To the editor:

It is fitting and proper that the movie “The Butler” be shown on the 50th anniversary of that historic speech delivered so eloquently by Martin Luther King. Although parts of the movie are fictionalized, the sections having to do with the struggle for civil rights are real and heart-wrenching. The white mobs who threatened and humiliated those wishing to obtain some justice in this “Christian” nation are also real. 

As I watched the shameful actions of state and law enforcement officials, it brought to mind the words of conservative mouthpieces Newt Gingrich, Bill O’Reilly, and Rush Limbaugh. Why do blacks in this country identify with big government, they ask? It must be because they get a lot of “free stuff.” 

You are wrong again, gentlemen. Blacks identify with big government because that entity was the only one to stand up to state-sanctioned white mob rule. Thankfully, our presidents had more compassion than did the white masses.

If I was a member of a minority in this country, would I trust state government to protect me from discrimination? Absolutely not! Just look at the shenanigans being perpetrated in our own state to disenfranchise voters.  If it wasn’t for federal laws, some of us would have no rights at all.