Why Herman Cain's Civil Rights Record Matters

In Germany, there is a certain saying among the post-war generation: "Daddy, what did you do during the war?"

Germans ask this question because, for the people who lived through that period, Hitler and World War II was the defining moment of a generation. It was a moment where you were either on the right side or wrong side of history.

This is similar to the way African Americans view the Civil Rights movement. Many Americans see the Civil Rights struggle as one of the greatest and darkest moments of United States history.

For me, the Civil Rights movement is history -- everything I learned about the movement was through books and black-and-white news footage.

I often talk to older black people and ask them what it was like to live through this moment in time. For my generation, the idea of separate drinking fountains and having to go to the back of the bus seems as archaic as burning witches at the stake.

Looking back on it, it is hard to believe there was so much resistance to black people eating, learning and working alongside white people.

I often wish that I had lived through the Civil Rights period, because the time had a clearly defined moral battle. Great heroism seems easier in times of great tribulation, and it's hard to get as excited over affirmative action and incarceration rates.

I recently watched the movie, "Freedom Riders," which documented the efforts of activists who challenged the South's segregation policy by organizing mixed buses rides. Some of the bravery is stunning. In the movie, activist Diane Nash, barely 20, is warned by a member of the Kennedy administration that the government could not guarantee their safety if they continued with their activism. Nash replied saying every activist had signed their last papers and was prepared to die for the cause!

During the Civil Rights movement, activists were ready to risk life and limb for their cause. That’s what makes Republican presidential Herman Cain's Civil Rights record troubling.

Cain touched on the issue during his hilariously-titled book, "This is Herman Cain: My Journey to the White House" and the issue came out in a combative interview with MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell.

According to Cain's book, he apparently sat out the Civil Rights movement and didn't participate in any marches or protests. In the MSNBC interview, Cain claims he was only in high school, but many high school-age children staged walk outs. Then he later claimed he was in college, but colleges were a hotbed of activism during the '60s.

Cain can try to spin it anyway he wants, but the fact is he sat by and watched while other protestors marched, got bit by dogs, fire hosed and jailed so black people could have the rights and opportunities we now take for granted.

There has always been a conservative streak in the black community. The Civil Rights movement was pretty radical at the time and caused a split between young people, who wanted more direct action, and the older generation that wanted to move slower. Even Martin Luther King was eventually pushed along by younger activists who wanted to see more progress.

Cain is part of that conservative wing, content to work within the status quo.  But the most galling part is that now he benefits from the rights and opportunities that black and white activists paid for with blood and lives.

There is no way Cain could have achieved his successes in the corporate world, if there hadn't been people who fought to get those doors open.

Doing the right thing is never easy. But Cain chose the easy route, and that means he is not only a bystander, but a coward.