Gary Franks: Tuberville’s inappropriate remarks — apology needed

I had planned to write about an election issue this week, but Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville interrupted those plans with some inappropriate, disturbing remarks at a recent Republican rally in Nevada.

Tuberville said the following about Democrats:

“They’re not soft on crime. They’re pro-crime. They want crime. They want crime because they want to take over what you got. They want to control what you have. They want reparation because they think the people that do the crime are owed that.”

His comments warrant an apology to the Black community.

My great grandfather, G.W. (George Washington) Petteway, was born a slave in 1834. He was a trailblazer in his own right in North Carolina. I take great exception to Tuberville’s remarks, and I hope and pray the overwhelming majority of Americans would do so as well.

Reparations and crime should not be in the same sentence.

Failed humor, if that was the case, has to be dealt with when the lack of sensitivity to an entire race is involved. At a minimum, I do expect Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to call him out. It is beyond disgraceful.

OK, maybe I am overly sensitive. After all, when, as a child you have been attacked by the Ku Klux Klan who burned a huge cross on your yard, received death threats against you and your family nightly, had a dog shot dead on your lawn (the perpetrators thought it was ours), personally pulled a dead possum from your mailbox dripping with blood wrapped in a sheet with a cryptic note attached saying “you will be like this dead possum” — I suspect that would make anyone a little sensitive when overtly racists remarks are made.

And my experiences in the early 1960s were not in Alabama; they were in Connecticut.

But I know that the vast majority of white people are good. Aberrations on race must be called out.

I was elected six times — three for Congress — in a 92% white district. I know where the truth lies with Americans, and it does not side with the feelings of Tuberville.

For most of my tenure I was the lone Black Republican in Congress. An overwhelming majority of Republican colleagues supported my efforts on race relations. I was appointed chair of a GOP task force on civil rights.

Following a presidential veto, I worked to get the country’s last civil rights bill signed into law. It passed with the largest plurality of any civil rights bill in U.S. history.

During a Rodney King-related meeting at the White House, following the acquittal of five police officers and race riots, I advised then-President George H.W. Bush to immediately go after those officers on civil rights violations after their wrongful beating of King. This ultimately resulted in convictions.

I worked hard to quickly get nearly all GOP members to support anti-Black church-burning legislation that I helped draft with Rep. Henry Hyde.

I testified before a three-judge U.S. Appeals Court in Savannah, Ga., against the racial gerrymandering of congressional districts. I stated, in the 1990s, that white people would vote for a Black candidate for office — imagine where that concept could lead? The court agreed.

(It should be noted: The growth of the Congressional Black Caucus has come from Black members who represent majority white districts.)

When I said this would happen, the CBC members at the time didn’t believe it. They voted in a landslide to kick me out of the CBC. But, eventually, cooler heads prevailed. Plus, a lot of bad press forced the caucus to reverse its decision.

Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Majority Leader Dick Armey, Conference Chair John Boehner and others not only were receptive, but they supported my efforts with the entire GOP Caucus.

A pivotal moment occurred, however, when David Duke, the former Grand Dragon of the KKK, wanted to run for Congress as a Republican from Louisiana in an open seat. I was so proud when the Republicans in Congress (leaders as well as rank and file members) stood up and rebuked Duke. I did not have to do or say anything. Rep. Bob Livingston, also from Louisiana, was magnificent in this effort.

To get back to Tuberville’s comments, this is another one of those pivotal moments.

I criticized Democratic leaders for saying nothing when Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam was going through gyrations on whether he was the person in blackface or the guy in the KKK outfit in a class yearbook picture — as though that made a difference.

Nor did many Democrats comment on then-Vice President Joe Biden’s claim that the Republicans were going to “put Black people back in chains.”

Republicans, now it is your turn, regardless of your position on reparations.