As the Florida State Chair of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), I was appalled at many of the events of last week, particularly of Sarah Sanders, President Trump’s press secretary being kicked out of a restaurant. I grew up in segregated Alabama and was barred from going to restaurants not owned by black folks.

But I also remember being snatched out of the white women’s bathroom at a gas station in Georgia when I was fivemonths pregnant.

I thought about that and the many other indignities I had to suffer because someone didn’t like the color of my skin. Now I was listening to a black woman around my age who would have had to endure the same harassment had she lived in Alabama instead of California. In fact before the ‘60s, she couldn’t even be a Congresswoman.

But now Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Democrat, was telling other Democrats – white and black – to harass Republican cabinet members and deny them peace, even in their own homes.

She and other Democratic members of Congress were applauding those who denied Republican cabinet members the right to eat at their restaurants – just because they hated their politics.

I never thought I would see anyone being denied the right to eat in peace at a public establishment since Dr. King, Rev. Abernathy and other black preachers and all the Freedom Marchers from different organizations, including CORE, endured beatings, dogs, fire hoses, shootings, lynchings and all other manner of harassments – just because someone didn’t like the color of their skin.

Now even those who would have been harassed 60 years ago because of the color of their skin are advocating harassing people because they don’t like their politics. Democrats used to hide behind Jim Crow laws; now they hide behind the First Amendment – calling it “the right to protest.”

They’re using President Trump’s “Zero Tolerance” ban to protest the separation of Hispanic children from their parents. But when President Obama did it, they were silent. He was their man; he was a fellow Democrat, so it was OK.

But Trump is a Republican, he’s the opposition, so it is not OK.

As far as they are concerned, he was not supposed to be president, Hillary was. So Democrats are trying to invalidate his presidency, by any means necessary. And that includes harassing his staff, his cabinet and anyone who voted for him. Democrats have called us deplorables and various other names you can’t say in polite company.

They hate us, just like racist white folks hate all us black folks. I was once hated because of the color of my skin. Now I’m hated because of my political registration.

People forget, Democrats created the black codes, Jim Crow laws, segregation, the Ku Klux Klan. They denied us the right to vote. Then the 1965 Civil Rights law was passed and Dr. King encouraged black folks to register as Democrats so we could vote for John Kennedy.

Since then the Democratic Party has convinced black folks that the Republicans are the racists. Now they are not only calling Republicans racists, but sexists, misogynists, homophobic, Xenophobic, and Islamaphobic. And those of us who are black and Republican are also called “Uncle Toms.” Problem is – it’s all a lie.

But they are using those terms as reasons to harass us and they defend the harassment as “Freedom of Speech” and their right to protest. Real racists denied us the right to vote, to eat at public establishments, to use public accommodations.

I drank from separate water fountains. I rode in the back of the bus. I went to “Separate but Equal” schools – all because racist Democrats didn’t like the color of my skin.

Now Democrats, black and white, want to harass me – all because they don’t like my politics. Seems like Civil Rights turned upside down.

They are marching, protesting, denying people the right to public accommodations and the right to speak on college campuses. They have already resorted to violence since Trump won the election.

They’ve beaten people up and even shot one Congressman. They talked about burning The White House down and impeaching Trump before his first 100 days.

They even talked about assassinating him.

Nobody has died yet. But what happens when someone does?

This is a Democratic Republic. We vote politicians in or out. We accept the results of an election as legal and binding.

We don’t advocate violence because we don’t like the results of an election.

We also don’t harass elected or appointed officials in public, at their workplace and certainly not at their homes – merely because we don’t like their boss. To see an elected official advocate harassment of another public official just because they are from the opposition party is just frightening. And to watch black officials or black radio or TV talk show hosts advocate doing to others what was done to them or their forefathers is an abomination.