On Freedom Riders, Haley Barbour, and Growing the GOP

*First appeared in the July 9 edition of the Laurel Chronicle newspaper

On Monday, civil rights leader and U.S. Representative John Lewis tweeted the following: “53 yrs ago today I was released from Parchman Penitentiary after being arrested in Jackson for using ‘white’ restroom.” His tweet was accompanied by a black and white mug shot taken at the Jackson police department.

Lewis was part of the Freedom Riders who traveled the South to protest segregation. In 2011, Mississippi joined with the riders to commemorate the 50th anniversary of their Freedom Rides. At Gov. Barbour’s request, the state played a large role in coordinating many of the memorials and activities planned for that week. As the staff member responsible for this project, I gained new perspective on an age-old issue.

Seeing the Governor of Mississippi, on behalf of the state, welcome the Freedom Riders, apologize for their mistreatment in 1961, and thank them for the chance to atone and reconcile was powerful.

That’s just one of the many reasons I can’t stomach it when I read accusations that Haley Barbour is responsible for “race-baiting” in the recently concluded U.S. Senate campaign.

The narrative that Haley Barbour drummed up black votes in some desperate scheme to re-elect Thad Cochran is bogus. Indeed, he’s been trying to increase black participation in Republican politics for decades – not out of desperation, mind you, but out of a sincere desire to grow the conservative movement.

In a 1997 column that appeared in the Washington Post, then-outgoing Republican National Committee chairman Haley Barbour had some parting advice on growing the GOP.

“We are failing to communicate effectively to many women and minorities why our proposals are the right policies…Look at the issue of education…Too many never heard us say our goal is to have education money spent in local schools instead of on the Washington bureaucracy. [Minorities and women] never heard us say we want to give parents, teachers, and local school boards more control than the unions and federal bureaucrats. They never heard us say of school choice: Bill Clinton and Albert Gore should not be the only parents living in ‘public housing’ able to send their children to private schools.”

Haley Barbour thinks the GOP’s message on education policy ought to resonate with black and women voters.

Scandalous!

In 2003, Barbour had the opportunity to heed his own advice when he challenged former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove for the state’s top job. WLBT, the NBC-affiliate in Jackson, covered his efforts to court black voters: “[Barbour] has been traveling around the state…meeting with black community leaders” to better understand their concerns for Mississippi’s future.

Outrageous!

In 2007, when Barbour ran for re-election, his campaign focused on job growth, educational opportunities, and rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina – issues that resonated with a cross-section of Mississippi voters. According to a 2007 Associated Press article, Barbour strived “to win 20 percent of the black vote, and blacks figure prominently in his ads and campaign literature.” He even received the endorsement of the former president of the historically black Jackson State University and had a campaign staff member assigned to minority outreach.

Despicable!

When the election rolled around, Barbour enjoyed somewhere between 20-25 percent of the African American vote. He’d be the first to tell you that he worked hard to get those votes, and that many of his black supporters were the same folks who cast a vote for Thad on June 24.

Conspiracy!

You get the point. Haley Barbour has consistently tried to grow the Republican Party, not by abandoning conservative principles but by messaging them in a way that gets the attention of prospective voters, whether they’re black, female, or Hispanic.

A product of the Reagan White House (and we’ve heard a lot about Reagan lately), Barbour has always applied a “big tent” philosophy to growing Republican ranks. Instead of some litmus test to determine party eligibility, Barbour adheres to that old Gipper quip: “The person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and ally, not some 20 percent traitor.”

In order to push forward conservative principles, we must win elections. To win elections, we must continue growing the GOP, which means all of us – from liberty-lovers to freedom-fighters – must get serious about outreach to minority and women voters.

To borrow some more parting advice from that 1990s outgoing RNC Chairman: We’ve got to “communicate not only what we’re for, but why we’re for it and how it will improve the lives of everyday Americans...[We’ve got to] reach out to those who agree with us on the issues but do not yet vote for us.”