Posted by David Bernstein:
Socialist a "Code Word for 'black'":
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_10_19-2008_10_25.shtml#1224640416
Drudge links [1]to this blog post, which states:
The "socialist" label that Sen. John McCain and his GOP
presidential running mate Sarah Palin are trying to attach to Sen.
Barack Obama actually has long and very ugly historical roots.
J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI from 1924 to 1972, used the
term liberally to describe African Americans who spent their lives
fighting for equality.
Those freedom fighters included the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.,
who led the Civil Rights Movement; W.E.B. Du Bois, who in 1909
helped found the NAACP which is still the nation's oldest and
largest civil rights organization; Paul Robeson, a famous singer,
actor and political activist who in the 1930s became involved in
national and international movements for better labor relations,
peace and racial justice; and A. Philip Randolph, who founded and
was the longtime head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
and a leading advocate for civil rights for African Americans.
The funny thing is that Hoover referred to Du Bois, Robeson, and
Randolph as socialists not because they were black but because they
were, well socialists. Robeson, in fact, was a Communist, as was Du
Bois in his later years.
References
1. http://voices.kansascity.com/node/2493
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