Black Republicans stir controversy with magazine

At age 64, well into her retirement from the U.S. Army, Frances Rice is at the center of a contentious campaign on race and politics — and she has never been happier.

The leader of the National Black Republican Association is a minority within a minority. Not only is she black, she also is a Republican, a member of a party in which fewer than 10 percent of black voters in Florida belong. Her campaigns — including one meant to foil the nomination of the first black presidential candidate, Barack Obama — are best known for their shock value.

Her messages have brought condemnation from Democrats. But they have also sparked a backlash among many Republicans.

When she was criticized for raising billboards in Florida saying “Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican,” she challenged anyone to sue her if they thought she was wrong. “Let them come into court with their evidence,” Rice said.

When hearing that the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, Jim Greer, expressed disappointment in her magazine, The Black Republican, which Greer had secured party money to publish, Rice dismissed it with a wave of her hand.

The magazine featured a picture of Ku Klux Klan members burning a cross with the caption “Every person in this photograph was a Democrat.” Article titles included “Democrats embrace their child molesters,” and “Top 10 Democratic sex scandals in Congress,” and “Democrats wage war on God.”

Frances Rice shows no intention of backing down. Her personal history of growing up in poverty under segregation is her fuel.

“This is the first time in my life that I have felt I am actually doing something about what the Democrats have done in the past and are doing now to black people,” Rice said. “If the Democrats had left us alone after the Republicans freed us from slavery we wouldn’t be having this discussion today. They are keeping blacks in virtual slavery.”

Supporters call Rice relentless, a black Republican willing to say things white Republicans cannot. Detractors say she is setting back the GOP’s black outreach effort with her inflammatory campaigns.

“Obviously we weren’t consulted before she decided to do any of this,” said Tony Cooper, president of the Tampa Black Republican Club. “It’s a fruitless debate and it may conjure up more ill will toward the party. We should be spending money on debating the Democrats on the issues.”

Said Deon Long, president of Florida’s Federation of Black Republican Clubs: “We thought those billboards were asinine.”

Rice thinks of herself as an “iron butterfly” positioned to expose the “Democratic Party’s racist past” in time to convince African-Americans to vote for John McCain.

Since the launch of billboard and radio campaigns this summer she says membership to her association has doubled to 2,000.

Last week she hosted a booth at the Urban League meeting in Orlando, where McCain and Obama gave speeches. Next month she plans to host the inaugural meeting of the Black Republican Forum in New York, an event she organized, where discussions include race and presidential politics.

In July she launched three radio ads on WLSS, a talk radio station reaching from southern St. Petersburg to Venice. One urges to “Look beyond Barack Obama’s skin color and soaring rhetoric and see an arrogant, elitist millionaire.” Another refers to Obama’s friends as “unrepentant terrorists.” Another begins with the statement “The Democratic Party is a racist party.”

Greer, the state party chairman, said the party is no longer donating to the NBRA.

“Mrs. Rice has some very strong views on certain issues,” Greer said. “It showed us that before we donate to anything, regardless of how it appears, the party needs to ensure it takes a look at all the content.”

Republican John McCain’s campaign staff said they were aware of the NBRA but declined to comment.

A photo on the NRBA’s Web site shows McCain posing with Rice at the NAACP convention in July.