The Democratic Party was founded by slave owners. These slave owners insisted upon a constitution which preserved slavery. The Democratic Party opposed Republican efforts to end slavery. The Democratic Party opposed Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. After the Civil War, Democrats opposed Republican efforts to give newly freed slaves voting rights and civil rights. In more recent times, Democratic members of the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives fought Civil Rights legislation, beginning with Republican President Dwight Eisenhower’s Civil Rights Act of 1957.
Democratic governors fought integration of schools and public services, and the list goes on. It took courageous decisions by Republican judges and the enforcement of these laws by President Eisenhower who at one point called out the military to overcome resistance.
Two Democratic luminaries, Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black and long serving Senator Robert Byrd, were members of the KKK as young men.
Read more: Exclusive — Sen. Bill Cassidy: The Democratic Party Should Change Its Name Due to Its Racist Past
