THE DEMOCRAT PARTY’S RACIST PAST

AND PRESENT MANIPULATION OF THE BLACK VOTE …

In these early days of the next presidential election cycle, we’re already hearing the drumbeat of Democrat and media accusations of racism against Republican candidates.

The Democrats’ goal is to foment hatred and scare Black voters away from Republicans in order to retain political power and control over the African-American community.

But like most of their cynical accusations, Democrats are actually running away from their own party’s racist past by projecting their sins, via smears, upon political rivals.

In June 2015, Mona Charen wrote an article in National Review about Democrat attempts to whitewash their racist past: “The Democrats were the party of slavery, black codes, Jim Crow, and that miserable terrorist excrescence, the Ku Klux Klan. Republicans were the party of Lincoln, Reconstruction, anti-lynching laws, and the civil rights acts of 1875, 1957, 1960, and 1964. Were all Republicans models of rectitude on racial matters? Hardly. Were they a heck of a lot better than the Democrats? Without question.”

Let’s take a closer look at the Democrats’ bigoted history … especially when the most momentous and character revealing civil rights actions were taken during the height of America’s racial tensions:

• Until the Supreme Court’s Smith v. Allwright ruling of 1944, only whites were allowed to vote in Democratic Party primary contests. The Democratic Party argued that it was an independent organization that could include or exclude as a part of its organization anyone it pleased. 

• The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was the first federal civil rights legislation passed by the United States Congress since the Civil Rights Act of 1875. The House passed the bill by a 285-126 vote, with 48% of Democrats but only 10% of Republicans voting against it. The Senate passed the bill by a 72-18 vote, with 100% of all votes against cast by Democrats.

• Jim Crow laws were state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States. All were enacted in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by white Democratic-dominated state legislatures after the Reconstruction period.

• The Southern Manifesto of 1956 declared the signatories’ opposition to the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which ruled racial segregation in public schools as unconstitutional. From the House of Representatives, 99 Democrats but only 2 Republicans signed it.

• The Civil Rights Act of 1960 established federal inspection of local voter registration polls and introduced penalties for anyone who obstructed someone’s (primarily Blacks) attempt to register to vote. The House passed the bill by a 311-109 vote, with 34% of Democrats but only 10% of Republicans voting against it.

• The Stand in the Schoolhouse Door of 1963 took place at Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama. George Wallace, the Democratic Governor of Alabama, in a symbolic attempt to keep his inaugural promise of “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” and stop the desegregation of schools, stood at the door of the auditorium to try to block the entry of two African American students.

• The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, and prohibited unequal application of voter registration requirements, and racial segregation in schools, employment, and public accommodations. In the House, 61% of Democrats and 80% of Republicans supported the legislation. In the Senate, 69% of Democrats voted yes, compared with 82% of Republicans.

• The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a landmark piece of federal legislation that prohibited racial discrimination in voting. The House passed the bill by a 333-85 vote, with 22% of Democrats but only 18% of Republicans voting against it. The Senate passed the bill by a 77-19 vote, with 25% of Democrats but only 6% of Republicans voting against it.

• State laws prohibiting interracial marriage (“miscegenation”) had been enforced throughout the South and in many Northern states since the Colonial era. During Reconstruction, such laws were repealed in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Texas and South Carolina. However, those states reinstated miscegenation laws after the Democratic “Redeemers” came to power. The Supreme Court declared such laws constitutional in 1883. This verdict was finally overturned in 1967 by Loving v. Virginia.

And here’s a partial list (compiled by Wikipedia) of U.S. judges and politicians who were active members of the Ku Klux Klan and mostly Democrats (16 of 19):

• Senator Robert C. Byrd, was a recruiter for the Klan while in his 20s and 30s, rising to the title of Kleagle and Exalted Cyclops of his local chapter. Byrd, a Democrat, eventually became his party leader in the Senate. Byrd later said joining the Klan was his “greatest mistake.”

• Supreme Court Chief Justice Edward Douglass White, a Democrat was a known member of the KKK in his home state of Louisiana, where he had served as U.S. Senator.^[

• Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, a Democrat, joined the Ku Klux Klan in order to gain votes during his run for Senate from the anti-Catholic element in Alabama. He built his winning campaign around multiple appearances at KKK meetings across Alabama.

• Theodore G. Bilbo, a Democrat, the Governor of Mississippi and later the U.S. Senator for Mississippi, was a founder of the Mississippi chapter of the KKK.^[

• John Brown Gordon, a Democrat and the U.S. Senator for Georgia, was a founder of the KKK in his home state of Georgia.

• Joseph E. Brown, a Democrat and the U.S. Senator for Georgia, was a key supporter of the KKK in his home state.

• Elmer David Davies, a Democrat and a Federal Judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, was a member of the KKK whilst at university.

• Edward L. Jackson became Governor of Indiana as a Republican in 1925 and his administration came under fire for granting undue favor to the Klan’s agenda and associates.

• Clarence Morley, a Republican and the Governor of Colorado. He was a KKK member and a strong supporter of Prohibition. He tried to have the University of Colorado fire all Jewish and Catholic professors.

• Bibb Graves, a Democrat, was the Governor of Alabama in the late-1920’s. He lost his first campaign for governor in 1922, but four years later, with the secret endorsement of the Ku Klux Klan, he was elected to his first term as governor. Graves was almost certainly the Exalted Cyclops (chapter president) of the Montgomery chapter of the Klan.

• Clifford Walker, a Democrat and the Governor of Georgia, was revealed to be a Klan member by the press in 1924.

• George Gordon, a Democrat, who was a Congressman for Tennessee’s 10th congressional district in the late 19th century, became one of the Klan’s first members.

• John Tyler Morgan, a Democrat and the U.S. Senator for Alabama, was the Grand Dragon of the KKK in Alabama.

• Edmund Pettus, a Democrat and the U.S. Senator for Alabama, was also a Grand Dragon of the KKK in Alabama in the late-19th century.

• John Morton, a Democrat, was the Tennessee Secretary of State and was the founder of the Nashville chapter of the KKK in the early-20th century.

• William L. Saunders, a Democrat, was the North Carolina Secretary of State and was the founder of the North Carolina chapter.

• John Clinton Porter, a Democrat, was a member of the Klan in the early 1920s and served as mayor of Los Angeles.

• Benjamin F. Stapleton, a Democrat, was mayor of Denver in the 1920s–1940s. He was a Klan member in the early 1920s and appointed fellow Klansmen to positions in municipal government.

• David Duke, a politician who ran in both Democrat and Republican presidential primaries, was openly involved in the leadership of the Ku Klux Klan.

For further reading, one can also review a prominent list of segregationists, as identified by the Equal Justice Initiative, who also were predominantly Democrats.

Lastly, if you’re interested in hearing how a conservative black man feels about the Democratic Party’s past and present failures in its treatment of African-Americans, we strongly encourage you to watch the riveting testimony of retired NFL player Burgess Owens in this week’s congressional hearing on reparations. Amongst other things, Burgess uses his testimony to highlight the Democratic Party’s racist past: ” I used to be a Democrat until I did my history and found out the misery that that party brought to my race.”

To Black America: Forget the divisive and manipulative Democrat Party with a history of mistreating your race, taking you for granted and exploiting your vote to maintain power and control. Consider the Republican alternative of respect, dignity, family values, safe communities, charter schools, prison reform, equal opportunity, economic growth, more and better jobs, higher wages, lower taxes, competitive health care costs and choices, and individual liberty.

What the hell do you have to lose?