Wittman's hypocrisy is on full display with Barbara Rose Johns statue
Honoring civil rights heroes? No, just pretending.
Rob Wittman almost fooled us yesterday. His announcement suggests that he led the effort to place a statue of Barbara Rose Johns, a Virginia civil rights pioneer, in the US Capitol. But the truth is that Wittman's hypocrisy is on full display here. He opposes everything Johns stood for, and tried to prevent her recognition. It's nauseating.
First, some background: In 1951, Johns was 16 years old and led a student strike for equal education at her high school in Farmville. That action led to the NAACP's lawsuit that became part of the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, which
held that "separate but equal" public schools are unconstitutional. Johns' leadership resulted in civil rights protections for all Americans.
Her statue taking its place in the US Capitol is a fitting tribute to her bravery and commitment to American liberty. Guess who voted to resist any new statue being placed in the Capitol? Yes - Wittman. But it's even worse than that!
Along with most Republicans, Wittman voted NO on Removal of Confederate Statues (HR 3005) - including the statue of Robert E. Lee that Johns' statue has now replaced.
(His vote also would have kept in the Capitol a bust of Roger Taney, author of the Dred Scott decision, which denied citizenship to black Americans and accelerated the spread of slavery and the likelihood of civil war. It is regarded now as the Court's worst "self-inflicted wound.")
Wittman voted to keep traitors to the USA and its citizens in the Capitol, and to block recognition of true American heroes like Johns.
Wittman says: "I was honored to introduce the congressional resolution authorizing this event." Sounds like he led the effort to honor Ms. Johns, doesn't it? Don't be fooled! All he did was book a room for the statue's unveiling. It's purely administrative, and quite literally the least a Virginia Congressperson can do.
Wittman had no hand AT ALL in selecting Johns for recognition. That was done at the state level under Governor Ralph Northam, via a body chaired by Senator L. Louise Lucas. In fact, Wittman has been working diligently to oppose everything Johns stood for. He has consistently voted against - and voted FOR attacks on - civil rights protections:
Voted NO on the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act that sought to restore the protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was itself made possible by the civil rights movement Johns helped ignite.
Voted NO on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which aimed to address racial profiling and police misconduct - both key modern civil rights issues.
Voted NO on the Equality Act that would ban discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
Every US state is entitled to place the statues of two people in the US Capitol. It's a beautiful tradition, until recently sullied with Confederate traitors among their number. Today, despite the efforts of Wittman, Trump, and their ilk, Barbara Rose Johns' statue now joins George Washington as Virginia's representative in (what ought to be) the beating heart of US democracy.
As they both demonstrated, the fight for a greater America demands grit and stamina from all of us. As Wittman's votes show, he aims to reinstate the world that Barbara Rose Johns lived through and protested against, the world we thought we'd left in the dust. He is MAGA, he's a hypocrite, and you should be skeptical of everything he says and does - because it's probably designed to fool and hurt you.