Reagan and Race: "He Maintained A System Of Rich And Poor, A System Of Black And White"

Throughout the week on Democracy Now!, we have reported extensively on the Record of Ronald Reagan during his 8 years in office. From Iran-Contra, to the bloody US-fuelled conflicts in Central America, to his administration's arming of both Iran and Iraq, to his invasion of Grenada and the nuclear arms race. Our series is called "Remembering the Dead." Later in the program, we will take a close look at Reagan's policy toward apartheid South Africa.
But first, we are going to shift gears and take a close look at Reagan's policies at home, here in the US. Among Reagan's achievements that you won't hear about from most of the pundits is that Reagan was the first president to turn the US into a debtor nation, nearly tripling the nation's debt in his 8 years in office. He was also the first president since the Great Depression to see unemployment hit more than 10%. Reagan cracked down on organized labor and America's homeless population grew to over 2 million people. On the issue of race, the most cited moment of the Reagan presidency during the past week was that he signed legislation for a national holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. But this is hardly representative of Reagan's policies on race and civil rights.

Ronald Reagan launched his campaign for the presidency in Philadelphia, Mississippi. That is the place now infamous from the civil rights movement. It was where three civil rights workers were murdered in one of the most well-known cases of racist violence from the 60s. During his first run for office, Reagan proudly waved his Dixiecrat credentials, saying: "I believe in states' rights and I believe in people doing as much as they can for themselves at the community level and at the private level."

After taking office in 1981, Reagan began a sustained attack on the government's civil rights apparatus, opened an assault on affirmative action and social welfare programs, embraced the White racist leaders of then-apartheid South Africa and waged war on the tiny, Black Caribbean nation of Grenada. During his presidency, Reagan fired members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights who criticized his civil rights policies, including his strong opposition to affirmative action programs. One of the commissioners recalls that the judge who overturned the dismissal did so because "you can't fire a watchdog for biting." Reagan also attempted to limit and gut the Voting Rights Act and he slashed important programs like the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act that provided assistance to many African Americans.


Rev. Graylan Hagler, president of Ministers for Racial, Social and Economic Justice.

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