In politics and history, there really is nothing new under the sun. This especially holds true for the Republican party who loves to replay their greatest hits. Many don’t know that “Make America Great Again” was not some novel idea originated by the Trump campaign, it was first used as a campaign slogan for the 1980 Ronald Reagan Presidential campaign. Republicans have been using Black celebrities to endorse them since the Nixon administration.
Starting last year and going into this year, Republican Governors Ron DeSantis (Florida) and Greg Abbott (Texas) made headlines by sending Hispanic Immigrants to New York City, Chicago, Washington D.C. and various cities in California (Sacramento, Los Angeles). The point of these political stunts was to bring a spotlight to the current immigration polices and sanctuary cities. DeSantis and Abbott were essentially saying, “Hey you care so much about these people, take them, they are all yours.”
These stunts were new, drew tons of attention and criticisms. The thing is, this idea was not new. In the 1960s, America was awash in the Civil Rights Movement. One of the key tenants of the movement was the Freedom Riders. The Freedom Riders were a group of volunteers organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Nashville Student Movement. The volunteers protested segregated public buses in the South.
A group called the Citizens Council (aka the Ku Klux Klan) got fed up with the “progress” of the Civil Rights movement and wanted to portray a different view of the South than the one that was publicized in the press. Led by George Singlemann, they came up with the idea of the “Reverse Freedom Rides.” The plan was to bus African Americans from the South to big northern and western cities. The thinking was the busing would test the North and prove whether white northerners were sincere in their desire for racial equality. There was also another reason for the rides, to remove African Americans from the Southern states’ welfare rolls as they were viewed as a drain on state resources.
The first family chosen was the Boyd family. The Boyds comprised of Lewis and Dorothy Boyd and their 8 children. Citizens’ Council especially picked them for the trip because they had eight children and Lewis had been unemployed for three years. The Citizens Council promised them jobs and a big house to coax them to move. The trip was a forty-three-hour ride from New Orleans to New York City. When they arrived, there were no jobs or housing, but the press was there because the Citizens’ Council had tipped them off about the family and the trip. In all 200-300, African Americans made the “Reverse Freedom Ride” trips, with most landing in New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.
Then President John Kennedy referred to the rides as “deplorable” and “A rather cheap exercise.” The New York Times referred to the rides as “A cheap trafficking in human misery on the part of Southern racists.” Then Massachusetts governor John Volpe feared his state would be overrun by “impoverished blacks” because of the rides and asked for federal legislation prohibiting the rides. The legislation never came about.
The Citizens Council failed to send thousands of African Americans to the North, but left a lasting political tactic. In 2023, replace African Americans with Hispanic immigrants and you have the “New Reverse Freedom Rides.” They still promise them housing and jobs in these new locations only to be met with the press when they arrive.
We do not leave the new residents out in the cold, thanks to the acts of charitable groups, churches, and local governments. But it says something about our society that in 2023, human beings are still being used to score cheap political points. What’s the point? Segregation still ended even with the acts of the “Reverse Freedom Rides” and with the actions of Abbott and DeSantis, U.S. immigration policy hasn’t changed. But that doesn’t matter, what matters more is getting the publicity and getting their names out in the public because both men have eyes for higher office. The pursuit of power or ideology trumps the livelihood of a lowly poor African American southerner or Hispanic immigrant. Yet, very few of us care about these tactics. We either cheer them on or silently disapprove and go about our lives. What a society we live in.
