Rand Paul disappointed a lot of people just 24 hours after
he won the Kentucky Republican Party nomination for U.S. Senate last month. The
newly elected nominee fell flat on his face when MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow called
him out for saying he disagreed with Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

That was the portion of the act that made it illegal for
private businesses to discriminate against blacks and other minorities. Though
Dr. Paul, an ophthalmologist, said he supported the rest of the act—the
portions that struck down discriminatory laws in the public (read that
governmental) sector—he failed to support his position on Title II. He
stumbled, babbled and tripped on his own tongue.

We’d like to think that even people who disagree with him on
that point would be willing to have an honest and open discussion on the
matter. The nominee was given an opportunity to explain himself and clarify his
position on NBC’s Meet the Press the following Sunday, but he bailed out with a
ridiculous excuse of being treated unfairly by a biased liberal press.

This was inexcusable. It made him look cowardly and that he
was being muzzled by his Republican handlers.

Ardent libertarians expressed disappointment in Dr. Paul’s
inability to represent his position. Several writers, such as Jacob Hornberger
and Sheldon Richman wound up giving examples of businesses in the south that wanted
to desegregate on their own but were thwarted by local law enforcement. The
candidate himself failed to make such references.

John Stossel also told Megyn Kelly of Fox News that business
people should have the right to discriminate if they so choose. They will lose
business, he said, but that’s their own affair.

In a recent column Mr. Stossel wrote: “In cities throughout
the South, beginning in 1960, student-led sit-ins and boycotts peacefully
shamed businesses into desegregating whites-only lunch counters. Those
voluntary actions were the first steps in changing a rancid culture. If
anything, Washington jumped on a bandwagon that was already rolling.

“It wasn't free markets in the South that perpetuated
racism. It was government colluding with private individuals (some in the KKK)
to intimidate those who would have integrated.”

Of course, Messrs Hornberger, Richman and Stossel are a
bunch of middle-aged white guys so they either don’t care or are racists,
right? Wrong.

Consider the opinion of Elizabeth Wright, a black woman and
founding editor of Issues & Views. A brief online bio says of the
newsletter: “Its editorials countered notions of victimization and collective
entitlement prevalent in the black community. …The newsletter's conservatism
was derived from the wisdom of earlier generations of American blacks, like
Booker T. Washington, who attempted to steer their people towards greater
economic self-reliance.”

She, too, criticizes Dr. Paul for his failure to challenge
the liberal position, saying his lack of preparation and ultimate reversal of
position reflected nothing more than politics as usual.

In her piece “The Civil Rights Myth: Integration & the
End of Black Self-Reliance,” Ms. Wright points to the ignorance of many people,
that American blacks had created “multitudes of institutions
throughout the segregation period, even before slavery was officially ended.
These were institutions such as restaurants,
stores, motels and movie theaters. There were banks,
insurance companies, newspaper publishers. It is assumed that all
blacks were helpless victims, financially crippled drudges, with no resources
to pool among themselves. In fact, most of black entrepreneurial success originated in
the South, the poorest region and the one of greatest need.”

She asks why whites of the ‘50s and ‘60s failed to support
those endeavors. She answers that by saying, “One reason is that ever since the
days of Abolition, whites had grown used to having this mass of people to pity.
These black victims of the "bad" whites made the "good"
whites feel expansive and noble, as they still do.”

The public accommodations provision of the Civil Rights Act
effectively pulled the rug out from black entrepreneurship. Without that
provision, competition from black business owners would have brought about
desegregation. Wanting the green dollar, white businesses would have welcomed
the black customer.

Rational self-interest works better, and in a more benign
way, than government force. It breeds respect instead of pity, self-reliance
rather than dependency.

Ms. Wright’s full essay in Alternative Right is well worth
reading, by liberals, conservatives, libertarians, blacks and whites alike. It
can be found at http://www.alternativeright.com/main/the-magazine/the-myth-of-civil-rights/