First Non-Caucasian VEEP

For John, BLUF:  Given how we used to be in these United States, we are making progress.  But, more is needed.  We need to move past exterior presentations to what is inside.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The first vice president of color was a Republican elected over 90 years ago

From The Washington Examiner, by Reporter Joseph Simonson, 16 June 2020.

Here is the lede plus three:

Joe Biden's pledge to choose a woman as his running mate, and his consideration of several black female officeholders for the role, has spurred considerable chatter about diversity in the nation's second-highest office.

"Historic" is a term often associated with the search by Biden, himself a former vice president, after 36 years as a Delaware senator.

But the United States has already elected its first minority vice president, Republican Charles Curtis, who had significant Native American ancestry.  Curtis was vice president under President Herbert Hoover for four years, much of it consumed by the nation's darkest economic times, the Great Depression.  Curtis, Senate majority leader when tapped by Hoover for the Republican ticket, was also the first person with acknowledged non-European ancestry to reach the highest ranks of the federal government.

Born in the Kansas Territory in 1860, Curtis spent many of his formative years on an Indian reservation.  His mother, Ellen Pappan Curtis, who shared Kansa, Osage, and Potawatomi heritage, died when he was 3 years old.  He then moved in with his maternal grandmother on the Kaw Indian Reservation, where his first language was that of the tribe.  He later learned English and French.

Not just a Vice President, but a Senate Majority Leader.

I'm impressed.

Which is not to take away from an action by Nominee Joe Biden to pick a woman as his running mate, perhaps a woman of color.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff