This week, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) blamed late President Richard Nixon (R) for rampant violence in his city. Nixon died in 1994.
Over Independence Day weekend, over 100 people were shot in the Windy City. Nineteen of these shootings were fatal, according to multiple reports. Johnson’s response to that was to blame a former president instead of acknowledging that the city’s soft-on-crime policies, among other things, contributed to the fatal shootings.
“Black death has been unfortunately accepted in this country for a very long time. We had a chance 60 years ago to get at the root causes and people mocked President Johnson. And we ended up with Richard Nixon. I’m going to work hard everyday to transform this city,” Johnson said in remarks.
Over 100 people were shot in Chicago last weekend, including 18 fatally.
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 8, 2024
Mayor Brandon Johnson blamed it on Richard Nixon in his press conference today.
No, that is not a joke. pic.twitter.com/dorETLl5os
Once Johnson’s remarks circulated, the Richard Nixon Foundation responded.
“Mayor Johnson’s reference to President Nixon is gratuitous and the facts are not on his side in his characterization,” the foundation said at the beginning of a lengthy X thread.
Mayor Johnson’s reference to President Nixon is gratuitous and the facts are not on his side in his characterization of Richard Nixon and the Nixon administration’s civil rights record.
— Richard Nixon Foundation (@nixonfoundation) July 9, 2024
Here are the facts: 🧵 https://t.co/bWBx5v7DJd
The Nixon Foundation explained how Nixon’s administration worked to desegregate all schools after the Supreme Court handed down its landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. Over the course of Nixon’s tenure as president, schools were “effectively and peacefully” desegregated. In addition, funding for civil rights programs expanded.
From 1969 to 1972, federal funding for civil rights programs grew from $75 million to more than $600 million, the equivalent of more than $3.4 billion today.
— Richard Nixon Foundation (@nixonfoundation) July 9, 2024
Nixon issued an executive order calling on federal government agencies to apply equal-opportunity policies to every aspect of federal personnel policies and practices.
— Richard Nixon Foundation (@nixonfoundation) July 9, 2024
The Foundation noted that Nixon allocated $12 million for research on sickle-cell anemia, which impacts one out of every 500 black children. And, Nixon’s administration increased the government’s federal purchases from black-owned businesses.
From 1969 to 1971, the government’s federal purchases from black-owned businesses increased more than 900 percent, from $13 million to $142 million.
— Richard Nixon Foundation (@nixonfoundation) July 9, 2024
Additionally, Nixon more than doubled federal funding to predominantly black colleges and issued an executive order creating an Office of Minority Business Enterprise in the Department of Commerce.
Nixon mandated that federal contractors had to comply with equal employment-opportunity laws. This “Philadelphia Plan,” led to the dismantling of institutionalized racism in labor unions. The Nixon administration was the first to institute plans to increase jobs for minorities in…
— Richard Nixon Foundation (@nixonfoundation) July 9, 2024
Read more from Robert J. Brown, former special assistant to President Nixon: https://t.co/uvP0stF3Ll
— Richard Nixon Foundation (@nixonfoundation) July 9, 2024
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