Democrats Republicans Racism
Posted: Saturday, October 02, 2010
by Tex Norman
I continue to hear Republicans attempting to convince us all that Republican's are champions of blacks, and Democrats are racist. My little brother has fussed at me for being a liberal when the Democrats started the KKK, while Lincoln, a Republican President, freed the slaves.One of the primary positions of the Republican Party, today, is state's rights. Republicans want decisions to be made locally. Republican's hate big government, because the Federal Government tells the states what they have to do, and, if the decision was made by the state many of their decisions would be very, very different from those made at the Federal level and then IMPOSED on the states.
The problem with going back in the past to argue about positions today, is that the parties no longer believe what the believed in the 1860. For example, Today Republicans support State's Rights, but in 1860 Republicans supported the Federal Government and so strongly believed that the States had to comply with the Federal Government, that their leader, Abraham Lincoln, went to war to impose Federal Rule over the states. One of the titles for that war is THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES.
In the 1860's Democrats were proponents of States Rights and Republicans were proponents of Federal authority over the states. The parties have, in general exchanged those positions.
Lincoln did free the slaves, and Democrats opposed that, they felt the states should have the right to decide the slavery issue themselves, and when slavery was abolished southerners (who were generally Democrats) did form the KKK (a terrorist movement) to keep blacks in their place as 2nd (OR 3rd) class citizens. Originally, blacks tended vote Republican, because abolitionists tended to come out of the Republican Party.
I am not sure why things changed, but I do know the events that lead to this change.
ONE: THE WPA
During the Great Depression President Roosevelt (FDR) made efforts to put people back to work through something first called the Works Progress Administration (renamed during 1939 as the Work Projects Administration; WPA). The WPA was the largest New Deal agency, employing millions to carry out public works projects, and one aspect of the WPA was that it hired both blacks and whites and workers doing the same job got the same pay regardless of their skin pigmentation.
I'm sad to reveal this, but it makes my point very clear: My grandfather said to me, repeatedly, "I worked all day digging a ditch, right next to a nigger, and we both got the same pay."
My grandfather dies pissed off about this. My WHITE grandfather felt it was very wrong to pay a white person the same salary that was paid to a black person. Why would he take this position? He believed this because he was a racist, a bigot, and white supremacist.. Now he never joined, the KKK, and as far as I know he never mistreated a black person, but he did feel that whites were better than blacks and it was wrong to treat them as if they were equals. In general this was a southern sentiment and southerners, at that time, tended to be Democrats. My grandfather felt so betrayed by Democrat Roosevelt that he joined the Republican party.
TWO: DESEGREGATION OF THE MILITARY
In 1948, President Harry S Truman's Executive Order 9981 ordered the integration of the armed forces shortly after World War II, a major advance in civil rights. A lot of Southern ire was raised because President Truman used an Executive Order which allowed him to bypass Congress. If Truman had been forced to go through the Congress, Representatives of the Solid South, all white Democrats, would likely have stonewalled related legislation.
It was after Harry Truman desegregated the military that he earned 77 percent of the black vote in 1948. After 1948 the majority of blacks reported that they thought of themselves as Democrats.
THREE: THE SLIPPERY SLIDE TO EQUALITY
Actually, there were a series of actions that were like a one two knockout punch to Southern entrenched racial bigotry. The fair housing act made it illegal to refuse to rent or sell a house to a person because of their race.
Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man simply because he was white and she was not. This lead to a boycotts, demonstrations, and the dismantalling of Jim Crow Laws. Colored drinking fountains, and colored toilets, and segregation in resturants all eventually became illegal.
In 1954 the Supreme Court reversed the earlier ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, in which the court found that racially separate facilities were inherently unequal. Again, the South felt the Federal Courts were using their power to force legislation on the South.
FOUR: THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT
President Lyndon B. Johnson pushed through the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 (outlawing segregation in public places) and his eventual Republican opponent, Sen. Barry Goldwater, opposed it. Johnson got 94 percent of the black vote that year, still a record for any presidential election.
The following year Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act. No Republican presidential candidate has gotten more than 15 percent of the black vote since.
It is reported that at President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, put the pen down and said, "We just lost the South."
Those that credit the Republican party with being advocates of blacks, are telling a historic truth, but it is a contemporary lie. As Democratic leaders pushed through legislation that gave rights to blacks, the Democrats that cling to segregation abandoned the Democratic Party and turned to the Republicans. Republicans who advocated for people of color abandoned their party and joined the party of Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson. After LBJ there was no longer any question which political party advocates for people of color and that party is the Democratic Party.
There are a few blacks who are fiscal conservatives, and you do see a few black faces in a Republican crowd, but the stress is on the word FEW.
It is also true to say that there are bigots in the Democratic Party and there are color blind advocates of human equality within the Republican Party. What is generally true is never true uniformly.
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Top-level comments on this article: (7 total)Good article Tex, yes the democratic party are for the people regardless of what race they belong to.Thanks again David. We do seem to be on the same page regarding these things. Peace be with you: tex
There are racists on both sides but as long as Democrats continue to state that they are the only ones that care about minorities (untrue) and the media propagates that message then minorities will continue to follow. Republicans need to continue to change their message. The far right and far left factions need to take a big chill pill before the majority of this country becomes Independent centrists leaving minorities wondering where they can turn.I hear you. I see myself as a far to the left progressive. I would make a terrible elected official. Getting things done requires a willingness to find common ground and to build there. I agree that both parties are too harsh with the other side and this has created an environment that will, if not curbed, lead to more and more violence. Thanks for reading and thanks for your comment.
This was a very good article but the said truth is both parties are racist as both deny the common man, white or blak the ability to make a living, educate their chilldren, etc. The ongoing destruction of the middle class, tax cuts for the rich and the turning of America into a third world country is about as racist or devilish as any one can get. Shame on both parties.I don't disagree. My personal definition of progressive democrat is that they are color-blind, supportive of common man, supportive of the middle class, a party that feels education, access to health care, and care and protection of the most vulnerable members of our society. THAT sort of democrat is not in power. There is plenty of blame to spread over all our elected folk.
Very inspirational Tex but I'm not sure this can be a blanket statement for either side.~ Grace
I enjoyed your article very much as I always enjoy reading almost anything along the lines of history. I too grew up in the south in the fifties and it was not pleasant.
Great article Tex. There seems to be general agreement in the comments to your article that both parties have racists and bigots. So what does it mean, nothing. Why? Because it is always a matter of degree. And in my opinion, the democrats are much more liberal in their understanding of racism. The majority of the party are minorities. The only thing that we all agree on is Civil Rights. I'm proud to be a Democrat and an American. America has always been progressive, dispite the backward leaning conservatives. When our founding fathers were around, a blackman was only allowed 3/5th of a vote and women had no vote. There was no income tax, but there were plenty of other taxes (like tea taxes). Enough said, thanks again for the article.Bob
This is a really interesting article, Tex. As a foreigner I didn't know Democrats were the original racists.
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