Thomas: Democrats need a day of atonement

[Klamato]

With the creation of June 19th (“Juneteenth”) as a federal
holiday, Democrats have one more claim to be the party of civil
rights and equal opportunity for African Americans, though most
Republicans also voted for the holiday. That claim has been
promoted for decades by a compliant media, academia and high-
profile politicians, but the facts say otherwise.

From Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 to the
mid-20th century, members of the Democratic Party, dominant in
the South due to its opposition to civil and political rights
for African Americans,” were on the wrong side of civil rights.

Federal troops finally brought the news of emancipation to
Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, meeting resistance from
plantation owners. This is the same year the Ku Klux Klan was
founded. Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate Army general and
a Democrat, was the first grand wizard of the KKK, though he
tried disbanding it in 1869 after growing critical of its
“excessive violence.”

The Klan, which numbered 4 million members at its peak,
dedicated itself as History.com notes, “to an underground
campaign of violence against Republican leaders and voters (both
Black and white) in an effort to reverse the policies of Radical
Reconstruction and restore white supremacy in the South.”

The Washington Examiner cited 12 examples of how Southern
Democrats historically opposed civil rights while Reconstruction-
era Republicans favored them.

The newspaper noted Democrats voted against “every piece of
civil rights legislation in Congress from 1866 to 1966.”

Congressional Democrats opposed the 13th Amendment, which
officially freed the slaves in 1865. Only four Democrats voted
for it.

Republicans passed the 14th Amendment in 1866, which granted
American citizenship to former slaves.

Not one of the 56 congressional Democrats voted for the 15th
Amendment in 1869, which gave former slaves the right to vote.

Republicans backed all the civil rights laws of the 1860s,
including the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Reconstruction
Act of 1867. Their party was founded on an anti-slavery platform.

Fast-forward to the 1960s. President Kennedy was reluctant to
push too hard for civil rights for fear of losing Southern
support. After his assassination, President Johnson claimed
Kennedy was passionately for civil rights and used his death to
advance legislation in Congress. Once again, powerful Democrats
in the South opposed every bill.

A Senate office building is named after one of them, Sen.
Richard B. Russell of Georgia, leader of the Senate’s Southern
caucus. Curious that as statues and memorials depicting former
slave owners and those associated with slavery and racism have
been removed from various locations, Russell’s name remains on
that building.

The Examiner noted a PBS program that stated, “The Democratic
Party was responsible for passing Jim Crow laws, in addition to
Black Civil Codes that forced Americans to utilize separate
drinking fountains, swimming polls, and other facilities in the
20th century.”

Chief Justice Earl Warren, a Dwight Eisenhower appointee, read
the unanimous opinion in Brown v. Board of Education, declaring
segregated schools unconstitutional. Eisenhower also ordered
federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, in the face of
opposition to integrating Central High School by Gov. Orval
Faubus, a Democrat.

Republican Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois wrote several
bills that banned discrimination in housing, culminating in the
Civil Rights Act of 1968.

Richard Nixon, a Republican, introduced the Philadelphia Plan,
the precursor to affirmative action.

Republican Ronald Reagan signed legislation establishing the
Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday.

While Democrats are now claiming another victory for themselves,
they might want to consider establishing an additional special
occasion. Given their party’s deplorable civil rights record, it
could be called a day of atonement.

Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaed...@tribpub.com. ©2021
Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

https://www.lubbockonline.com/story/opinion/2021/06/23/history-
and-why-democrats-might-need-day-atonement/5309053001/