No

by Terrence Aym

Created on: September 22, 2009

Is the Republican Party racist?

As a Libertarian looking objectively at the history of both major political parties since 1854, I can categorically state that the Republican Party is not racist. Whether many in the Democratic Party fit that mold is still an open question, bi-racial president or not.

Here are some highlights of the proof. A full accounting would fill a book.

Republicans End Slavery

Starting in 1860, the very first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, ended slavery at the cost of at least 618,000 American lives lost in the Civil War, and some experts say the toll reached 700,000. Lincoln himself was assassinated for the "crime" of ending slavery. All of his opponents in the South, and many in the north, were Democrats.

Republicans, the Champions of Black Freedom During the 19th Century

After the Civil War the 13th Amendment was ratified in 1865. It abolished and prohibited slavery and secured a minimal degree of citizenship to former slaves. The amendment was successfully fought for by Republicans.

During 1868 the 14th Amendment was ratified. It granted citizenship to all people "born or naturalized in the United States." This amendment included the due process and equal protection clauses. Supported strongly by, that's right, Republicans.

Republicans passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Reconstruction Act of 1867, fighting Democrats tooth and nail to accomplish it.

During the 1800s the Republicans also founded the major black colleges and universities.

Republicans Establish the NAACP

In 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was created by black Republicans. Republican politicians supported the new association's goals. The fledgling organization had as its mission the intention to promote "Negroes' Civil Rights," including the goal to "secure for them impartial suffrage." Its success was limited, however, because racist Southern Democrats as a block (with some northern Democratic cronies) rapidly created ingenious methods to keep many southern blacks disfranchised through the early 1960s.

Eisenhower, a Republican, Lays the Groundwork for Massive Civil Rights Reform

"I believe as long as we allow conditions to exist that make for second-class citizens, we are making of ourselves less than first-class citizens." - Dwight D. Eisenhower (Quoted from remarks he made to a standing ovation at the United Negro College Fund luncheon, May 19, 1953)

[Eisenhower] was able to achieve more toward making equal treatment a civil right for minority Americans than any of his presidential predecessors since Reconstruction. Here are some of his accomplishments listed at Dwight D. Eisenhower and Civil Rights:

Eisenhower appointed California Governor Earl Warren as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Warren molded a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education, striking down public school segregation.

Eisenhower was consistently careful to appoint to the southern districts federal judges who were solidly committed to equal rights, fighting southern Democrat segregationist senators. Eisenhower's judicial appointments constitute a significant contribution to civil rights.

Eisenhower achieved Congressional passage of the first civil rights legislation in the 82 years following Reconstruction.

In 1960, Eisenhower was successful in getting Congress to pass additional voting rights legislation. These laws were the precedents for the civil rights legislation of the 1960s that Republicans fought for.

Eisenhower implemented the integration of the U.S. military forces. Although President Truman issued Executive Order 9981 (1948) to desegregate the military services, his administration had limited success in realizing it. As a life-long soldier, Dwight Eisenhower knew intimately the reality of racial intolerance in the military. As president, he commanded compliance from subordinates and was able to overcome the deeply rooted racial institutions in the military establishment. By October 30, 1954, the last racially segregated unit in the armed forces had been abolished and all federally controlled schools for military dependent children had been desegregated.

Eisenhower sent elements of the 101st Airborne Division to carry out the mandate of the U.S. Supreme Court, when Orval Faubus of Arkansas openly defied a federal court order to integrate Little Rock Central High, an all-white high school. This act, the first time since Reconstruction that federal troops were deployed to a former Confederate state, was condemned by many at the time, but it established that southern states could not use force to defeat the Constitution.

Eisenhower was the first president to elevate an African-American to an executive level position in the White House. In July 1955, President Eisenhower appointed E. Frederic Morrow, a graduate of Bowdoin College and the Rutgers University Law School, as Administrative Officer for Special Projects.

Eisenhower established the first comprehensive regulations prohibiting racial discrimination in the federal workforce.

He established presidential committees that set standards and pressured governments agencies and businesses with government contracts to end racial discrimination in employment.

Eisenhower was the first president since Reconstruction to meet personally in the White House with black civil rights leaders. He discussed national policy on civil rights with Martin Luther King, Jr., A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, and Lester B. Granger. [1]

Republican Senator Everett Dirksen Hero of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

The Civil Rights Act of 1964: After 54 days of Democrat filibuster by Senator Robert Byrd, a Klu Klux Klansmen (who still fills a senate seat in 2009), to kill the bill much lauded by black America today, Senator Everett Dirksen, an Illinois Republican, led Thomas Kuchel, a Republican colleague from California, Hubert Humphrey, a conservative Democrat from Minnesota, and Mike Mansfield, a conservative Democrat from Montana in introducing a substitute bill that attracted enough Republican votes to end the filibuster. Republican Senator Everett Dirksen wrote the senate version of the bill!

The landmark bill was passed thanks to Republican Dirksen's leadership and the votes of Republicans giving it more than the needed votes. The final tally: 71 to 29. Never before had the Senate been able to override a filibuster on a civil rights bill. And only once in the 37 years since 1927 had it agreed to cloture. The Republicans had accomplished a major milestone in the battle for minority civil rights.

President Lyndon Johnson could not have achieved passage of civil rights legislation without the support of Republicans fighting racist Democrats.

As Senator Barry Goldwater, Republican, Arizona and former United States Air Force General fought for civil rights legislation, Bobby Kennedy authorized illegal surveillance by the FBI on Martin Luther King, Jr.

Democrat Robert Kennedy (icon of African Americans who knew nothing about his underhanded political life) ordered the . . . secret monitoring [of King] in the early 60's to keep tabs on the civil rights movement. Internal memos have emerged through Freedom of Information requests and litigation that prove it. [2]

Marin Luther King, Jr. - a Republican?

Martin Luther King was a Republican, but what about his son, Marin Luther King, Jr.? According to the National Black Republicans Association, "MLK was a minister and a Republican who embraced our traditional values." [3]

"It should come as no surprise that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican. In that era, almost all black Americans were Republicans. Why? From its founding in 1854 as the anti-slavery party until today, the Republican Party has championed freedom and civil rights for blacks. And as one pundit so succinctly stated, the Democrat Party is as it always has been, the party of the four S's: slavery, secession, segregation and now socialism." [4]

The racist "Dixiecrats" never joined the Republican Party as today's Democrats allege. Many of them retired or stayed democrats like Senator Byrd and Senator Ernest Hollings.

The reality is that the Republican Party and courageous Republicans throughout history have fought sometimes titanic battles to make sure that all minorities, including blacks, are able to enjoy their full rights guaranteed under the Constitution. That many people think the opposite, including, sadly, many African Americans, is a reflection on the failing education system, the irresponsible major media and the success of Stalin-esque propaganda by the Democratic National Committee creating revisionist history.

[1] Dwight D. Eisenhower and Civil Rights - http://www.eisenhowe rmemorial.org/Civil- Rights.htm

[2] Source: http://www.opednews. com/articles/FBI-age nts-that-spied-on-M- by-Michael-Richardso n-090115-516.html

[3] National Black Republicans Association - http://www.nationalb lackrepublicans.com/ MLKWasARepublican

[4] "Why Martin Luther King Was Republican." - Frances Rice, 2006. - http://www.humaneven ts.com/article.php?i d=16500

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