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The Grift: A Modern Political Betrayal
When Donald Trump descended the golden escalator in 2015 to announce his presidential bid, a peculiar phenomenon was already underway in American politics. Black Republicans willing to denounce their own communities while embracing policies harmful to those same communities were gaining unprecedented visibility and power. This phenomenon-the grift-represents a dangerous political betrayal with deep historical roots. Unlike Frederick Douglass, who used his Republican affiliation to fight for Black liberation, today's Black Republican grifters leverage their identity to provide cover for white supremacist policies. The book has sparked fierce debate across political lines, with The Atlantic calling it "essential reading for understanding modern political manipulation" and earning praise from figures ranging from Stacey Abrams to Michael Eric Dyson. As racial tensions continue to define American politics, this examination of how political opportunists shape-shift for personal gain offers crucial insights into the machinery of power and betrayal operating beneath our political discourse.
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From Douglass to Denial: The Evolution of Black Republicanism
The original Black Republicans were freedom fighters. Frederick Douglass-not Abraham Lincoln-represents the true spirit of righteous American political activism. While Lincoln is celebrated as the Great Emancipator, historical records reveal a white supremacist politician who needed to be pressured into emancipation by Black Republicans like Douglass. Lincoln supported the horrific Fugitive Slave Act, declared himself in favor of white superiority, and initially refused to allow Black men to serve in the Civil War. He even proposed "compensated emancipation"-paying reparations to slave owners while deporting freed slaves.
Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, contrary to popular mythology, freed only a small fraction of enslaved people-perhaps seventy thousand out of four million. It applied only to Confederate states where Lincoln had no control, while leaving slavery intact in border states where he had jurisdiction. The document's true significance wasn't "freedom" but its function as a war document allowing Black men to serve in the Union Army. As Reverend Al Sharpton aptly noted, "The slaves freed Lincoln," not the other way around.
Despite Lincoln's white supremacist views, his recognition that slavery must end to save the Union made him a threat to enslavers. After his assassination, Douglass offered nuanced perspectives, acknowledging Lincoln as "preeminently the white man's President" while later calling him "one of the noblest, wisest and best men I ever knew."
Douglass, born to a white father and enslaved Black mother, courageously criticized Lincoln while demanding equality, despite constant death threats. He laid the groundwork for Black political thought focused on federal protection of voting rights, fair wages, equal education, and economic rights for formerly enslaved people. Today's Republicans who claim to want a return to "the party of Lincoln" should instead aspire to the party of Douglass-the true liberator who understood that political affiliation should serve the cause of justice, not personal advancement.
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Reconstruction's Promise and Betrayal
Reconstruction created unprecedented opportunities for America's first Black elected officials-the Douglass Republicans-while revealing the origins of modern Republican positions like voter disenfranchisement and states' rights advocacy. Despite the Confederate surrender in 1865, life for Black Americans remained perilous, with widespread white terrorist violence claiming hundreds of lives across the South between 1865-1868.
After Lincoln's assassination, Andrew Johnson-a Southerner who opposed slavery but harbored deep racial prejudice-quickly undermined Reconstruction by pardoning wealthy Confederates, crippling the Freedmen's Bureau, and returning promised land to former rebels. As former Confederates returned to power under Johnson's permissive policies, they instituted Black codes that criminalized homelessness, restricted Black rights, and created a prison labor system that effectively reinstated slavery.
Black communities responded by organizing freedmen's conventions throughout the South in 1865-1866. From North Carolina to Mississippi, these gatherings developed a collective strategy that included establishing schools, protesting Black codes, and seeking cooperation with whites for peaceful coexistence. James Walker Hood, a formerly enslaved delegate who had escaped bondage, expressed optimism at the 1865 North Carolina convention about Black and white Americans living together harmoniously-a belief that ultimately proved naive in the face of coming Jim Crow laws.
Congress eventually wrested control of Reconstruction from President Johnson, passing the Civil Rights Act of 1866 which declared all persons born in America citizens "without distinction of race or color." Republicans continued using federal power against the former Confederacy, passing the First Reconstruction Act in 1867, which stationed troops throughout the South to protect Black people from white terrorists and ensured adult males could vote unless they'd supported the Confederacy. They then passed the Fourteenth Amendment, guaranteeing birthright citizenship and equal protection under law.
Black men responded by registering to vote in massive numbers-about 80 percent by 1868-helping elect Ulysses S. Grant as president. By 1870, Republicans passed the Fifteenth Amendment, explicitly prohibiting voting discrimination based on race. However, without federal protection, Black Republicans elected during Reconstruction lost power within a decade as white supremacists suppressed Black political participation and stripped away Black wealth and land.
The Mississippi Plan of 1875 represented white terrorists' determination to regain control of the state despite its Black majority population. Newspapers brazenly declared "Mississippi is a white man's country, and by the eternal God we'll rule it." Violence erupted in Vicksburg in 1874 when white mobs killed countless Black citizens who were protesting the forced removal of Peter Crosby, their legally elected Black sheriff.
The Compromise of 1877 allowed Republican Rutherford Hayes to become president in exchange for removing federal troops from the South, effectively ending Reconstruction. This betrayal devastated Black southerners, with Henry Adams lamenting, "The whole South-every state in the South-had got into the hands of the very men that held us as slaves." Frederick Douglass had foreseen this betrayal, noting "Men are seeking new allies and smiling in faces upon which they never smiled before since the war."
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The First Grifters: Betraying the Black Community
Isaiah Montgomery, born in 1847 on the Hurricane Plantation near Vicksburg, Mississippi, represents one of the first examples of the Black Republican grift. He and his father Benjamin were enslaved by Joseph Davis, Jefferson Davis's older brother. After the Civil War, the Montgomerys returned to Mississippi and farmed on their former plantation, creating what General Grant called a "negro paradise."
By 1887, after his father's death, Isaiah founded Mound Bayou-a prosperous, all-Black, 30,000-acre community that somehow avoided the white terrorist attacks that destroyed similar Black communities. But Montgomery's true betrayal came in 1890, when he cast the sole Black vote at Mississippi's constitutional convention to disenfranchise his own people.
At this convention, Montgomery delivered a disgraceful speech supporting voter restrictions that would "reduce the negro vote considerably below the white vote." He called Black people "inferior" in "civilization" and framed disenfranchisement as "lifting" voting rights to a "higher plane"-rhetoric indistinguishable from white supremacists.
Despite being condemned by Black leaders and labeled "a disgrace to the race," Montgomery personally prospered. Roosevelt appointed him receiver of public funds in Jackson (though he later resigned after allegedly embezzling $5,000). While Mound Bayou initially thrived as a segregated community, it eventually collapsed from lack of capital and banking failures. When Montgomery died in 1924, he was eulogized by a proud racist who praised the KKK.
Seven months after Frederick Douglass died, Booker T. Washington delivered his infamous 1895 Atlanta Compromise speech, telling Black people to accept second-class citizenship and focus on industrial skills rather than social equality. Unlike Douglass Republicans who advocated for Black farmers and teachers, Washington blamed Reconstruction's failure on the "ignorant and inexperienced" and declared, "It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top."
Washington's self-serving hypocrisy defined him as a grifter. While preaching industrial education for Blacks, he sent his own children to white boarding schools and prep schools. He accumulated personal wealth from white donors, including $150,000 from Andrew Carnegie for personal use. His rhetoric disempowered Black elected officials and gave cover to white supremacists, culminating in Plessy v. Ferguson just eight months after his speech, solidifying Jim Crow segregation.
When Representative George H. White, the final Black elected official from the nineteenth century, left Congress in March 1901, he delivered a powerful farewell speech highlighting Black achievements despite overwhelming oppression. White reminded his racist colleagues these accomplishments came "in the face of lynching, burning at the stake, with the humiliation of 'Jim Crow' laws, the disfranchisement of our male citizens, slander and degradation of our women." He concluded prophetically, "Phoenix-like he will rise up someday and come again." It would take twenty-eight years for another Black person to serve in Congress.
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The New Deal Shift and Nixon's False Promises
Black Americans remained loyal to the Republican Party for decades until Democratic president Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal changed everything. Despite the New Deal's discriminatory design that excluded Black workers from many benefits, some programs inadvertently helped Black communities, particularly by strengthening labor unions like the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. This economic boost resulted in over 70% of Black people voting for Roosevelt's second term, beginning a major political realignment.
The first Black Republican elected to Congress in the twentieth century, Oscar De Priest, faced constant battles from both parties. Born to formerly enslaved parents, he made history as Chicago's first Black alderman before winning Illinois's First District in 1929. Under Republican President Hoover, De Priest fought for civil rights, demanding pensions for formerly enslaved people and attempting to pass anti-lynching legislation. Despite his popularity in the Black press, De Priest lost his seat after three terms to Democrat Arthur Mitchell in 1935, marking a shift in Black voter allegiance.
By the 1950s, baseball legend Jackie Robinson had become the most famous Black Republican. Despite his friendship with Richard Nixon, Robinson grew increasingly frustrated with both parties' weak civil rights records. When Martin Luther King Jr. was jailed in October 1960, Robinson begged Nixon to call King, but Nixon refused, fearing lost southern votes. Kennedy seized the opportunity, calling Coretta Scott King and helping secure King's release. By 1964, Robinson had fallen out of love with the GOP, fighting against Barry Goldwater's takeover and warning about "the danger of the Republican Party being taken over by the lily-white-ist conservatives." Disgusted with Republicans fighting for the white racist vote, Robinson officially left the party in 1968.
The 1960s marked the beginning of a Republican purge of Black members. In 1961, RNC head William Miller launched Operation Dixie to attract white Southern voters while defunding the party's Minority Division. At the 1964 Republican National Convention, legendary Black Republican George W. Lee from Memphis was denied delegate status as white Republicans disenfranchised Black Republicans through voter intimidation. The convention itself became a celebration of white supremacy, with Southern delegates waving Confederate flags and naming their headquarters "Fort Sumter." Jackie Robinson described the convention as making him feel like "a Jew in Hitler's Germany."
Richard Nixon became president in January 1969, having secured 15 percent of the Black vote despite Jackie Robinson warning he would be "death to the Blacks." Nixon's strategy involved ignoring Black voters except when promoting "Black capitalism" and "law and order" narratives aimed at appeasing his white southern base. While Nixon's administration saw some progress for Black businesses through the Office of Minority Business Enterprise and increased funding for HBCUs, his war on drugs, announced in 1971, would devastate Black communities. His domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman later admitted they deliberately targeted "the antiwar left and black people" by associating "hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin" to disrupt these communities.
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Reagan's Rise and Thomas's Betrayal
The 1980s brought Ronald Reagan to power, implementing policies harmful to Black communities, the poor, and the middle class-effects that persist today. Reagan's anti-Black stance was evident from the beginning-he had supported Barry Goldwater in 1964, opposed the Civil Rights Act as "bad legislation," and stormed out of a meeting with Black Republicans when questioned about his record.
Reagan's 1980 campaign kickoff speech in Neshoba County, Mississippi-miles from where three civil rights activists had been murdered-focused on "states' rights," embodying the Southern strategy that GOP strategist Lee Atwater described: when "you can't say nigger," just implement policies where "Blacks get hurt worse than whites."
Samuel Riley Pierce Jr., Reagan's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 1981-1989, was the only Black person in Reagan's cabinet-yet Reagan once infamously greeted him as "Mr. Mayor," mistaking him for a random Black mayor. Under Pierce's leadership, HUD's budget was slashed by 78 percent while homelessness skyrocketed. A congressional investigation later alleged that under Pierce's watch, significant funds went to Republican consultants while $18 billion was cut from low-income housing programs.
Clarence Thomas, born in 1948 in Pin Point, Georgia-a town founded by formerly enslaved people-experienced Jim Crow firsthand while growing up in deep poverty. Thomas's big break came at the 1980 Black Alternatives Conference in San Francisco, a Reagan-sponsored gathering of Black conservatives. At this conference, Thomas infamously portrayed his sister Emma Mae Martin as a welfare queen, claiming she got "mad when the mailman is late with her welfare check." This characterization proved grossly exaggerated-journalists later discovered Martin had briefly relied on public assistance after her husband abandoned her and their four children, surviving on just $169 monthly while working two minimum-wage jobs.
Though Thomas admitted he benefited from affirmative action at Yale and once stated, "But for them, God only knows where I would be today," his position shifted dramatically as he climbed the ranks. After Reagan appointed him assistant secretary of education for Civil Rights in 1981 and then chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1982, Thomas declared by 1987 that "any race-conscious remedy is no good."
When Thurgood Marshall retired in 1991, President George H.W. Bush selected Thomas as his replacement while insisting he wasn't appointing Thomas because of race. Yet Bush simultaneously told Black Americans they "ought to rejoice at his nomination"-they did not. Critics noted Thomas was chosen specifically because he was both Black and staunchly conservative on civil rights issues.
Thomas perfected the grift during his confirmation hearings by invoking the phrase "high-tech lynching" when faced with Anita Hill's sexual harassment allegations. This tactic positioned him as the victim while blaming a Black woman for the "lynching" of a Black man-after years of criticizing Black people for victimizing themselves. With his radical right-wing activist wife by his side, Thomas has become a political cancer on the Supreme Court, serving as the ideological and tactical blueprint for today's Black conservative grifters.
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The Modern Grift: From Colin Powell to Candace Owens
From 1929 to 2022, only nine Black Republicans served as voting members in the House of Representatives. After Oscar Stanton De Priest lost reelection in 1934, it took nearly sixty years before Gary Franks became the next Black Republican representative. Representing Connecticut's overwhelmingly white Fifth District, Franks opposed affirmative action, supported Clarence Thomas's Supreme Court nomination, claimed Roosevelt's New Deal enslaved Black people, compared the Nation of Islam to the KKK, and supported lifting sanctions against apartheid South Africa. Representative Julian Dixon observed that Franks "gives white Americans cover by virtue of the color of his skin" while dismantling needed programs.
J.C. Watts, a former football star and minister elected in 1995 to represent Oklahoma's predominantly white Fourth District, initially followed the Black Republican playbook. He claimed Democrats took Black votes for granted, railed against "cultural decay," welfare dependency, and opposed affirmative action. However, Watts surprisingly evolved, joining Democrat John Lewis to defend affirmative action when House Republicans attempted to dismantle it. By 2003, Watts sounded progressive, declaring, "Affirmative action isn't the problem. Lousy education for Black kids is the problem."
Colin Powell's relationship with the Republican Party deteriorated over time. After endorsing Obama in 2008, Powell faced accusations of racial loyalty from Republicans who never questioned white politicians endorsing each other. Following the January 6 insurrection, Powell finally left the Republican Party after nearly twenty-six years. He died in October 2021 at age 84, with Obama eulogizing him as "an exemplary soldier and exemplary patriot."
Condoleezza Rice remained steadfastly loyal to Bush even after the administration's disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina. When questioned about Bush's intentions toward Black Americans during Katrina, Rice expressed anger that anyone would question the president's motives, despite polls showing over 75% of Black Americans believed Bush didn't care about them. Unlike Colin Powell, who eventually denounced Trump and the Republican Party's racism, Rice continued providing cover for Trump, suggesting in 2020 that he could improve by "putting tweeting aside."
Michael Steele made history in January 2009 as the first Black chairperson of the RNC. Unlike previous Black Republican figures, Steele was well-qualified and called for a "hip-hop makeover" of the party while developing genuine relationships with Black communities. Steele's tenure was successful by conventional metrics-the party achieved historic wins during the 2010 midterms and broke fundraising records. Yet he faced constant criticism, particularly from the Tea Party. When Steele refused to push birtherism and admitted the Republican Party had failed Black voters, saying "People don't walk away from parties; their parties walk away from them," his fate was sealed. By January 2011, he was ousted and replaced by Reince Priebus.
As Steele exited, a new brand of Black Republicanism emerged in the form of actress Stacey Dash, who pivoted from supporting Obama in 2008 to backing Romney in 2012. Fox News quickly hired her for "cultural analysis and commentary," giving her a platform to attack Black voters for having a "plantation mentality." Dash's grift continued with inflammatory statements, including blaming women for the high divorce rate and calling for the elimination of Black History Month and BET, claiming they promoted segregation.
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The Trump Era: Grifting Goes Mainstream
Donald Trump's presidency beginning January 20, 2017, ushered in an unprecedented era of political grifting, where racist rhetoric was amplified and a new breed of court jesters disguised as politicians and pundits emerged. The Trump era triggered a mass exodus of legitimate Black Republican staffers from the GOP, including Tara Wall, Kristal Quarker-Hartsfield, Raffi Williams, and Orlando Watson.
As principled Black Republicans vanished from leadership roles, they were replaced by opportunistic celebrities and unknowns following "Stacey Dash's playbook." Herschel Walker, Pastor Darrell Scott, Diamond and Silk, Candace Owens, and Pastor Mark Burns exemplified this new wave of grifters capitalizing on the "robust market for the delusional Black Republican in the cult of Trump."
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron represents one of the most egregious examples of this new breed. Elected in November 2019 as Kentucky's first Black statewide officeholder despite having "never even prosecuted a traffic ticket citation," Cameron rose through the support of Senator Mitch McConnell. Cameron's handling of the Breonna Taylor case demonstrated his willingness to sacrifice justice for political gain. While Taylor's killing in March 2020 during a botched police raid demanded accountability, Cameron delayed action. Instead, he appeared at the Republican National Convention in August 2020, where he invoked Taylor's name while condemning Black Lives Matter activists fighting for her justice.
When Cameron finally announced the grand jury's decision in September 2020, only one officer faced charges of "wanton endangerment" for firing into a neighboring apartment-not for killing Taylor. During his press conference, Cameron performatively referenced his Blackness and appeared to hold back tears while claiming to understand the community's pain. President Trump immediately praised Cameron as a "star" and "brilliant," confirming he had delivered exactly what Republicans wanted: a Black face to justify inaction on racial justice.
Cameron's deception eventually came to light when grand jurors broke their silence. Three jurors revealed Cameron had lied about what was presented to them, stating they were never allowed to consider homicide charges against the officers who killed Taylor. One juror stated explicitly: "The grand jury was not presented with any charges other than the three wanton endangerment charges against Detective Hankison."
Candace Owens, described as "Omarosa 2.0," transformed from running an anti-Trump website to becoming a conservative darling after "coming out" as conservative on YouTube. Despite receiving a $37,500 settlement from the NAACP over racial discrimination in 2007, Owens later called the organization "one of the worst groups for Black people." Her falsehoods included claiming the NRA was founded to protect Black people from the KKK, and she notoriously stated she would be okay if Hitler just wanted to "make Germany great." By 2022, Owens was wearing "White Lives Matter" shirts with Kanye West, embracing white supremacist rhetoric while earning a six-figure salary from her "Blexit" movement funded by wealthy conservatives.
Perhaps the most tragic casualty was Herman Cain, the former Godfather's Pizza CEO who had run for president in 2000 and Senate in 2004. Despite being a cancer survivor, Cain attended a maskless Trump rally in Tulsa in June 2020, contracted COVID-19, and died on July 30, 2020. Trump's callous response was merely that Cain died from "a thing called the China virus."
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The Path Forward: Reclaiming Democracy
The Republican Party has reached a point of no return, with the January 6 insurrection serving as bloody evidence of its transformation. The GOP has embraced QAnon conspiracy theories as fundamental principles, and despite electoral setbacks in the 2022 midterms, Republicans remain committed to Trumpism's ideology. Black Republicans like Colin Powell, J.C. Watts, Will Hurd, and Michael Steele have proven that Black Republicans who want to help diverse communities are unwelcome in the party.
In 1868, Black voter registration reached 80 percent, electing Black and white leaders who believed in biracial coalitions and upward mobility. Today, Black voter turnout has only surpassed 65 percent twice since 1964: in 2008 (65%) and 2012 (66.6%). In 2020, Black voter turnout hit 62.6%, with 12% voting Republican-enough to help Georgia go blue and prompt Trump to ask Georgia's secretary of state to "find" votes.
Republicans responded with over 400 voter suppression bills introduced in 49 states by 2021. Consistent high voter turnout, especially in midterms and primaries, is essential for creating local change with national impact. Organizations like Black Voters Matter, Color of Change, Fair Fight Action, and the National Action Network are fighting for voter rights.
The Democratic Party must support Black candidates rather than assuming moderate white candidates are more electable. Citing failed presidential candidates like Gillibrand and Klobuchar who emphasized their whiteness or Midwestern roots, whites have voted majority Republican in every presidential election since the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Unlike Republicans who rarely campaign in solidly blue states, Democrats often waste resources trying to convert reliable Republican voters instead of energizing their base.
The Republican Party is actively working to undermine freedoms by reviving white supremacist tactics. To counter the grift, Americans must unite against white supremacy. Despite America's flawed origins, there remains hope in former Senator Doug Jones's belief that "The United States was destined to be a multicultural, multiracial society." The path forward requires supporting emerging "firebrand candidates" who can replace grifters while building a more inclusive democracy that rejects exploitation, inhumane housing, inadequate healthcare, and white supremacy in all its forms.
