Ebony and irony

A folksy George W. Bush speaks to the NAACP as the more dubious parts of his civil rights record go unmentioned.

By Jake Tapper

Jul 11, 2000 | With his racist pals thousands of miles away and his unseemly South Carolina primary campaign almost five months behind him, Texas Gov. George W. Bush addressed the 91st convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Monday.

That made him the the first GOP presidential candidate to address the group since his father in 1988. But Baltimore calls itself "the City that Reads," not the city that appreciates pretty pictures of Bush with little black kids. After the speech, many members of the NAACP didn't seem to think the Bush campaign's photo-op talent and rhetorical vagueness would be enough to sway their members come November.

Bush was folksy and charming, and spoke strongly about how, since the historic desegregation in 1957 of Little Rock (Ark.) Central High School, "all can enter our schools, [but] many are not learning there." But while Bush was received politely, Gary Bledsoe, the NAACP Texas state conference president, said, "I heard whispers throughout wanting more substance."

Four members of the audience weren't whispering, however, when they interrupted the introduction to Bush's speech to stand and shout that Gary Graham, a convicted murderer recently put to death by the state of Texas, was innocent. "An innocent black man was killed, executed by George Bush!" one of them yelled as they were led out of the auditorium.

Back in Austin, Texas, Bledsoe also has raised his voice against Bush over the Graham execution -- and over the fact that 60 percent of the inmates on the state's rather active death row are minorities. Bledsoe and the national NAACP have hammered Bush for his refusal to take a position on a hate crimes law in Texas in honor of James Byrd Jr., the 49-year-old black man who was chained to a truck and dragged three miles to his grisly death in 1998. They've also complained to him about the presence of plaques in the Texas Supreme Court Building bearing the Confederate battle flag and the Confederate seal.

But Bush is an artful dodger. He has never actually stated his opinion about the "hate crimes" bill. "I've always said that all crime is a hate crime," Bush has said. And though the NAACP asked him to remove the Confederate symbols from the state building in January, he waited until June to do so -- long after the GOP nomination was sewn up.

While stumping in South Carolina before that state's Feb. 19 primary, he seemed to have a different opinion on the matter. "In our state of Texas, you know, when we see the Confederate symbol on the Capitol, we view that as that was a part of our history, a part of Texas history," he said to a South Carolina TV station. "And, you know, that doesn't mean any of us embrace slavery, but it's a part of the history of our state of Texas."

When asked about the NAACP's tourism boycott of South Carolina due to the Confederate flag flying above its Capitol, Bush said that "my advice is for people who don't live in South Carolina to butt out of the issue. The people of South Carolina can make that decision."

Bush didn't tell the NAACP to "butt out" today, of course. He appears to hope that the race-, Jew- and gay-baiting campaign he and his allies waged in South Carolina almost five months ago will now be nothing more than a distant memory, if that. In the last couple of weeks, he has spoken to the Congress of Racial Equality, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the National Council of La Raza.

"I've been looking forward to this," Bush said to the NAACP. "I've been looking forward to coming here and tell you ... what's in my heart."

Acknowledging that "the party of Lincoln has not always carried the mantle of Lincoln," Bush proposed providing education for every child, and for increased federal support for faith-based charities. "I believe we can find common ground," he said. "This will not be easy work. But a philosopher once advised, 'When given a choice, prefer the hard.' We will prefer the hard because only the hard will achieve the good."

"My governor is respecting us with his presence," said Herb Powell, a member of the NAACP national board who lives in Houston. Desperate to say something nice about Bush, Powell offered that at least Bush hadn't tried to dismantle affirmative action programs like his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, has tried to do in his state.

When Jeb was asked, in 1994, what he would do for African-Americans if elected governor of the Sunshine State, he said, "probably nothing." According to Bledsoe, that's pretty much his older brother's record as well. "I don't think he won any votes," said Bledsoe after the speech. "But at least he got people to look at him in a different way."

And what way is that?

"He's not a person to be despised."

Next Page: For many, "pleasant" just doesn't cut it

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