the Black tion, on the inside I assumed (or hoped) Panther Party (BPP), which had begun its this rhetoric was exaggerated. I should rise to national prominence, and founded have known better. the party’s Illinois chapter with a downtown Jeffrey Haas is a trial lawyer who started office. As a Panther leader, Hampton representing Panther cases at Hampton’s organized food pantries, free breakfasts request soon after law school. Now retired FBI Director J. Edgar for schoolchildren, educational and recre - in New Mexico, Haas has mined deep ational programs, and a free medical clinic. through trial records and his own memo - Hoover was determined Significantly, he helped to make peace ries of the late sixties and seventies to tell among the city’s rival street gangs. He the story of what the FBI and the Chicago to prevent the formation viewed the provision of these social serv - Police Department did to Fred Hampton, ices as opportunities for political education. a community organizer with a revolu - of a cohesive Black radical Then in 1969, he was convicted and sen - tionary political consciousness. As you tenced to two-to-five years in prison for the would expect from a trial attorney, Haas movement in the U.S. strong-arm theft of $71.00 worth of Good methodically demolishes the myth that Humor ice cream bars, which he allegedly Hampton died in a shootout in his “by any means necessary.” gave away to neighborhood children.The Chicago apartment. He confronts the decision was overturned, but the experience reader with undeniable physical and direct made him more militant. By the age of evidence that the Chicago police mur - twenty, he had become a respected com - munity leader among Chicago’s Black Thomas Cincotta is the Civil Liberties Project Director for population. By all accounts, he was on the way to becoming one Political Research Associates and a national vice president of the of the most articulate and persuasive African American leaders National Lawyers Guild. of his time.

THE PUBLIC EYE 23 SUMMER 2010 The Public Eye

However, to the Chicago police and the FBI, Hampton’s tal - ment. A single shot fired at the intruders by Hampton’s room - ents as a communicator and organizer marked him as a major mate Mark Clark did not damage the door but instead struck threat. Bureau Director J. Edgar Hoover was determined to pre - the wall outside the door above the officers’ heads, suggesting vent the formation of a cohesive Black radical movement in the that the door was already open.The bullet’s trajectory indicates U.S. “by any means necessary.” Believing that coalitions among that Clark fired from below, probably while he lay on the floor, the Panthers and street gangs, such as that forged by Hampton, fatally wounded. His was the only shot that could have been fired were frightening stepping stones toward the creation of a revo - by a Panther. No other occupants had weapons in their hands. lutionary body, Hoover initiated a covert program, COIN - The police, who were uninjured, fired 90 to 99 shots into the TELPRO, whose stated goal was to “expose, disrupt, misdirect, apartment with a .45 caliber submachine gun, shotguns, pistols, discredit, or otherwise neutralize” individuals and organizations and a rifle. the Bureau characterized as national security threats. Local FBI Two officers found Hampton in his bed, wounded in the offices were encouraged to devise creative means for undermining shoulder. Harold Bell, one of the Panthers, reports that he heard the BPP, including promoting violence. For instance, Chicago’s one say, “That’s Fred Hampton.” Special Agent in Charge sent a memo to “Is he dead?” asked the other. “Bring him Hoover in 1969 suggesting that he send a out.” fake letter to Jeff Fort, the leader of the “He’s barely alive; he’ll make it.” Blackstone Rangers street gang, accusing A federal grand jury Then Johnson heard two shots, and an the Panthers of planning a hit on Fort, in officer said, “He’s good and dead now.”The the hope that it would incite the Rangers eventually did investigate, shots were later discovered to have been to “take retaliatory action” against Hamp - fired point blank into Hampton’s head. ton and the Panthers. (The Fort memo was but it found Hampton’s Hampton’s body was dragged to the revealed to Haas’s cocounsel, FlintTaylor, doorway of the bedroom and left in the in November 1975, by a staff member for death to be “justifiable pool of his own blood, as the surviving Pan - the U.S. Senate’s Church Committee, thers—Johnson, Blair Anderson, Doc which was investigating illegal surveil - homicide” and indicted Satchell, Harold Bell, Verlina Brewer, Louis lance of U.S. citizens.) Truelock, and Brenda Harris—hid in In 1968 and 1969, the Chicago police no one. another bedroom. Police fired at them launched an all-out assault on the Panthers and then abandoned the scene in a hurry. and their allies, treating them as criminal Haas writes, gangs. Cook County State’s Attorney Edward Hanrahan organ - A police photo showed Fred’s body…in polka dot under - ized a special prosecution unit to which police officers were per - wear and a T-shirt, with blood pouring from his head manently assigned, and an FBI informant, William O’Neal, wounds. Another photo showed the uniformed police offi - achieved the position of security chief in the Panthers. On cers carrying Fred’s body down the front steps on a November 13, 1969, two Chicago police officers were murdered stretcher.They smiled for the police photographer.Their in a shootout with alleged Panthers. In response, O’Neal pro - grins reminded me of the spectators’ smiles in the lynch - vided his FBI handler, Agent Roy Mitchell, with a floor plan ing photos from the South. of the apartment where Hampton and other Panthers lived, so detailed that it showed all the furniture, including the bed where ... Hampton and his fiancé, Deborah Johnson, slept. Mitchell gave Haas, along with FlintTaylor and other lawyers from the newly the floor plan to Hanrahan and his unit, with whom he met formed People’s Law Office collective sprang into action to defend regularly. the survivors from criminal charges and to hold others respon - At 4:45 a.m. on December 4, fourteen police officers from sible for the deaths of Hampton and Clark. Satchell, Brewer, Har - Hanrahan’s unit entered 2337 West Monroe Street to search for ris, and Anderson had been shot and wounded by the police. illegal firearms.The police chose that time even though O’Neal The county grand jury indicted each of the Panther survivors had told the FBI that at 8:00 p.m. no one would be home, and on at least one count of attempted murder, as well as on armed the police could easily search for the firearms then. An early morn - violence and numerous weapons charges. Haas interviewed the ing raid made sense only if they wanted to provoke a firefight. survivors at the jail and in their guarded hospital rooms. He exam - The police claim that the Panthers began firing at them the ined the paths of the bullets and discovered that they converged moment they knocked on the door. However, forensic evidence on the bed where Hampton had been sleeping that morning. shows that no shots were fired into the door from inside the apart - An autopsy taken shortly after Hampton’s death showed the pres -

THE PUBLIC EYE 24 SUMMER 2010 The Public Eye ence of barbiturates in his blood, although he never used drugs. came problems of missing information and discovered proof of According to Johnson, Hampton never moved during the perjury and conspiracy. At the same time, the PLO took on addi - entire siege. tional important cases of political repression, defending Attica In a brilliant tactical move, the legal team filmed the cata - prisoners, Puerto Rican independistas, other Panthers, and more. loguing of all evidence at the apartment, which they opened for Haas’s account of the lawsuit would make for a John tours to the media, community leaders, and the public.The tours Grisham-style legal thriller but for its unsatisfying ending.True, not only prevented police from returning to manipulate the scene the underdogs confronted corrupt officials, a villainous judge, but also built popular support and exposed the nonsensical claim lying cops, and a team of arrogant, well-funded lawyers. of a “shootout.” People witnessed the blood stains on the bed They achieved a victory because of the confluence of many and observed that there were no bullet holes in the door. It seemed factors: the larger political struggle outside the courtroom; the obvious that the police had broken in and killed Hampton. Civil 1971 liberation of FBI files by activists in Media, Pennsylva - rights and community groups—even the African American nia, which revealed COINTELPRO; the U.S. Senate Church Patrolmen’s Association—united in demanding an independ - Committee hearings on the illegal domestic surveillance; the ent probe. reinstatement of the case by appellate judges who overturned The tours were emblematic of the con - the verdict for the police; and a lot of luck frontational style of the PLO attorneys, who along the way. Against all odds, the PLO aggressively countered government lies forced the city, county, and federal gov - through the media and seized any opportu - In 1968 and 1969, ernment to settle for $1.85 million. How - nity to mobilize public opinion and apply ever, that’s a modest sum. In the words of pressure against an unjust legal system. A fed - the Chicago police Hampton’s mother, Iberia Hampton, “They eral grand jury eventually did investigate, in got away with murder.” 1970, but it found Hampton’s death to be launched an all-out The anthropologist Margaret Mead said, “justifiable homicide” and indicted no one. “Never doubt that a small group of people can (A document eventually surfaced showing assault on the Panthers change the world.” However, Haas’s book is that the FBI had made a deal with Deputy a reminder that we should also never doubt Attorney General Jerris Leonard, who led the and their allies, treating the lengths to which the state will go to grand jury investigation: the FBI agreed to defend the status quo . The COINTELPRO drop its criminal charges against the seven them as criminal gangs. documents detail official efforts to subvert the Panther survivors, and in return, the grand Panthers. Because these documents predate jury ruled in favor of Hanrahan and the the Freedom of Information Act, they were police raiders.The deal insured that the FBI’s role and the clas - written with the expectation that they would never be revealed sified COINTELPRO program would remain concealed for sev - to the public. eral more years.) The story of Hampton’s murder is a reminder of the nature Haas then takes us through years of civil rights litigation to of domestic intelligence and policing institutions.Today, polit - hold the police, Hanrahan, and the FBI accountable for Hamp - ical repression is likely to be even more sophisticated and hid - ton’s murder. Lawyers and legal workers with less political com - den, but no less disruptive. For example, in October 2009, police mitment would surely have given up or gone broke. As a lawyer and FBI agents raided the warehouse of Detroit Imam Luqman myself, I was awestruck by the legal team’s poise, perseverance, Ameen Abdullah due to firearms charges, shooting him eight - and tenacity in the face of enormous obstacles. The attorneys een times and killing him. Just as Hanrahan did, the U.S. attor - for the police were paid by the government, while the PLO had ney used Abdullah’s militant rhetoric to justify the police scant resources in what became a war of attrition. Defense lawyers tactics, as if revolutionary rhetoric justifies the serving of a war - representing the police and public officials made a deal with the rant by FBI agents and local cops with guns ablaze. In many clerk of the court to pay three times the normal cost for daily terrorism prosecutions, the FBI has paid con-artists to act as transcripts, as long as the clerk agreed to charge PLO the same informants who hatch outrageous plots, not unlike William rate. The Panthers were also up against a federal judge, Joseph O’Neal, whose role as a provocateur Haas documents. Unfor - Sam Perry, who openly stood against them. When a police ser - tunately, since 9/11, consent decrees and FBI guidelines that geant swore that he had not relied on the FBI plant’s informa - were enacted to prevent abuses such as COINTELPRO have tion, Perry refused to compel the police to name the person who been seriously weakened or undone in the name of countert - had been their informant. When the jury seemed deadlocked, errorism. This reaction provides all the more reason for us to Perry directed a verdict for the defendants. follow PLO’s example of tirelessly confronting power to expose Throughout the long ordeal, Haas and the legal team over - the truth and defend political freedom. I

THE PUBLIC EYE 25 SUMMER 2010 The Public Eye ……Reports in Review……

REPORT OF THE MONTH Apply the Brakes spokesperson of Sierrans for U.S. Population Stabilization (SUSPS), Anti-Immigrant Co-Optation of the which was dedicated to attempting to shift the Sierra Club’s platform Environmental Movement on immigration from neutral to one of advocating strict restrictions. A Report from the Center for New Community, July 2010 [See the review of the Greenwash report in this issue.] It supported can - didates for the Sierra Club board who were involved with racist The Center for New Community’s report on a newly hatched organ - organizations, including John Tanton’s Federation for American ization, Apply the Brakes, shows how this supposedly environmental Immigration Reform (FAIR) and the Center for Immigration Stud - group disguises its true anti-immigrant agenda, snaring moderate envi - ies (CIS), Virginia Abernethy’s Carrying Capacity Network, and ronmental leaders and their organizations in the anti-immigrant Californians for Population Stabilization. organizing web. A basic tenet of environmental thinking holds that The study identifies DonWeeden as the driving force behind ATB, humanity must become increasingly united in its efforts to survive with funding ATB through his Weeden Family Foundation.The financial the limited quantities of food, water, and land available on the planet. connections between the Weeden Family Foundation and other This idea, however, is being perverted by a White nationalist philos - White nationalists are extensive: the group provided close to $700,000 ophy called Neo-Malthusianism. in grants to John Tanton’s organizations, all of which have well-doc - Neo-Malthusianism links immigration and environmentalism umented links to White nationalist movements. Moreover, the foun - using a theory first proposed in the eighteenth century by the politi - dation’s leadership occupies high-level positions within the cal economistThomas Malthus. Malthus noted the difference between anti-immigrant groups NumbersUSA and FAIR. the rate of population growth and the rate of agricultural growth, which The information presented by the Center for New Community is he concluded would ultimately lead to chronic, worldwide food especially useful in exposing the troublesome connections between seem - shortages.This led him to the idea that population control was the major ingly legitimate environmental activists and White nationalism.The factor in environmental health. Extrapolating from Malthus’s ideas, report emphasizes a need for caution within the environmentalist move - ATB maintains that immigration into this country creates undesir - ment, because prejudice and discriminatory ideologies can easily be able population growth, leading to urban sprawl, congestion, pollu - obscured by subtle distortions of influential theories regarding human tion, waste generation, and increased water and food consumption. society and the environment. While ATB openly advertises its concern over “domestic popula - The report includes profiles of sixteen environmental leaders who tion growth,” its racist, anti-immigrant ideology may be more diffi - have direct or indirect ties to ATB, a reminder that it is important to cult to discern. The Center for New Community exposes the investigate the past involvement and associations of an organization’s backgrounds of ATB’s leaders to demonstrate that this group is the leadership thoroughly before granting that group any authority or influ - proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing. William G. (Bill) Elder, the con - ence within the larger movement. tent editor of its website, has links to numerous prominent White –James Huettig nationalists. Before he joined ATB, Elder served as a chairperson and

Other Reports in Review Greenwash: Nativists, Environmentalism ecosystem is threatened by a deluge of immi - grant groups such as the Federation for Amer - and the Hypocrisy of Hate grants who contribute to environmental ican Immigration Reform, Numbers USA, A special report from the Southern Policy Law degradation by overpopulating the coun - and Americans for Immigration Control. A Center by Heidi Beirich try—adding to urban sprawl, traffic conges - longtime Sierra Club member, Tanton pri - (Montgomery, AL: SPLC) July 2010 tion, and a general overconsumption of vately circulated memos in 1986, which sug - Many of us have come to rely on the resources. Greenwashers correctly assess that gested to his organizations that a carefully research that regularly emerges from the overtly racist rhetoric would not work with constructed approach to environmental Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) inves - a liberal audience. Instead they use language groups could help build the anti-immigrant tigative magazine, Intelligence Report. Green - familiar to environmental advocates to scape - movement. For the next two decades, debates wash is the latest addition to this important goat immigrants for complex problems and about “overpopulation” and the proper service, and the report provides useful infor - to gain environmentalists’ support for racist, response to it raged within mainstream groups mation for both activists and the public. anti-immigrant policies. such as the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Nativists, who mask their true agenda Greenwash lays out the history of this Society, although ultimately the nativists lost. with environmentally friendly language, strat egy in detail. Its mastermind is JohnTan - The report includes a narrative chronicling this argue that the “carrying capacity” of the U.S. ton, who is also a major funder of anti-immi - Reports continues on next page

THE PUBLIC EYE 26 SUMMER 2010 The Public Eye

He made women and He made men.” The fringe party placed a sixteen-page Although McAllister does not identify insert in the state’s newspapers in 1994 that himself as a right-wing Christian on his portrayed so-called sodomites as “child radio show, his identity is clear on his web - molesting, HIV-carrying, Hell-bound site, www.dmlive.com. He lists as “partners” freaks,” according to TPM. The insert also several pregnancy “crisis centers,” which included an article claiming that HIV lived Eyes steer girls away from abortion and repro - in water and could be transmitted in swim - ductive health services, as well as Christian- ming pools. RIGHT based addiction-recovery websites. After “Angle’s campaign did not respond to a protests from the LGBT community, McAl - request for comment about her time in the lister removed Exodus from his website. party,” said TPM. RADIO HOST GIVES LOUSY Exodus immediately released a statement Angle may be a Scientologist, according ADVICE TO LGB TYOUTH expressing its “distress” that McAllister had to her opponent, Sue Lowden, who published The call-in show Dawson McAllister Live, yielded to pressure from LGBT activists and ads to that effect during the Republican pri - which provides advice to young people who Clear Channel, which produces the show. mary. Lowden pointed to Angle’s promotion have questions about addiction, eating dis - LGBT callers are now referred to Focus on of a Scientologist-supported proposal that orders, parents, sexuality, and other issues, airs the Family—hardly an improvement. would subject drug-addicted prisoners to on Sunday nights on more than 160 radio sta - cold-turkey withdrawal, aided by massages tions nationwide, including on Boston’s WHAT HARRY REID IS UP and saunas. Lowden is widely believed to have popular KISS-108. On April 10, Greg Kim - AGAINST sealed her loss to Angle when she suggested ball, an openly gay, 22-year-old college stu - Sharon Angle, theTea Party-endorsed Nevada that healthcare reform was unnecessary and dent, called the show because, he told the Republican who is challenging Senator Harry that patients could barter with their doctors, Boston, Massachusetts, LGBT weekly Bay Reid, belonged to the Christian conservative, exchanging, say, a chicken for a physical. Windows, as a fan, he was curious about libertarian-style Independent American Party how the host would deal with a gay caller. for seven years during the 1990s, until join - Posing as a sixteen-year-old questioning his ing the Republican Party in 1997 in order to sexuality, Kimball was advised to contact make a credible run for statewide office. Exodus International, a Christian organiza - The Independent American Party supports tion that claims it can “reverse” homosexu - Eye passage of a Liberty Amendment to the U.S. LASHES ality through prayer and therapy. Constitution that, according to Talking “My jaw hit the floor,” said Kimball. Points Memo (TPM.com), aimed to “com - “How many gay or questioning youth has Yeah, we waterboarded pel the federal government to halt its uncon - [McAllister] hurt? It’s sickening.” “Khalid Sheikh stitutional programs and wasteful Kimball said that an adviser off the air told expenditures such as foreign aid and welfare Mohammed. I’d do it him that homosexuality is a sin that is as bad corruption. It will prohibit the financing of as murder. “The reason why God does not again to save lives. ” the New World Order with American taxes.” want us to be gay is if everybody was gay The party also opposes what it calls the –President George W. Bush there’d just be two people in the whole June 2, 2010 “debt-money system” and the “Marxist In a speech to the Economic Club of world,” the adviser said. “If Adam and Eve graduated income tax.” Grand Rapids, Michigan were gay, that’d be all there’d be. That’s why

REPORTS cont’d from previous page history and a useful timeline that clarifies the haps most troublesome is the emergence of mann’s analysis of race in the population involvement of more than two dozen organ - a new organization, Progressives for Immi - control movement and her response to their izations in the greenwashing strategy. gration Reform, www.progressivesforimmi - anti-immigrant claims. Activists should check As the current debate about immigration grationreform.org, which examines what it out “The Greening of Hate: An Essay” for reform takes shape, Tanton’s groups are at it calls the “unintended consequences of mass helpful talking points. again. Greenwash author Heidi Beirich reports migration,” highlighting environmental Reports such as Greenwash remind us that on three new developments. In 2008 a series issues. Sensitive to the racist history of Tan - “once silenced” does not guarantee “always of expensive, full-page ads appeared in liberal ton’s brand of anti-immigrant organizing, silenced.” Nativist hate groups’ strategies publications warning “progressive thinkers” this group is headed by an African American continue to proliferate, but with the help of that the future of American natural resources woman, Leah Durant, who is trying to dis - groups like SPLC, we can identify and chal - depends on blocking further immigration. In tance herself from Tanton despite SPLC- lenge them early, before they get a chance to the pipeline is a Tanton-inspired film series, documented connections. cause lasting damage. “Tomorrow’s America,” which will expose the A particularly useful part of the report is –Pam Chamberlain “negative impacts” of immigration. But per - Hampshire College Professor Betsy Hart -

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