Cactusflower:
I thought you might find this educational about US politics.
For most of the time since its formation in 1828, the “Democratic Party” has been the bastion of the slave owners, and then the Jim Crow (KKK) "racists"/ segregationists. The "makeover" from 1960s until now has been interesting to see (especially as I had boots on the ground in the early 1960s, in the deep south).
FWIW Abraham Lincoln was a Republican - kind of embarrassing for the Democrats to acknowledge.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2022-09-20/racist-history-democratic-party-1864-2020
The Racist History of the Democratic Party 1864-2020
24Richie's Photo
by 24Richie
Tuesday, Sep 20, 2022 - 12:09
"In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that
all slaves in areas still in rebellion on January 1, 1863, “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”
This declaration did not have the weight of law and to make permanent his goal of freeing slaves Lincoln sought a
Constitutional amendment to end slavery. When the House voted on the amendment on June 15, 1864,
it garnered 93 votes, 13 short of the two-thirds majority required for passage. The Constitutional Amendment to end
slavery failed because only four Democrats broke ranks to vote in the amendment’s favor.
When a second vote on the amendment was taken on January 31, 1865 the measure passed.
16 Democrats voted to end slavery, 56 voted to preserve slavery.
Woodrow Wilson a Democrat and President from 1913-1921 was a segregationist who had written a history textbook
praising the Confederacy and the Ku Klux Klan. As President during World War I he resegregated the
military services and some of the civil service.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2015/11/20/9766896/woodrow-wils…
While housing discrimination has always existed the FDR administration made housing discrimination against
blacks Federal government policy. He did this by constructing redline maps which prevented the government from purchasing
mortgages in or near African-American Neighborhoods. This become better known with the 2017 publication of
"The Color Of Law" by Richard Rothstein.
https://www.npr.org/2017/05/03/526655831/a-forgotten-history-of-how-the…
https://www.npr.org/2017/05/17/528822128/the-color-of-law-details-how-u…
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/24/upshot/how-redlinings-racist-effects…
After the attack on Pearl Harbor (DEMOCRAT) Roosevelt ordered the internment of Japanese Americans. This was challenged and
upheld by the Supreme Court. Justice Murphy of the Supreme Court expressed the following opinion:
"detention in Relocation Centers of persons of Japanese ancestry regardless of loyalty is not only unauthorized by
Congress or the Executive but is another example of the unconstitutional resort to racism inherent in the entire
evacuation program."
When in 1957 (REPUBLICAN) President Eisenhower sent troops into Little Rock to desegrate schools he was opposed by Democratic governor
Orval Faubus who sent Arkansas National Guard to stop African Americans from attending Little Rock Central
High School. Democratic Governor George Wallace did something similar in Alabama in 1963.
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/eisenhower-intervenes-in-l…
https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/press-past/2013/06/11/george-wallace-…
Some of the most powerful members of the Senate such as Robert Byrd were Democrats and racists.
Byrd was a Senator until 2010. In his early years in West Virginia Byrd had been a KKK member and had
recruited members, Later Byrd called his KKK affiliation “an Extraordinarily foolish mistake”
https://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/peter-roff/2010/06/30/byrds-kkk-hi…
The first post-Reconstruction Civil Right act was passed in 1957 when (REPUBLICAN) Eisenhower was President.
Attorney General Herbert Brownell drafted the legislative proposal that ultimately became the
Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first civil rights law that was enacted since 1875. His proposal it was weakened
by the US Senate. This despite Democrat Senator Strom Thurmond's 57-day filibuster. Another Senator participating in the
filibuster was Al Gore, Sr. All 18 votes against this in the Senate were Democrats.
Eisenhower's Attorney General Herbert Brownell drafted the legislative proposal that ultimately became the
Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first civil rights law that was enacted since 1875. His proposal it was weakened by the US Senate.
https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/the-civil-rights-movement-in-amer…
In 1975 Senator Joe Biden sponsored a successful bill that prohibited the use of federal funds for busing.
Biden's anti-busing views were highlighted by then candidate Kamala Harris in the 2019 debates.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/15/us/politics/biden-busing.html
In a 1977 congressional hearing, Biden had this to say about school busing "‘Unless we do something about this,
my children are going to grow up in a jungle, the jungle being a racial jungle with tensions having built so high
that it is going to explode at some point."
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112104078842&view=1up&seq…
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/15/us/politics/biden-busing.html
“What it says is, in order for your child with curly black hair, brown eyes and dark skin to be able to learn
anything, he needs to sit next to my blond-haired, blue-eyed son. That’s racist! Who the hell do we think
we are, that the only way a black man or woman can learn is if they rub shoulders with my white child?”
- Joe Biden from a 1975 interview on school busing.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/transcript-of-then-sen-biden-s-interview…
https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-opposed-quotas-in-1975and-he-was-rig…
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/28/us/politics/joe-biden-busing-kamala-…
"This NYT article of July 15, 2019 expresses the view that Biden did not change his views on school busing until
he realized it was a liability to his getting elected.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/15/us/politics/biden-busing.html
| 