By Frances Rice
In his book, A Short History of Reconstruction, Dr. Eric wrote: “Founded in 1866 as a Tennessee social club, the Ku Klux Klan spread into nearly every Southern state, launching a ‘reign of terror‘ against Republican Party leaders, black and white. In effect, the Klan was a military force serving the interests of the Democratic Party, the planter class, and all those who desired the restoration of white supremacy. Jack Dupree, a victim of a particularly brutal murder in Monroe County, Mississippi - assailants cut his throat and disemboweled him, all within sight of his wife, who had just given birth to twins - was ‘president of a republican club‘ and known as a man who ‘would speak his mind.’”
Dr. Foner is the DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University and one of America’s most prominent historians. He is only the second person to serve as president of the three major professional organizations: the Organization of American Historians, American Historical Association, and Society of American Historians.
Another excellent reference is the book by Rev. Wayne Perryman: "White, Blacks and Racist Democrats: The Untold History of Race & Politics Within The Democratic Party From 1792-2009." As a result of his research, Rev. Perryman sued the Democratic Party for their history of racism. Democratic Party leaders came into court and, under oath, admitted their racist past, but refused to apologize because they know they can take the black vote for granted.
Below is an extensive timeline that provides details about the Ku Klux Klan and the Democratic Party.
The above information and below historical timeline demonstrate that the Republican Party has always been the party of the four F’s: family, faith, freedom and fairness.
As author Michael Scheuer wrote, the Democratic Party is the party of the four S’s: slavery, secession, segregation and now socialism. Democrats have been running black communities for the past 50 years, and the socialist policies of the Democrats have turned those communities into economic and social wastelands.
A Reflection of the racist attitude of the liberals/socialists/progressives in the Democratic Party can be found in the words of liberal icons Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, and President Lyndon Johnson, as shown below.
“We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population.”
~ Margaret Sanger
“These Negroes, they’re getting uppity these days. That’s a problem for us, since they got something now they never had before. The political pull to back up their upityness. Now, we’ve got to do something about this. We’ve got to give them a little something. Just enough to quiet them down, but not enough to make a difference. If we don’t move at all, their allies will line up against us. And there’ll be no way to stop them. It’ll be Reconstruction all over again.”
~ President Lyndon B. Johnson
Historical Timeline of the Ku Klux Klan and the Democratic Party
Documents in the Georgia archives include the words of Georgia-born Democrat Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan from the September 1928 edition of the Klan’s “Kourier Magazine.” Forrest wrote: “I have never voted for any man who was not a regular Democrat. My father … never voted for any man who was not a Democrat. My grandfather was …the head of the Ku Klux Klan in reconstruction days…. My great-grandfather was a life-long Democrat…. My great-great-grandfather was…one of the founders of the Democratic Party.”
After the Civil War, over 3,000 Republicans — black and white — were lynched by the Ku Klux Klan, 1,000 of whom where white.
Republicans, led by Republican President Ulysses Grant, took action and destroyed the Klan with the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. Undaunted, Democrats in the 20th Century helped the Klan to re-emerge when racist Democrat President Woodrow Wilson premiered the racist movie, Birth of a Nation, in the White House in 1915.
Democrat President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1930s appointed a Klansman, Senator Hugo Black (D-AL), to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Klansmen against whom the civil rights movement activists struggled in the 1950’s were all Democrats.
The notorious Alabama police commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor, who attacked black civil rights demonstrators with dogs, clubs and fire hoses, was both a Klansman and the Democratic Party’s National Committeeman for Alabama.
Starting in the 1980s, the Democratic Party elevated a recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan, Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), to third-in-line for the presidency, and he remained a Democrat until he died in 2010.
A look at the following timeline will provide a vivid picture of Democratic Party opposition to civil rights for blacks from the days of slavery through the modern-day civil rights movement. The fight against black civil rights by Democrats is contrasted with the support for equality for blacks by the Republican Party from the inception of the Republican Party as the anti-slavery party in 1854 until today.
October 13, 1858
During Lincoln-Douglas debates, U.S. Senator Stephen Douglas (D-IL) states: “I do not regard the Negro as my equal, and positively deny that he is my brother, or any kin to me whatever”. Douglas became Democratic Party’s 1860 presidential nominee.
April 16, 1862
President Lincoln signs bill abolishing slavery in District of Columbia. In Congress, 99% of Republicans vote yes and 83% of Democrats vote no.
July 17, 1862
Over unanimous Democrat opposition, the Republican-controlled Congress passes the Confiscation Act stating that slaves of the Confederacy “shall be forever free”.
January 31, 1865
13th Amendment banning slavery was passed by U.S. House of Representatives with unanimous Republican support and intense Democrat opposition.
April 8, 1865
13th Amendment banning slavery passed by U.S. Senate with 100% Republican support and 63% Democrat opposition.
November 22, 1865
Republicans denounce Democrat legislature of Mississippi for enacting “Black Codes,” which institutionalized racial discrimination.
February 5, 1866
U.S. Rep. Thaddeus Stevens (R-PA) introduces legislation, successfully opposed by Democrat President Andrew Johnson, to implement “40 acres and a mule” relief by distributing land to former slaves.
April 9, 1866
Republican Congress overrides Democrat President Johnson’s veto, and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, conferring rights of citizenship on African-Americans, becomes law.
May 10, 1866
U.S. House passes the Republicans’ 14th Amendment guaranteeing due process and equal protection of the laws to all citizens, with 100% of Democrats voting no.
June 8, 1866
U.S. Senate passes the Republicans’ 14th Amendment guaranteeing due process and equal protection of the law to all citizens, where 94% of Republicans vote yes and 100% of Democrats vote no.
January 8, 1867
Republicans override Democrat President Andrew Johnson’s veto of law granting voting rights to African-Americans in D.C.
July 19, 1867
Republican Congress overrides Democrat President Andrew Johnson’s veto of legislation protecting voting rights of African-Americans.
March 30, 1868
Republicans begin impeachment trial of Democrat President Andrew Johnson, who declared: “This is a country for white men, and by God, as long as I am President, it shall be a government of white men”.
September 3, 1868
25 African-Americans in the Georgia legislature, all Republicans, were expelled by the Democrat majority. They were later reinstated by a Republican-controlled Congress.
September 12, 1868
Civil rights activist Tunis Campbell and all other African-Americans in the Georgia Senate – all Republicans – were expelled by the Democrat majority. They were later be reinstated by a Republican-controlled Congress.
October 7, 1868
Republicans denounce the Democratic Party’s national campaign theme: “This is a white man’s country: Let white men rule”.
October 22, 1868
While campaigning for re-election, U.S. Rep. James Hinds (R-AR) is assassinated by Democrat terrorists who were organized as the Ku Klux Klan.
December 10, 1869
Republican Gov. John Campbell of Wyoming Territory signs First-in-nation law granting women the right to vote and to hold public office.
February 3, 1870
After passing the U.S. House of Representatives with 98% Republican support and 97% Democrat opposition, the Republicans’ 15th Amendment is ratified, which granted the right to vote to all Americans regardless of race.
May 31, 1870
President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Republicans’ Enforcement Act, providing stiff penalties for depriving civil rights to any Americans.
June 22, 1870
The Republican-controlled Congress creates the U.S. Department of Justice to safeguard the civil rights of African-Americans against Democrats in the South.
September 6, 1870
Women vote in Wyoming during the first election after women’s suffrage legislation was signed into law by Republican Gov. John Campbell.
February 28, 1871
Republican Congress passes Enforcement Act providing federal protection for African-American voters.
April 20, 1871
The Republican-controlled Congress enacts the Ku Klux Klan Act, outlawing Democratic Party-affiliated terrorist groups which oppressed African-Americans.
October 10, 1871
Following warnings by Philadelphia Democrats against blacks voting, African-American Republican civil rights activist Octavius Catto was murdered by a Democratic Party operative, and his military funeral was attended by thousands.
October 18, 1871
After violence was committed against Republicans in South Carolina, Republican President Ulysses S. Grant deploys U.S. troops to combat Democrat terrorists who formed the Ku Klux Klan.
November 18, 1872
Susan B. Anthony arrested for voting, after boasting to Elizabeth Cady Stanton that she voted for “the Republican ticket, straight”.
January 17, 1874
Armed Democrats seize the Texas state government, ending Republican efforts to racially integrate the Texas government.
September 14, 1874
Democrat white supremacists seize Louisiana statehouse in attempt to overthrow the racially-integrated administration of Republican Governor William Kellogg. 27 people were killed.
March 1, 1875
The Civil Rights Act of 1875, guaranteeing access to public accommodations without regard to race, was signed by Republican President Ulysses S. Grant. The law passed with 92% Republican support over 100% Democrat opposition.
January 10, 1878
U.S. Senator Aaron Sargent (R-CA) introduces the Susan B. Anthony amendment for women’s suffrage. The Democrat-controlled Senate defeated it 4 times before the election of the Republican-controlled House and Senate, which guaranteed its approval in 1919. Republicans foil Democratic efforts to keep women in the kitchen, where Democrats believed they belonged.
February 8, 1894
The Democrat-controlled Congress and Democrat President Grover Cleveland join to repeal the Republicans’ Enforcement Act, which had enabled African-Americans to exercise their right to vote guaranteed by the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
January 15, 1901
Black Republican Booker T. Washington protests Alabama Democratic Party’s refusal to permit voting by African-Americans.
May 29, 1902
Virginia Democrats implement a new state constitution, condemned by Republicans as illegal, that reduced African-American voter registration by 86%.
February 12, 1909
On the 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, African-American Republicans and women’s suffragists Ida Wells and Mary Terrell co-found the NAACP. Black Republican James Weldon Johnson later became the first black head of the NAACP in 1920.
May 21, 1919
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passes a constitutional amendment granting women the vote with 85% of Republicans in favor, but only 54% of Democrats. In the Senate, 80% of Republicans voted yes, but almost half of Democrats voted no.
August 18, 1920
The Republican-authored 19th Amendment, affirming the right to vote for women, becomes part of Constitution. 26 of the 36 states that ratified the amendment had Republican-controlled legislatures.
January 26, 1922
The U.S. House of Representative passes the bill authored by U.S. Rep. Leonidas Dyer (R-MO) making lynching a federal crime; Senate Democrats block it with a filibuster.
June 2, 1924
Republican President Calvin Coolidge signs the bill passed by the Republican-controlled Congress granting U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans
October 3, 1924
Republicans denounce three-time Democrat presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan for defending the Ku Klux Klan at the 1924 Democratic National Convention.
June 12, 1929
First Lady Lou Hoover invites the wife of U.S. Rep. Oscar De Priest (R-IL), an African-American, to tea at the White House, sparking protests by Democrats across the country.
August 17, 1937
Republicans organize opposition to former Ku Klux Klansman and Democrat U.S. Senator Hugo Black, appointed to U.S. Supreme Court by Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Hugo Black’s Klan background was hidden until after his confirmation.
June 24, 1940
The Republican Party platform calls for integration of the armed forces. For the balance of his terms in office, Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt refuses to order integration of the military.
August 8, 1945
Republicans condemn Democrat President Harry Truman’s surprise use of the atomic bomb in Japan. Two days after the Hiroshima bombing, former Republican President Herbert Hoover wrote to a friend: “The use of the atomic bomb, with its indiscriminate killing of women and children, revolts my soul.”
September 30, 1953
Earl Warren, California’s three-term Republican Governor and 1948 Republican vice presidential nominee, was nominated to be Chief Justice by Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Justice Warren wrote landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
November 25, 1955
The Eisenhower administration bans racial segregation of interstate bus travel.
March 12, 1956
Ninety-seven Democrats in Congress condemn the U.S Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education and pledge to continue segregation of the races.
June 5, 1956
Republican federal judge Frank Johnson rules in favor of Rosa Parks in a decision striking down “blacks in the back of the bus” laws in the Democrat-controlled South.
November 6, 1956
African-American civil rights leaders Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy vote for Republican Dwight Eisenhower for President.
September 9, 1957
Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Republican Party’s 1957 Civil Rights Act.
September 24, 1957
Sparking criticism from Democrats such as Senators John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson who both voted against the 1957 Civil Rights Act, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower deploys the 82nd Airborne Division to Little Rock, AR to force Democrat Governor Orval Faubus to integrate public schools.
May 6, 1960
Republican President Dwight Eisenhower signs the Republicans’ Civil Rights Act of 1960, overcoming a 125-hour, around-the-clock filibuster by 18 Senate Democrats.
May 2, 1963
Republicans condemn the Democrat sheriff of Birmingham, Alabama for arresting over 2,000 African-American schoolchildren marching for their civil rights.
September 29, 1963
Democrat Gov. George Wallace of Alabama defies order by U.S. District Judge Frank Johnson, appointed by President Dwight Eisenhower, to integrate Tuskegee High School.
June 9, 1964
Republicans condemn the 14-hour filibuster against the 1964 Civil Rights Act by U.S. Senator and former Ku Klux Klansman Robert Byrd (D-WV), who served in the Senate until his death in 2010.
June 10, 1964
Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL) criticizes the Democrat filibuster against the 1964 Civil Rights Act and calls on Democrats to stop opposing racial equality. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was introduced and approved by a staggering majority of Republicans in the Senate. The Act was opposed by most southern Democrat senators, several of whom were proud segregationists—one of them being Democrat Senator Al Gore Sr. The Democrat President Lyndon Johnson relied on Senator Everett Dirksen, the Republican leader from Illinois, to get the Act passed.
August 4, 1965
Senate Republican Leader Everett Dirksen overcomes the Democrat attempts to block the 1965 Voting Rights Act. 94% of Senate Republicans voted for that landmark civil right legislation, while 27% of Democrats opposed it. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 abolished literacy tests and other measures devised by Democrats to prevent African-Americans from voting.
February 19, 1976
Republican President Gerald Ford formally rescinds Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s notorious Executive Order authorizing internment of over 120,000 Japanese-Americans during WWII.
September 15, 1981
Republican President Ronald Reagan establishes the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities to increase African-American participation in federal education programs.
June 29, 1982
Republican President Ronald Reagan signs a 25-year extension of 1965 Voting Rights Act.
August 10, 1988
Republican President Ronald Reagan signs the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, compensating Japanese-Americans for deprivation of civil rights and property during World War II internment ordered by Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
November 21, 1991
Republican President George H. W. Bush signs the Civil Rights Act of 1991 to strengthen federal civil rights legislation.
August 20, 1996
Legislation authored by U.S. Rep. Susan Molinari (R-NY) to prohibit racial discrimination in adoptions becomes law and is part of the Republicans’ Contract With America.
