It is up to the Orange County Board of Supervisors to make the final decision. Local Democrats want it renamed Orange County Airport.
“While some outside Orange County may not know of John Wayne’s beliefs in white supremacy, many Orange County residents have been calling for his removal for years,” county party chairwoman Ada BriceƱo said in a statement. “We’re seeing renewed calls for this right now, and it’s time for change.”
‘They’re trying to contradict how he lived’
“It would be an injustice to judge someone based on an interview that’s being used out of context,” he said. “They’re trying to contradict how he lived his life, and how he lived his life was who he was. So any discussion of removing his name from the airport should include the full picture of the life of John Wayne and not be based on a single outlier interview from half a century ago.”
“What they’ll discover is that John Wayne died 41 years ago and was an actor who was most famous for his roles in Westerns and war movies, although in real life he was never a cowboy nor served in uniform,” the lawmaker wrote.
“Among other disturbing facts, she will also discover that he was a self-proclaimed white supremacist.”
‘I believe in white supremacy…’
Wayne’s oeuvre included more than 150 feature-length films, including “Sands of Iwo Jima,” for which he earned an Oscar nomination for best actor, and “True Grit,” for which he took a little golden guy home. He died in 1979 in Los Angeles at age 72..
- In discussing the revocation of activist Angela Davis’ teaching credentials, Wayne said, “We can’t all of a sudden get down on our knees and turn everything over to the leadership of the blacks. I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don’t believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people.”
- Asked about Native Americans playing subordinate roles in his movies, he replied, “I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them, if that’s what you’re asking. Our so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.”
- When the interviewer requests an example of movies he finds perverted, Wayne singles out Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight’s characters in “Midnight Cowboy,” which won three Oscars: “Wouldn’t you say that the wonderful love of those two men in ‘Midnight Cowboy,’ a story about two f*gs, qualifies? But don’t get me wrong. As far as a man and a woman is concerned, I’m awfully happy there’s a thing called sex.”
- On the matter of education in the African American community, he said, “Some blacks have tried to force the issue and enter college when they haven’t passed the tests and don’t have the requisite background. … I don’t know why people insist that blacks have been forbidden their right to go to school. They were allowed in public schools wherever I’ve been.”
- Again on education, he said, “I don’t feel guilty about the fact that five or 10 generations ago these people were slaves. Now, I’m not condoning slavery. It’s just a fact of life, like the kid who gets infantile paralysis and has to wear braces so he can’t play football with the rest of us. I will say this, though: I think any black who can compete with a white today can get a better break than a white man.”
- On casting Black actors, Wayne opined, “If it’s supposed to be a black character, naturally I use a black actor, but I don’t go so far as hunting for positions for them. I think the Hollywood studios are carrying their tokenism a little too far. There’s no doubt that 10 percent of the population is black, or colored, or whatever they want to call themselves; they certainly aren’t Caucasian. Anyway, I suppose there should be the same percentage of the colored race in films as in society, but it can’t always be that way.”
Airport opened in 1923
CNN could not immediately reach Michelle Steel, the Republican chairwoman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, or Fred Whitaker, chairman of the Orange County Republicans. Calls to Chapman University academics Fred Smoller and Michael Moodian, who helped craft the Democrats’ resolution, were not immediately returned.
The county Board of Supervisors renamed Orange County Airport to John Wayne Airport in 1979, calling the actor a “man of humility, of honesty, and a hero of the American West (who) was a symbol to the world of the traditional American values.”
In addition to the statue, the airport’s gift shops celebrate the actor with T-shirts, shot glasses and other knickknacks bearing Wayne’s image.