“Why are most Blacks in America Democrat?” asked a group of inner-city young people to Rev. Wayne Perryman of Seattle, Washington.  Perryman replied,  “Because Democrats have done the most for Black people.”  They asked him for material to find out exactly what the Democrats have done for Blacks. Perryman did not have any material to give them.  He said, “I could see I would have to dig further to find the real answer…That decision led to some startling revelations regarding the relationships between blacks and the Democrats.” 

Perryman is a former newspaper publisher and radio talk show host and now is a fact-finding investigator in discrimination cases for the plaintiff. He also devotes much of his time serving his church and the inner-city community. For his ongoing work as a community activist, Rev. Perryman has received commendations from members of the United States Congress, former Washington State governor Booth Gardner, and former Seattle mayor Charles Royer. In addition to this recognition, Perryman’s work with children, professional athletes, gang members, and major corporations has resulted in local, national, and international media coverage, including Sports Illustrated, Parade Magazine, Sports Illustrated for Kids, the Seattle Times, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Ebony magazine, Upscale magazine, EM magazine, Christianity Today, The Personnel Administrator, ABC’s Home Show, CBN’s The 700 Club, and Italy’s Speak Up magazine.

Perryman claims that after reading his book, you will understand that:
-- For 150 years blacks were victims of terrorist attacks by the Democrats and their Klan supporters, including lynchings, beatings, rapes, and mutilations.

-- On the issue of slavery, the Democrats literally gave their lives to expand it; the Republicans gave their lives to ban it.

-- Many believed the Democrats had a change of heart and fell in love with blacks. To the contrary, history reveals the Democrats didn’t fall in love with black folks, they fell in love with the black vote knowing this would be their ticket into the White House.

He continues, “In my research, which covers the period from 1832 to 2002, I found two familiar strains running through the cultural development of the American Black: the positive and powerful role of Christianity and the little known and debilitating role of the Democrats -- from slavery through the Clinton Administration. There is also a critical analysis of our current black leadership.”

In the first few chapters, he writes of how the decline of spirituality affected Blacks.  He writes, “Our faith in God has always been the inspiring factor that empowered many of our people to do great things. When it came to dealing with problems, many of our famous black historical figures depended on the providence of God rather than on the promises of government.” He cites examples such as Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Nat Turner, and Benjamin Banneker.

Perryman also says of African Americans, “Many no longer put their faith in God, instead they put their faith in government and those representing government. The shift from God to government has resulted in behavior unheard of and problems unprecedented.”  Examples of those problems he cites are: More homeless than ever before. More rat-and roach-infested government housing. Fewer mothers who are full-time homemakers. More latchkey children home alone. More violence in schools. More couples living together out of wedlock. More single mothers who have never been married. More black men unemployed than ever before. More black men in prison. More abortions among black women. More drugs in the black community. More top-40 music degrading black women and glorifying sex and violence.  More covert practices of racial discrimination. More black on black crime and the list goes on.

Perryman does an excellent job of detailing aspects of Black history that are not generally known.  There is a belief in the African American community that the Republican Party, which was started in 1854 to abolish slavery, was the party of the slave masters and the Democratic Party is the party of the “Great Emancipators.”  I have personally talked to African Americans who believed that there were Republican slave owners. I also know of people who believe that Abraham Lincoln was a Democrat.  Obviously, they were not aware of actual history.  Perryman writes, “In 1929, one year after President Herbert Hoover took office with a promise to ‘put a chicken in every pot,’ the stock market crashed, our nation went into a deep depression, and the Republicans knew they were in trouble. This was the perfect opportunity for the Democrats to take the White House, but they needed more than the Depression; they needed the black vote… Prior to this time from 1866 to 1928, blacks had voted exclusively for the Republican ticket. Frustrated with the economy as well as with the Republican Party, the (black) newspapers used their powerful voice to urge black voters to break tradition and vote Democrat. John Hope Franklin said, ‘The break was neither clean nor complete, however, for there were those who could not be persuaded to support the party that, after all, was the party of the Ku Klux Klan and other bigots.’”

Perryman is critical of the Democratic Party’s lack of acknowledgement of its racist history of supporting slavery, Jim Crow, Black Codes, racial violence, etc. and its seeming refusal to apologize to African Americans for that history. He details in Chapter Seven: “The Democrats’ Racist Past But No Formal Apology,” the history of the Ku Klux Klan formed, in 1866, as a “terrorist” organization in response to the Republicans passing laws and forming programs to assist Blacks.  “The Democrats became very angry and resentful…the Democrats became the ‘Daddy’ of the Ku Klux Klan.”  He quotes Professor Howard O. Lindsey, author of A History of Black Americans: “Blacks and sympathetic whites were attacked and threatened. African Americans were discouraged from seeking elected office and even from trying to vote. Any and all means were used from threats to violence to outright murder.”

Perryman continues, “Today, a number of Democrats proudly boast about their civil rights accomplishments of the sixties, mainly the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.  However, after reviewing all the evidence, one must conclude that had the Democrats passed these same types of laws in 1864, their legislative efforts in 1964 would not have been necessary. From 1864 and beyond, Democrats proudly legislated Black Codes, Jim Crow laws, and a multitude of other local laws to disenfranchise blacks. These laws were specifically designed to hurt blacks; they passed no laws to help blacks.  The underlying truth is this: After two hundred years of racist practices, the Democrats didn’t pass laws and develop the programs (in the sixties) because they had a change of heart and fell in love with black folks. They did it because they fell in love with the black vote…Going after the black vote wasn’t entirely new for the Democrats. History reveals that since 1870, the Democrats have always gone after the black vote. From 1870 to 1930, the party used fraud, whippings, lynching, murder, intimidation, and mutilation to get their vote. In the 1930’s and 1960’s they switched from violence and intimidation to manipulation and voter’s registration. In their quest to obtain the black vote, Democrats conveniently ignored those portions of history that documented their inhumane treatment of African Americans.”

Perryman does not suggest that the Republicans of the past were “head over heels in love with blacks.”  He says that Republican presidents such as Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Taft felt that “blacks were inferior to them.” He says that despite their attitudes of superiority, Republicans as a whole refused to accept the inhumane treatment that blacks were forced to endure at the hands of those who represented the Democratic Party.

Perryman also says, “The injustices that we faced produced pain, the pain produced problems, and the problems produced two types of African Americans: those who put their faith in God and made a difference, and those who simply ignored God and made excuses. Blacks who made a difference, trusted God, turned their stumbling blocks into stepping stones, and built a stairway to success. Others who simply made excuses did not see the blocks as stepping stones, but as obstacles to their future. Thus many became angry, bitter, and self-abusive. Instead of viewing the blocks as a means that could take them from the Valley of Despair to the Plateaus of Prosperity, they viewed them as worthless materials and used them to build a Monument of Excuses -- excuses that eventually destroyed their families, their homes, their communities, their values, and eventually themselves.”

Unfounded Loyalty is available on Amazon.com.

Robert Oliver is a writer for the Chicago Communicator Newspaper and co-host of Interactions on WBGX 1570 and the Morgan Memo on WCFJ 1470 in Chicago.

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