The JFK Library has compared Gov Ron DeSantis flying planeloads of undocumented migrants to Martha’s Vineyard to “Reverse Freedom Rides,” drawing comparisons to what was inflicted on some African-Americans in the south during the civil rights movement.
The presidential library of the 35th president took to Twitter to make the unflattering analogy the day after the Florida governor bragged about his widely-criticized actions.
Officials say that dozens of migrants were on the flights to the island where Barack Obama has a $12m home.
Meanwhile, Texas Governor Greg Abbott sent two buses of South American migrants to Vice President Kamala Harris’ official residence at the Naval Observatory in Washington this week as well.
The White House has called Republican governors’ use of migrants to punish leaders of Democratic-led states a “deeply alarming” stunt that has placed innocent children in danger.
And the JFK Library publicly agreed with the Biden administration’s criticism of the migrant transportation.
“To embarrass Northern liberals and humiliate Black people, southern White Citizens Councils started their so-called ‘Reverse Freedom Rides,’ giving Black people one-way tickets to northern cities with false promises of jobs, housing, and better lives,” it tweeted with a newspaper cutting from the time.
The Reverse Freedom Rides scheme was carried out by Southern segregationists as a way to retaliate against Northern liberals over the civil rights movement.
In 1962, around 200 African Americans from the south were tricked by the White Citizens Council in New Orleans into moving north to cities such as New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles.
“The many champions of the Negro race in the northern cities will certainly welcome you and help you get settled,” a flier reportedly said about the bus rides.
Around 50 African-Americans, a majority of whom were single mothers, were transported to Hyannis, Massachusetts, in an attempt to embarrass then-president John F Kennedy for his support of the civil rights movement.
