Activist Chronicles Being 'Mad, Black' Republican

Tuesday, October 6, 2009 7:16 PM

By: Kathleen Walter

Lenny McAllister is a self-described "hip-hop" Republican who has caught the attention of the GOP.

The young North Carolina husband and father also is what some would consider a rarity: This political and social activist is black.

"I came from a working-class family where my two parents were high-school graduates. They believed in education and made sure we were pushed to the next level," McAllister told Newsmax.TV's Kathleen Walter. "That is the asset of the American dream that conservative America — that our traditional values — always promotes. As a proud Roman Catholic, the values of being pro-life, protection of life and working from the grass roots up to make a better society hit home with me."

In his hometown of Davidson, McAllister conducts grass-roots retreat workshops with community activists to serve blacks. In authoring published reports and on nationally televised appearances, he conveys a message to people of all races that as Americans have more in common than most think.

Although most blacks tend to vote for Democrats as president, McAllister contends that the black Republican voter is not really the anomaly many believe.

"I think from a societal standpoint, black Americans — we within black America — are still conservative," he told Newsmax.TV. "When we look at generations from ages 30 to 85, we still value things that traditionally speaking allow you to have connections to Republican roots that we had all the way back to the Civil War. I think there's a growing movement of African Americans.. and other proud black conservatives... that are showing themselves out on the national stage to bring about a new sense of what being a black Republican can be about — where we can still be conservatives without sacrificing what it means to be black, conservative, and to be all those things simultaneously."

McAllister's new book, "Diary of a Mad Black P.Y.C. (Proud Young Conservative)," (the "PYC" stands for proud, young conservative) includes quotes and written excerpts from speeches and talks during the 2008 election cycle that chronicle his journey as an up-and-coming leader and orator. He was one of the few active in both the Republican National Committee in 2008 and the State of the Black Union in 2009; his book is available at

Asked whether be believes race is a factor in the opposition President Obama has received to healthcare reform, McAllister said, "This issue is not about race. There are some aspects of racism involved in it; we've seen it at the tea parties. But what we're seeing at the tea parties is frustration with government stemming back all the way from the Bush administration. The reason why conservatives are so out in force is because they've been betrayed by the Bush administration, especially since 2004 and because they feel like they're being led down a dangerous path by the Obama administration. There's nothing wrong with Americans speaking up and being vocal about what's going wrong with our country."

"We have a society that's graduated beyond the civil rights movement. We have a lot more generations in America in positions of power that don't view gender and race the same way we did within America 50 years ago. We have to continue (down) that path."


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