Is the Russell Senate Building, immune to racial outrage?

E. Ablorh-Odjidja

June 18, 2014

So it seems, because of all the targets that deserve Black outrage, the Russell name on this Senate building should be among the top on this list.  But it seems to have escaped opprobrium.

For some 43 years, the name has remained on the august Senate building, though a strong case can be made that its presence on this building is insensitive and insulting to the Black experience.

Senator Russell, the man whose name serves as the brand name for this building, had a racist past.  Thus, the building should be a prime target for civil rights indignation.

The building, the oldest of the Senate office buildings, was named in 1971 after Senator Richard Brevard Russell, a Georgia senator, and an avowed segregationist, described by most as the "leader of Southern opposition to the civil rights movement".

Senator Russell was a Democrat and remained so for his entire active political life. He died in 1971.  His stand against racial integration was widely known. What is yet to be known is why the building’s name is not a rich target for the Black leadership; a group known to be vocally active, especially when the target happens to be any conservative Republican. 

The silence on this matter and other past insults to the Black community from the Democrat ranks is deafening and does damage to Black righteous angst.

As protests against the Russell brand stands shamelessly muted today, those directed against lesser targets and emblems known to have racist connotations have increased.  And these targets when attacked got hurriedly dismantled as a result of Black angst. 

There is yet to be the mildest whisper of force against the brand on the Russell building.  Our Civil rights warriors, the Al Sharpton types, are mute.  And not a single low-key flag-waving protest has been seen in the area of this building. 

But this is no surprise.  Black leaders never cry racism against Democrats.  They seem to have developed an amnesia about the Democrats of the Jim Crow era, of which Russell was one.

The late Dick Gregory was the only exception.  He railed against Senator Russell, asking why his name should be on the Senate building.

"Once people realize who this man (Russell) was and what he represented, I don't think there will be any problem at all in changing that name,'' Gregory said.

Yet, some 11 years later since Gregory's passing, the silence continues.

Recently, Chris Plant, a white conservative radio show host, also raised the issue against the Russell name. 

But to no surprise, not a whimper of support came from those in the WOKE black community.  They may not have heard Plant because they shouldn’t.  They shouldn’t wait for a white conservative radio talk show host on this matter.  But even if they did,  the response would rather have been an accusation of Plant as a bigot who had strayed outside his lane on race issues.

The brand Russell on the Senate Office building reveals who has control over the Black angst. And this is shocking in the historic realms of the Civil Rights movement. Plainly, it offends.

Meanwhile, Confederate flags and monuments of Southern rebels have gone down and deservingly so.

The film "Birth of a Nation" has been fittingly condemned because it had a racist portrayal of Blacks.

One Thomas Cripps, a historian characterized "Birth of a Nation" as at once a major stride for cinema and a sacrifice of Black humanity to the cause of racism."

Yet the brand Russell Building waits to be described as a "deliberate sacrifice of Black humanity" to the Democratic party's causes.  The refusal to remove the name may be indicative of the treachery the Democrat party and its liberal subsidiaries have managed to inflict on Blacks.

The fact that Senator Russell was a Democrat and racist is known.  

That about 90% of Blacks regularly vote Democrat is also known. 

The overwhelming Black vote besides, Russell's racist reputation is yet to be whispered among the Black Congressional Caucus.  This is an absurd condition that must remain a baffling point for all reasonable Blacks.

Had Russell been a Republican, the Black Congressional Caucus would have already asked for the entire building to be torn down!

A case in point was the fate of Senator Trent Lott, the then-Republican Senate Majority leader.  After his eulogy (probably ten minutes long) for Senator Strom Thurmond at the latter's 100th-year birthday celebration in 2005, he was forced to resign solely on the ire of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Lott's ten-minute eulogy for Thurmond was considered atrocious and insensitive to Blacks.  The fact that he made his speech in a building, that for decades has honored a racist senator, and a known segregationist, went unnoticed by the same Black Congressional Black Caucus!

For the cause of Black angst, Senator Lott, a Republican, was booted out of his post as majority leader of the Senate. 

Senator Lott had said that Strom "came to understand the evil of segregation and the wrongness of his views..... he had long since renounced many of the views of the past, the repugnant views he had had."

The passage, by any interpretation, was an apology.  However, this moment of repentance for Senator Thurmond went toxic.  But the eternal glorification of the unrepentant racist Russell remained!

One Timothy Noah wrote in a piece for The Slate publication titled "The Legend of Strom's Remorse," which promptly denounced Trent Lott after his speech.

"Thurmond has never publicly repudiated his segregationist past, and with his 100th birthday and a Senate career behind him, it's doubtful he ever will. The legend of Strom's Remorse was invented, by common unspoken consent within the Beltway culture, to provide a plausible explanation for why Thurmond should continue to hold power and command at least marginal respectability well past the time when history had condemned Thurmond's most significant political contribution."  Noah wrote.

To "command at least marginal respectability" for Thurmond, was Noah's epithet for Loft's speech.  How to describe an entire monument of a building that stood for Russell's eternal glory, without condemnation, he didn't say.

Thurmond and Russell were both historically known segregationists.

The New York Times was to write a piece titled "Strom Thurmond, Foe of Integration, Dies at 100."

But, when Robert Byrd, a Democrat, and a known Ku Klux Klan leader, died seven years later, the New York Times banner was "Robert Byrd, Respected Voice of the Senate, Dies at 92."

The difference was Thurmond was Republican and Byrd was a Democrat.  But there was another.  Both senators started as Democrats.  They co-sponsored a segregationist screed known as "The Southern Manifesto".  But it was Thurmond who became a Republican. Byrd remained a Democrat for life, thus his racist past was forgiven.

In case the disparity in the perception given the two senators wasn’t obvious, know that riding with the Ku Klux wouldn’t matter either.

Robert Byrd, mentioned by the New York Times as the “Respected Voice” of the Senate, was a  Ku Klux Klan leader.  This accolade by the New York Times should have sounded like a mockery of the segregation and civil rights experience.  But it didn’t to the Black Congressional Caucus.

Just at the time of writing this piece, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced the cancellation of six federal trademarks of the Washington Red Skin football team because its investigation found the name disparaging to Native Americans.

At the decision, Harry Reid, the Senate Democratic majority leader, applauded and called the team's Red Skins name a "racist" brand without any concern that the comfortable Russell building he spoke from had been named to glorify a racist Senator.  One may want to laugh at this but still what a shame!

Eugene Robinson, a prominent Black Washington Post columnist tweeted after the Red Skins name removal "Hail to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Hail Victory!"  Eugene has never said a word against the Russell Senate Building.

The elephant in the room was the hypocrisy of both Senator Reid and Eugene Robinson.  In short, they lacked the moral courage to attack the Russell name on the Senate Building.  So, the insult will stand.

For ideological reasons, Democrat racial slurs against Blacks are always given a pass.  And our Black leadership class is happy to pretend that all is well when their very silence goes to undermine the seriousness of our cause, intent, credibility, humanity, and political maturity.

E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Publisher www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC, June 18, 2014

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