By Frances Rice
In order to stop the Democrats from using the false charge of racism, linking the Republican Party to the Ku Klux Klan in order to destroy Republicans, it is imperative that the civil rights history record be set straight.
Indeed, the Democrats started the Ku Klux Klan that became the terrorist arm of the Democratic Party. The Klan killed over 3,000 Republicans, 1,000 of whom were white, with the remainder being black Republicans.
In his book, “A Short History of Reconstruction (1st edition),” Dr. Eric Foner 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.”
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. His bio can be found on the Internet.
Another excellent reference is the book by Wayne Perryman "Whites, Blacks and Racist Democrats: The Untold History of Race & Politics Within The Democratic Party From 1792-2009."
It is encouraging to see that a journalist, Kyle Feldscher, wrote an article, as shown below, about Senator Cruz’s comments.
I noted, however, that the article contains the standard misinformation put out by Democrats that the Dixiecrats “left the party for the Republican Party following the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964.”
In reality, the Dixiecrats were a group of Southern Democrats who, in the 1948 national election, formed a third party, the State’s Rights Democratic Party with the slogan: “Segregation Forever!”
Even so, they continued to be Democrats for all local and state elections, as well as for all future national elections.
In fact, the racist Democrats declared that they would rather vote for a “yellow dog” than a Republican because the Republican Party was and still is the party for blacks
The truth is contained in the article published in the May 28, 2012, issue of National Review, ‘The Party of Civil Rights’ by Kevin D. Williamson and posted on this blog site.
Here are some of the operative sentences extracted from the article by Williamson:
If the parties had in some meaningful way flipped on civil rights, one would expect that to show up in the electoral results in the years following the Democrats’ 1964 about-face on the issue.
Nothing of the sort happened: Of the 21 Democratic senators who opposed the 1964 act, only one would ever change parties.
Nor did the segregationist constituencies that elected these Democrats throw them out in favor of Republicans: The remaining 20 continued to be elected as Democrats or were replaced by Democrats.
It was, on average, nearly a quarter of a century before those seats went Republican.
If southern rednecks ditched the Democrats because of a civil-rights law passed in 1964, it is strange that they waited until the late 1980s and early 1990s to do so. They say things move slower in the South — but not that slow.
Republicans did begin to win some southern House seats, and in many cases segregationist Democrats were thrown out by southern voters in favor of civil-rights Republicans.
One of the loudest Democratic segregationists in the House was Texas’s John Dowdy.
Dowdy was a bitter and buffoonish opponent of the 1964 reforms.
He declared the reforms “would set up a despot in the attorney general’s office with a large corps of enforcers under him; and his will and his oppressive action would be brought to bear upon citizens, just as Hitler’s minions coerced and subjugated the German people.
Dowdy went on: “I would say this — I believe this would be agreed to by most people: that, if we had a Hitler in the United States, the first thing he would want would be a bill of this nature.” (Who says political rhetoric has been debased in the past 40 years?)
Dowdy was thrown out in 1966 in favor of a Republican with a very respectable record on civil rights, a little-known figure by the name of George H. W. Bush.
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Cruz says Democrats are the 'party of the Ku Klux Klan'
By Kyle Feldscher
Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz called Democrats "the party of the Ku Klux Klan" and said Democrats ignore their history when accusing Republicans of being racist.Cruz, speaking on Fox News Wednesday, said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., reading a letter from Coretta Scott King about Republican Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions is an ugly tactic by Democrats to paint people as racist. He said Warren should look at her own party before ripping Sessions.
"I'll point out the Democrats are the party of the Ku Klux Klan," he said. "You look at the most racist, you'll see Dixiecrats. They were Democrats who imposed segregation, they imposed Jim Crow laws, who founded the Klan. The Klan was founded by a great many Democrats."
The Dixiecrats were a segregationist party represented by South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond who ran for president in 1948. After Thurmond was defeated, Dixiecrats generally rejoined the Democratic ranks but many white conservative Democrats in the South left the party for the Republican Party following the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964.
Cruz said Warren was engaging in tactics that generally turn off many Americans.
"The charges she was making against Jeff Sessions are demonstrably false," he said. "They're slanderous, they're ugly. It's one of the crutches – you know, when the Left doesn't have any other arguments, they accuse everyone of being a racist. And it's an ugly part of the modern Democratic Party."
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/cruz-says-dems-party-of-the-ku-klux-klan/article/2614243
