Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) expresses nostalgia for Jim Crow
The Inquirer’s Sean Collins Walsh covers the backlash after Republican Congressman Byron Donalds used a Philadelphia event to express nostalgia for the Jim Crow era.
Donalds is a conservative African-American Member of Congress who recently visited Philadelphia to promote Donald Trump for the president. Here is an excerpt of what he said:
“One of the things that’s actually happening in our culture that you’re now starting to see in our politics is the reinvigoration of Black family with younger Black men and Black women, and that is also helping to breathe the revival of a Black middle class in America. You see, during Jim Crow, the Black family was together. During Jim Crow, more Black people were not just conservative — Black people have always been conservative-minded — but more Black people voted conservatively. And then H.E.W., Lyndon Johnson — you go down that road, and now we are where we are.”
President Joe Biden’s campaign and other Democrats criticized Donalds for appearing to praise the Jim Crow era, in which racial segregation and disenfranchisement relegated Black Americans to second-class status.
https://www.inquirer.com/politics/philadelphia/bryon-donalds-philadelphia-jim-crow-20240605.html
Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) went to the House floor to give a response: