JOE ROGERS must have whipped up some of his best oratory and saved it all for us little old Baltimoreans. He was in town this week, speaking on the 21st floor of the World Trade Center and presenting a striking image with his neatly pressed black suit, short Afro and stocky build.
Rogers is black and Republican, the highest-ranking African-American elected state official in the country. The lieutenant governor of Colorado was in Baltimore as part of city Republicans' Lincoln Day celebration. He had come here after attending six funerals in Littleton and visiting the families of 12 children wounded in the April 20 massacre that left 15 dead. Rogers started off his speech talking about the Littleton tragedy because there was no logical or moral way to avoid it.
But after thanking Marylanders for their prayers and condolences, Rogers broached the sometimes hilarious, sometimes infuriating and always controversial topic of what it means to be black and Republican. Rogers was indeed in strange territory here in Maryland, where to be black and Democratic is not so much a choice as it is a chronic illness. Although there were several black Maryland Republicans on hand to hear Rogers' speech -- Victor Clark Jr., chairman of the city's Republican Party, Michael Steele, vice chairman of the state GOP, and mayoral candidate Arthur Cuffie Jr. -- being a black Republican is viewed as treasonous in these parts. Rogers found it was no different in Colorado when he started his political career.
