Does she make anyone else gag besides me? I've never seen anyone so self-righteous in my life. How dare she crucify Speaker Williams when she is so arrogant & snotty? Ms. Smith where is your judgement of Mike Faulk? Did you forget about the adulterer? Where is your judgement of Jason Mumpower campaigning for David Duke? Where is your judgement of the rude behavior of your staff members to the good republicans of this state when they call their own TN GOP office? You don't own the republican party and hopefully you'll get your double buns kicked out shortly.

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Republican Truth
Submitted by: Dr. Jean Howard-Hill
Reading of Tennessee Republican State Chair Robin Smith’s decision to bar Rep Kent Williams from being a Republican reminded me of the same Robin Smith who also barred the Hamilton County African American Caucus with 1276 members and me from being a part of the Hamilton County Republican Party (HCRAAC).
Not only did she do this, but she also sent me on a wild goose chase to the RNC to get what she termed “legal status” from the general counsel of RNC in order for us to be Republicans. After making the trip to Washington and speaking with the RNC to find there was no such requirement, we still were barred from participation. Even with the help of former Congressman Van Hilleary, we never received recognition as a group. However, we watched other groups be recognized.
You would think that with the Republican Party saying it wanted those of color in the party, that this would have been a welcoming reception. However, when it came to “Robin Smith politics”, she makes up the rules, and if you do not conform to her likings, make no mistake about it, you are blackballed or refused participation in the party. At first, I thought this was just true of blacks, but now I see it is applicable to anyone who does not conform. This is sad. It also is one of the reasons why the Republican Party cannot attract the masses. Too narrow is the tent which some have erected. Too powerful are those of whom we have allowed to possess it as their own political property to do with it as they wish. As Republicans, we have forgotten that this is a party of the people, and not of those in power through elected or appointed leadership.
Having taught American Government in the school system and at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, I find it hard to believe that in America, anyone can be allowed to have this kind of power. This is America. Land of the Free. This is a democracy. So how on earth can the Republican Party continue to allow Smith and her congressional accompanist to bar out those they feel are a threat to them or do not fit into their mold is beyond understanding. But this is something in which has to be dealt with, because it goes to the heart of the survival of the party. No one should be able to say who or who cannot be affiliated with a political party. Nor should anyone be given this kind of power. Yet, the Republican Party in Hamilton County and in Tennessee does.
While we are on the subject of Robin Smith, I cannot help but share some of the sad, yet humorous experiences with Robin Smith and the local Republican Party as an African American Republican which I talk about in my book.
This happened back in 2001, when I returned to Chattanooga after the death of my husband, Attorney Bobby Lee Hill. Since the 80s, I had been involved on a national level, heading a national group which recruited African Americans into the GOP ranks. I continued this through the first year after the death of my husband in 1991. In fact, he headed the national men’s group and I headed the women’s group. After his death, I slowed the pace, but managed to still keep the group alive. So when I returned in 2000, I created another national group out of the two prior ones called the National Republican African American Republican Caucus (NRAAC). The group was very successful throughout the country in recruiting. Was even invited to the White House. In fact, on our national board, we had members from California to Tennessee to New York, many of whom were bishops, pastors and members of the clergy. From this, we quickly established grass roots caucuses all across the United States. This included Hamilton County.
As one of the grass roots caucuses of the National Republican African American Caucus, members of the Hamilton County Republican African American Caucus (HCRAAC) were excited to be Republicans. Many of them were former Democrats turned Republicans because they believed the Republican Party best fit their moral position on certain issues. But very quickly we learned that everyone in the Republican Party who preached God, did not always practice what they preached! After Robin Smith refused to recognize us as a Republican group, she went out of her way to track my every recruitment move to make sure we were not recognized or welcomed where every we went.
Not only were we not welcomed, but we were downright treated like we were less than human. Many times, even our overwhelming and very obvious presence was ignored. Like the Wamp picnic, where 65 of us showed up and were completely ignored. Congressman Wamp acknowledged the presence of everyone in this long list of people present, except us. This was humorous to us because for the first time probably in the history of the Hamilton County Party, there was more than one or two flies in the bowl of buttermilk; 65 to be exact, which made our presence quite obvious.
There also was another time some of our ladies went to the Republican Women’s annual picnic, brining with us several dishes of food. One HCRAAC member whose husband was a pastor, came but had to leave before the food was served because they had to get to Wednesday night services. So she fixed a plate for herself and her husband. This was not anything uncommon. There were other whites who at the end fixed plates and took food home with them. But the next day, I got a call from one of my loyal white Republican friends who was furious because she had gotten a call from another white Republican Women’s club member that the “colored folks were at the picnic fixing plates and sneaking them out the door”.
From that same event, it also was said that I stole items from the Auction and did not pay for them. Thank God, my white Republican friend was collecting the money and had my check to show I paid for the items.
To keep them from getting furious, I urged the HCRAAC membership to just chalk it up to ignorance. So the next event we attended, which was Wamp’s annual picnic, I reminded them sarcastically, “Don’t forget to fix plates and sneak them out the door! You know that is how colored folks do.”
We laughed. But this was no laughing matter. It was racism, Republican style.
Then there is the time I was voted as a alternate delegate to the National Federation of Republican Women, and the president called to tell me she wasn’t going and that the event was called off, so that I would not go in her place. Later, I was told by a member that this was not true, and that there were members who had said they did not want a black person representing them at the convention.
I also remember Robin Smith telling me that nobody gets to do anything in the Republican party unless it came through her or Congressman Wamp.
I have tried to share some of the strange things that were done to the HCRAAC and to me personally, but few have wanted to listen. Wrote a book about it, but few will talk about it. But I remember something my mother said to me while I was going through all of this ordeal with the Republican Party. She said this:
“Sometimes you cannot get people to believe truth when they are not willing to hear it. You cannot run down a lie, but you sure can live it down. Because there is one thing about truth. Truth stands the test of time. So give it time, and in time, the truth of how you were done, and who did it to you will be made known. Because people who do wrong to you? They have done wrong to somebody else, and in time, truth will show it to be so.”
Mama is dead and gone, but now I see her wise saying come true. Robin Smith did it to the HCRAAC and me, and now she is using her political muscles, to do it to Rep. Kent Williams. What makes it hypocritical, is when this same thing happened in the Tennessee Legislature that caused Ramsey to be voted into power as Lt. Governor, (when Democrat Rosalind Kurita defected), no one counted it “unrepublican”.
“We must stand on the foundation of integrity, honesty and good character”, says Robin Smith. This is an example of not practicing what you preach. Where was the integrity, honesty and good character of Robin Smith and others in the party who aligned with her, when it came to the mistreatment of the rest of us? Where was the outcry that this was wrong? It certainly does not represent the Christian like behavior upon which she claims she stands.
Smith’s words challenging Williams’ “Bona Fide status as a Republican”, gave me one final chuckle as I prepared to retire for the night, and remembered her challenging me as to whether I was a bona fide Republican, (although I had been a Republican long before the thought entered her mind – since 1979 to be exact).
I guess sometimes you do have to laugh to keep from crying!
Nevertheless, on behalf of those of us who are already on Robin Smith’s Blacklist, with sincere embrace, we welcome our newest member, the Honorable Representative Kent Williams. If the list keeps growing, we may want to start our own wing of the Republican Party; especially since I have learned that it wasn’t just African Americans who have made the list past or present. Better still, perhaps Robin Smith should start her own party called the Robincan Party. From the silence of those who have allowed her to rule in tyranny, she may have created a significant following.
Dr. Jean Howard-Hill
Jean.howard.hill@gmail.com

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