The Hip-Hop Summit Action Network is calling
upon Pres. Bush to ask for Senator Trent Lott’s resignation from the U.S. Senate.
Lott made racist comments at a birthday party
for 100 year-old Strom Thurmond. Thurmond was the oldest serving Senator in
the U.S. government history when he retired last week. Lott declared that he
was proud his state (Mississippi) had voted for the Thurmond ticket during the
1948 elections, declaring "If the rest of the country had followed our
lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over the years either."
"For Bush not to call for Trent Lott’s resignation
is a terrible insult to black people’s intelligence," HHSN Founder Russell
Simmons told AllHipHop.com.
Lott apologized Thursday and President Bush said
the apology was welcomed. "Any suggestion that the segregated past was
acceptable or positive is offensive and it is wrong," Bush declared.
Lott has a history of being racist. Over four
decades ago, Lott helped prevent his college fraternity from admitting blacks
to any of it’s chapters.
Chapters of the Sigma Nu’s were considering the
admission of African-American’s into the chapters, when Lott was president of
the intra-fraternity council at the University Of Mississippi. Lott was one
of the most outspoken leaders, opposed to the integration of the fraternity’s
and sororities.
"Yes, you could say I favored segregation
then," Lott told Time magazine in 1997. "The main thing was, I felt
the federal government had no business sending in troops to tell the state what
to do."
"The civil rights movement was one of America’s
finest hours," civil rights leader Jesse Jackson stated. "Strom Thurmond’s
massive resistance to that movement, and his support in states like Mississippi,
was one of one of history’s low points. Trent Lott must not be allowed to tarnish
that truth."
In 1981, when Lott was a congressman in Mississippi,
he wrote "Racial discrimination does not always violate public policy."
That was writting in a brief that unsuccessfully urged the U.S. Supreme Court
to stop the IRS from taking away the Bob Jones University’s tax exemption status.
"Strom Thurmond ran for President in 1948
as a staunch segregationist, and for Trent Lott in 2002 to express support for
a presidential candidate at that time running on a policy based on bigotry and
hatred is an insult to human dignity. We in the Hip-Hop community are opposed
to all forms of racial segregation."
The claim that Republicans represent black people
and poor people is not valid if Bush will not call for his resignation,"
Simmons added. "This proves that he is insensitive to the on going racism
that still exists in the Republican party."
Meanwhile, the United States Air Force will honor
Thurmond by naming its 100th C-17 airlifter after the Senate’s only centenarian.
