It’s a good thing that the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Ed Gillespie, had to leave the Congress of Racial Equality reception early. If he had stayed a while longer, he might have heard the chairman of CORE, Roy Innis, upbraid the GOP leadership in a powerful speech that was wildly applauded by the audience.

Mr. Innis had started his speech by noting that George W. Bush four years ago only got 7% of the black vote. “I asked myself what did this young man do, from a fine family, a family that ran the United Negro College Fund for decades, what did he do to make black folks so angry at him?” Mr. Innis said. He then asked, “Is it because he’s a Republican? But then it was the Republicans that freed us from slavery. It was the Republican Party who passed the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. In modern times, in the 20th century, it was the Republican Party that was behind the civil rights bill of the late ’50s. The people who opposed it were the Democrats.

“That is the profound, dismal ignorance that exists in our country and among our people. They do not realize what the Bush family has done, not just this decade but for many decades,” he said.

I must admit that I, too, had no idea of the connection between the Bush family and the United Negro College Fund. Jonathan Bush, George H.W. Bush’s brother, was chairman until 1994, and the Bush family has always been a major donor.

“What is really sad is that the Democrats get no penalty for filibustering the civil rights bill of the ’50s and the ’60s,” Mr. Innis said. He drew laughs when he asked if Jack Kennedy was the first or the second black president. “What many people here may not remember is that Jack Kennedy voted against the civil rights bill in the late ’50s while the Republicans were voting for it,” he said.

“Why,” he asked, “are the Republicans so ashamed of their great deeds, the great things they have done? Why are they so shy? Why do they duck for cover? “

How, Mr. Innis wondered, did George W. Bush go from getting 27% of the black vote in Texas to getting only 5% there when he ran for president? “George Soros, in a pre-527 mode, financed a multimillion-dollar ad campaign to distort reality,” Mr. Innis said. He was referring to the NAACP ad that suggested that George Bush, who was then governor of Texas, was part of the lynch mob that dragged James Byrd in chains behind a pickup truck.

Mr. Innis called the ad perverse, and a complete distortion of the facts.

Jasper, Texas, which has only a 15% black population, actually elected a black mayor. A white sheriff caught the three men in record time, a white prosecutor tried the case, and a white jury convicted them. Two of the men were sentenced to death and the third criminal, who turned state’s evidence, was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Knowing all that, he asked, how do you turn Jasper, Texas, into a racist community and George Bush into a racist governor? The big question, Mr. Innis asked in frustration, is not why did the Democrats do this. The big question is why did the Republicans take it. Why did the Republicans stand idly by?

Mr. Innis said that he had invited the mayor, Byrd’s family, the sheriff, and the prosecutor to his home. He called the Republican Campaign Headquarters and spoke to Karl Rove and warned him that the NAACP ad was killing Mr. Bush. He told Mr. Rove that he had the film, the testimony to contradict that “disgusting, perverse” ad. Mr. Rove answered, “Stay positive.”

At this, the audience groaned while Mr. Innis went on to describe how staying positive dropped the black vote for Mr. Bush to 7% in the nation. Mr. Innis then spoke of the notorious Willie Horton ad that ran in 1988 when George H.W. Bush ran against Governor Dukakis.

“You have to ask yourself whether an ad is fact or fiction,” Mr. Innis said. “Willie Horton was a murderer. Dukakis was the governor of the state that let him out on a pass. Willie Horton raped and killed a woman while he was out on a pass approved by the governor. This was a fact. Why did the Republicans duck for cover?

“All the Democrats have to do is raise allegations of racism and the Republicans duck and run for cover. You have nothing to be ashamed of,” he said. At this, the crowd of Republican delegates, black and white, were stomping their feet and clapping loudly in agreement.

He then asked the delegates present to go back to the convention and raise their voices, saying, “We need your help. Use your votes as delegates to tell the leadership to stop ducking for cover. We need your help. We need to break free from the one-party plantation. It’s not good for minorities and it’s not good for the country. We will not go anyplace in this country with this one-party mad ness.”

Just about every ethnic group was represented in that SRO museum auditorium. Yarmulkes and African headdresses were also visible in the crowd. Skin tones, which ranged from ebony to ivory, blended into a harmonious community bent on spreading Mr. Innis’s message

“Republicans, you have nothing to be ashamed of.”