Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? Obama, McCain, and History

Yes, normally this blog is devoted to science or health issues, but being a reporter on a particular beat doesn't necessarily mean we don't come across other news worth noting. Take elections for instance.

Last night, Senators Obama and McCain both spoke at a light-hearted dinner, poking fun -- at themselves mostly. By the way, harkening back to those health issues, laughter is good medicine according to studies. Maybe that's the best way to solve our national health crisis?

In any case, McCain had some interesting comments about Obama, "It's not for nothing that he has inspired so many folks in his own party and beyond. Senator Obama talks about making history and he's made quite a bit of it already…There was a time when the mere invitation of an African American citizen to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage and an insult in many quarters. Today, it's a world away from the cruel and frightful bigotry of that time. And good riddance."

Ah, yes, history, what a wonderful thing. It really can help us understand where we are today.

For example, to what White House invitation was he referring? That would be be President Teddy Roosevelt's invite to the great black educator and orator Booker T. Washington in 1901 -- 107 years ago.

That elicited a barrage of nasty editorials in the South. And you might be surprised to learn that both Washington and Roosevelt were Republicans. To our current mindset, that may not make sense when Republican and black seem at odds.

Yet after the Civil War, most all blacks were Republicans in the mold of the Great Emancipator, Lincoln. There were literally hundreds of black office holders until, yes, unfortunately, the Democrats managed to keep blacks from voting and office holding. Understandably, the Democratic Party's Web site on their history skips from 1848 to the close of the 19th Century (accessed Oct. 17, 2008).

That's not to say that Republicans shouldn't have done much more to reverse the despicable abuses that virtually stopped the significant progress of black equality that followed the Civil War. Still many white Republicans did pay the ultimate price in the South -- hundreds of them were lynched in that time period. Of course, the greater toll of murder fell on black people; estimates suggest about 75 percent were black.

So where can you find out more about this largely unknown history? I suggest the DVD from David Barton -- Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black and White."  It's an eye opener.