Dinner Table Daily

The Ying & Yang of Reagan on Race
The Good: As a young man, Reagan invited two Black teammates to his parents’ home after they were refused service at a segregated hotel — a notably progressive act for Dixon, Illinois at the time. He later signed the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday bill into law.
The Bad: Reagan made a recorded racist remark about African UN delegates in a 1971 call with Nixon. He opposed civil rights legislation, used “states’ rights” rhetoric widely seen as racially coded, and escalated the war on drugs — policies critics say disproportionately harmed minority communities.
His racial legacy remains deeply contested.