Obama White House on a Jim Crow Binge

Lyndon LaRouche today strongly denounced President Barack Obama and his top "Chicago gang" White House aides for practicing Jim Crow racism. LaRouche cited the firing of U.S. Department of Agriculture official and civil rights activist Shirley Sherrod, and the Obama support for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's railroad targeting of leading African-American Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY), as the latest evidence that the President "has revived Jim Crow racism at the White House."

"Not since Woodrow Wilson embraced the Ku Klux Klan and reinstituted segregation throughout the Federal Government, has a U.S. President been so blatant in his racism," LaRouche declared. "Between the White House-ordered firing of Shirley Sherrod and the move to oust Charles Rangel from the U.S. House of Representatives, it is getting more and more obvious that President Obama intends to exert dictatorial control over the African-American vote, and that the only African-Americans he wishes to see in the United States Congress and in other important elected positions are Uncle Toms who will bow to his every command. Those who refuse to go along with President Obama are targeted for attack. This is as wild a Jim Crow binge as I have ever seen."

LaRouche was not alone in his stern denunciation of President Obama's flight into racism. Clayborne Carson, the director of the MLK Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, was quoted today in Salon magazine about the firing of Shirley Sherrod: "This is a symbol of something much larger: On civil liberties issues, he's just lost it. Nobody should ever be dismissed from a position for something they're saying on Fox. As a matter of principle, you don't fire someone without some kind of internal due process and investigation. But this is an administration that can order the assassination of an American citizen. It's disappointing to say the least."

Carson noted that Charles Sherrod, the husband of the defamed USDA official, was a founder of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the 1960s, serving as the first field secretary of that civil rights organization. In that capacity Charles Sherrod fought to integrate the organization, when some radical factions promoted a Black Nationalist dogma. He remains a leading civil rights activist to this day.

LaRouche further cited the Pelosi-led and Obama-endorsed assault on Cong. Rangel, as yet another example of the Obama White House targeting of African-American elected officials who don't toe the Obama line. "Congressman Rangel is one of the last of the FDR Democrats in the House, and that is something that the President cannot tolerate. I have been informed, by reliable sources in Washington, that Speaker Pelosi is working, behind Cong. Rangel's back, to divide the Congressional Black Caucus and force them to betray their colleague, to stay in the good graces of the Obama White House. This, I find disgusting."

LaRouche also noted that, during the 2008 Presidential primaries and in the November general elections, the Obama campaign was accused of voter intimidation, particularly targeting African-Americans, thought to be voting for rival candidates. "This is yet another example of Jim Crow at its worst. Deploying hooligans to threaten and intimidate African-Americans, particularly the elderly, is a throwback to the worst from the Deep South. Weren't these practices outlawed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965? Perhaps someone should send Mr. Obama back to law school for a refresher course."