An Open Letter from Rev. Wayne Perryman -- Racism in the Democratic Party?

Is Rev. Perryman right? Does the Democratic Party have a history of racism?

From the office of
Rev. Wayne Perryman
P.O. Box 256
Mercer Island, WA 98040

January 9, 2006

To: Congressional Black Caucus, National Bar Association,NAACP, National Urban League,Dr. Cornell West, Professor Charles Ogletree,Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Joseph Biden,Senator Barack Obama, Senator Edward Kennedy,Senator Joseph Lieberman, Senator Barbara Boxer,Senator Pat Roberts, Senator Carl Levin,Senator Diane Feinstein, Cong. John Conyers,Cong. Jesse Jackson Jr., Cong. Harold Ford,Senator Mary Landrieu, Senator Sam Brownback,Senator Bill Frist, Cong. Elijah Cummings

Attention Congressional & Community Leaders:

I thought it would only be fitting and proper to provide an explanation as to what brought about the Reparations lawsuit against the Democratic Party. Before I share with you the chain of events that led to the lawsuit, I thought that perhaps I should give you a brief background on myself and my past political affiliation.

I am a community activist and an inner-city minister located in the Seattle Washington. In addition to working with gang members and professional athletes, I spend my leisure time doing research. In 1993, based on personal research, I challenged major Christian Publishers and scholars that continued to produce publications promoting the Curse of Ham theory (a theory that justified slavery from a Christian perspective). My efforts resulted in a public apology and the removal of the 400 year old curse theory from all of their publications including removing it from the Encyclopedia Britannica (See attached letters and articles). My book: The 1993 Trial On The Curse of Ham was based on that research.

Most of my adult life I have voted for, and worked with a number of Democratic candidates at the local level. In 1996, I served as a member of the Washington State Black Clergy to Re-elect President Bill Clinton and worked closely with the co-chair. After President Clinton was re-elected, I was challenged by a group of young people from our church regarding the history of the Democratic Party and their relationship with blacks. Their challenge prompted me to devote a considerable amount of time researching the subject.

My research included reviewing Congressional Records from 1860 to present, reading the works of several renowned history professors (both black and white) and looking at the Democratic Platform from the early 1800’s to 1954. In addition to these documents I reviewed the research of those who produced the books: Without Sanctuary, 100 Years of Lynchings and added to my library the History Channel’s series on The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow and Reconstruction: The Second Civil War. Excerpts from those books and film documentaries were included as exhibits in my Reparations lawsuit against the Democratic Party.

The graphic depictions of whites fighting over the private parts of black men (penises, fingers, ears) after hanging them and igniting them with kerosene, is forever embedded in my mind. I can still hear the cries of the victims’ wives and children pleading and begging for the lives of their loved ones while Democratic national and local elected officials joined the crowd and cheered. The lynching of Mary Turner, the nine-month pregnant mother was even more horrific and graphic. All of these events took place under the banner of “States Rights” in regions controlled by Democratic governors, mayors, judges, sheriffs, Congressmen and U.S. Senators. Like Dr King, my parents lived through those times in Atlanta and I never fully appreciated what they and other blacks went through until I had completed my research.
In addition to lynchings and terrorist attacks by the Democrat’s terrorist organizations (as revealed in the 1871 Senate hearings), Democrats legislated Black Codes, Jim Crow laws and a multitude of other repressive legislation at the federal and state levels (and repealed other key pieces of Civil Rights legislation) all in an effort to deny blacks their rights as citizens. The entire system of racism in America was meticulously thought-out and carried-out by a powerful political machine. And that political machine according to historians, was the Democratic Party - the party of “White Supremacy.”

Based on these findings, I sent the attached (April 5, 2004) letter to the DNC requesting that they issue an apology to African Americans. In 2005, I sent a second letter to the DNC, again requesting an apology. When the DNC ignored these requests, I filed my first lawsuit on December 10, 2005. Prior to my letters, members of the Congressional Black Caucus sent former Congressman JC Watts the letter below (on January 28, 1999). In that letter the Caucus told Mr. Watts and his Republican counterparts t“Clearly and publicly distance themselves from the CCC and any other white supremacist, anti-semitic or hate groups….” In my letter to the DNC, I expressed similar sentiments. I told the DNC “An apology is one of the only ways modern-day Democrats can distance themselves from the party’s racist past while bringing some closure to the African American Community.” Instead of apologizing, Howard Dean hired one of the most powerful law-firms in the country, to defend the party’s racist past.

Without an apology and repentance there is no way the Democratic Party can ever sincerely honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Ms Rosa Parks; two individuals who literally gave their lives to destroy the racist programs, policies and practices that were established by the Democratic Party. And without an apology and repentance there is no way the Democratic Party can ever respect African Americans. Their past programs and practices from slavery through Jim Crow which literally destroyed the lives of millions of blacks, was an act of mass murder. And to hire an attorney to defend that racist past is not only an official endorsement of murder - it is an insult to the entire black race and to those whites who gave their lives to eliminate racial injustice.

I look forward to your response.

Sincerely

Rev. Wayne Perryman