REWRITING HISTORY – AT 11:28 A.M. ET:  I've noticed one thing about successful groups – they always thank those who help them.  It allows them to build alliances, and it's the right thing to do.

Sadly, we've seen recently a rewriting of the history of the civil rights movement, apparently based on the idea that only blacks deserve credit for winning the victories of the civil rights era.  One element of this rewriting is to scratch out the remarkable work done by President Lyndon Johnson.  Indeed, it was Johnson's legislative skill, honed in the years when he was Senate majority leader, that was so instrumental in getting the major civil rights laws passed.  Add to Johnson the assistance given by Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen.  It was Republican votes that put the civil rights laws over the top.

A new movie is infuriating people who actually know the facts.  From AP: 

AUSTIN, Texas - The widely acclaimed movie "Selma" about the 1965 Civil Rights movement has disappointed at least one moviegoer: a leading historian of President Lyndon B. Johnson.

The director of the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, which hosted a major civil rights summit this year that was headlined by four U.S. presidents, said the film that opens in theatres Thursday incorrectly portrays Johnson as an obstructionist to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"Selma" is based on the 1965 marches from the Alabama cities of Selma to Montgomery that were led by King. At the time, marchers were calling for voting rights.

LBJ Library Director Mark Updegrove said the film unfairly casts Johnson as a sort of composite character who represents the obstacles blacks faced in getting civil rights laws passed. What history shows, Updegrove said, is that Johnson and King had a partnership.

He said Johnson and King had disagreements but not like the film suggests. Updegrove called the portrayal unfortunate given the current climate following the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police.

"When racial tension is so high, it does no good to suggest that the president of the U.S. himself stood in the way of progress a half-century ago. It flies in the face of history," Updegrove said.

COMMENT:  This same game was played by the sickening John Edwards, when he ran for president in 2008.  In order to grovel to black activists he asserted that blacks won the civil rights victories themselves, and he referred to Johnson as "some Washington politician."  Very nice. 

Nothing will be done about the film.  The Hollywood crowd hates Johnson because of Vietnam, and because he didn't speak the way they do.  But without white help, there wouldn't have been a successful civil rights movement.  That was acknowledged at the time.  Sadly, some refuse to acknowledge it now, probably because hustlers sell the line that black America needs them, and only them, to make progress.

December 26, 2014