History
Of The Democrats And The KKK
Live Leak ^
Posted on Thursday,
August 06, 2009 8:59:36 AM
The original targets of the Ku Klux Klan were
Republicans, both black and white, according to a new television program and
book, which describe how the Democrats started the KKK and for decades harassed
the GOP with lynchings and threats.
An estimated 3,446 blacks and 1,297 whites died at
the end of KKK ropes from 1882 to 1964.
The documentation has been assembled by David
Barton of Wallbu More..ilders and published in his
book "Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black &
White," which reveals that not only did the Democrats work hand-in-glove
with the Ku Klux Klan for generations, they started the KKK and endorsed its
mayhem.
"Of all forms of violent intimidation,
lynchings were by far the most effective," Barton said in his book.
"Republicans often led the efforts to pass federal anti-lynching laws and
their platforms consistently called for a ban on lynching. Democrats
successfully blocked those bills and their platforms never did condemn
lynchings."
Further, the first grand wizard of the KKK was
honored at the 1868 Democratic National Convention, no Democrats voted for the
14th Amendment to grant citizenship to former slaves and, to this day, the
party website ignores those decades of racism, he said.
"Although it is relatively unreported today,
historical documents are unequivocal that the Klan was established by Democrats
and that the Klan played a prominent role in the Democratic Party," Barton
writes in his book. "In fact, a 13-volume set of congressional
investigations from 1872 conclusively and irrefutably documents that fact.
"The Klan terrorized black Americans through
murders and public floggings; relief was granted only if individuals promised
not to vote for Republican tickets, and violation of this oath was punishable
by death," he said. "Since the Klan targeted Republicans in general,
it did not limit its violence simply to black Republicans; white Republicans
were also included."
Barton also has covered the subject in one episode
of his American Heritage Series of television programs, which is being
broadcast now on Trinity Broadcasting Network and Cornerstone Television.
Barton told WND his comments are not a
condemnation or endorsement of any party or candidate, but rather a warning that
voters even today should be aware of what their parties and candidates stand
for.
His book outlines the aggressive pro-slavery
agenda held by the Democratic Party for generations leading up to the Civil
War, and how that did not die with the Union victory in that war of rebellion.
Even as the South was being rebuilt, the votes in
Congress consistently revealed a continuing pro-slavery philosophy on the part
of the Democrats, the book reveals.
Three years after
"The records of Congress reveal that not one
Democrat � either in the House or the Senate � voted for the 14th Amendment," Barton wrote.
"Three years after the Civil War, and the Democrats from the North as well
as the South were still refusing to recognize any rights of citizenship for
black Americans."
He also noted that South Carolina Gov. Wade
Hampton at the 1868 Democratic National Convention inserted a clause in the
party platform declaring the Congress' civil rights laws were
"unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void."
It was the same convention when Gen. Nathan
Bedford Forrest, the first grand wizard of the KKK, was honored for his
leadership.
Barton's book notes that in 1868, Congress heard
testimony from election worker Robert Flournoy, who confessed while he was
canvassing the state of
Nor is Barton the only person to raise such
questions. In 2005, National Review published an article raising similar
points. The publication said in 1957 President Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican,
deployed the 82nd Airborne Division to desegregate the Little Rock, Ark.,
schools over the resistance of Democrat Gov. Orval Faubus.
Further, three years later, Eisenhower signed the
GOP's 1960 Civil Rights Act after it survived a five-day, five-hour filibuster
by 18 Senate Democrats, and in 1964, Democrat President Lyndon Johnson signed
the 1964 Civil Rights Act after former Klansman Robert Byrd's 14-hour
filibuster, and the votes of 22 other Senate Democrats, including Tennessee's
Al Gore Sr., failed to scuttle the plan.
Dems' website showing jump in history
The current version of the "History"
page on the party website lists a number of accomplishments � from 1792, 1798, 1800, 1808, 1812, 1816, 1824 and 1828,
including its 1832 nomination of Andrew Jackson for president. It follows up
with a name change, and the establishment of the Democratic National Committee,
but then leaps over the Civil War and all of its issues to talk about the end
of the 19th Century, William Jennings Bryan and women's suffrage.
A spokesman with the Democrats refused to comment
for WND on any of the issues. "You're not going to get a comment,"
said the spokesman who identified himself as Luis.
"Why would Democrats skip over their own
history from 1848 to 1900?" Barton asked. "Perhaps because it's not
the kind of civil rights history they want to talk about � perhaps because it is not the kind of civil rights history
they want to have on their website."
The National Review article by Deroy Murdock cited
the 1866 comment from Indiana Republican Gov. Oliver Morton condemning
Democrats for their racism.
"Every one who shoots down Negroes in the
streets, burns Negro schoolhouses and meeting-houses, and murders women and
children by the light of their own flaming dwellings,
calls himself a Democrat," Morton said.
It also cited the 1856 criticism by U.S. Sen.
Charles Sumner, R-Mass., of pro-slavery Democrats. "Congressman Preston
Brooks (D-S.C.) responded by grabbing a stick and beating Sumner unconscious in
the Senate chamber. Disabled, Sumner could not resume his duties for three
years."
By the admission of the Democrats themselves, on
their website, it wasn't until Harry Truman was elected that "Democrats
began the fight to bring down the final barriers of race and gender."
"That is an accurate description," wrote
Barton. "Starting with Harry Truman, Democrats began � that is, they made their first serious efforts � to fight against the barriers of race; yet � Truman's efforts were largely unsuccessful because of his
own Democratic Party."
Even then, the opposition to rights for blacks was
far from over. As recently as 1960, Mississippi Democratic Gov. Hugh White had
requested Christian evangelist Billy Graham segregate his crusades, something
Graham refused to do. "And when South Carolina Democratic Gov. George
Timmerman learned Billy Graham had invited African Americans to a Reformation
Rally at the state Capitol, he promptly denied use of the facilities to the
evangelist," Barton wrote.
The National Review noted that the Democrats'
"Klan-coddling" today is embodied in Byrd, who once wrote that,
"The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its
rebirth here in
The article suggested a contrast with the GOP,
which, when former Klansman David Duke ran for
Until 1935, every black federal legislator was
Republican, and it was Republicans who appointed the first black Air Force and
Army four-star generals, established Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday as a
national holiday, and named the first black national-security adviser,
secretary of state, the research reveals.
Current Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has
said: "The first Republican I knew was my father, and he is still the
Republican I most admire. He joined our party because the Democrats in Jim Crow
Alabama of 1952 would not register him to vote. The Republicans did. My father
has never forgotten that day, and neither have I."
Barton's documentation said the first opponents of
slavery "and the chief advocates for racial equal rights were the churches
(the Quakers, Presbyterians, Methodists, etc.). Furthermore, religious leaders
such as Quaker Anthony Benezet were the leading spokesmen against slavery, and
evangelical leaders such as Presbyterian signer of the Declaration Benjamin
Rush were the founders of the nation's first abolition societies."
During the years surrounding the Civil War,
"the most obvious difference between the Republican and Democrat parties
was their stands on slavery," Barton said. Republicans called for its
abolition, while Democrats declared: "All efforts of the abolitionists, or
others, made to induce Congress to interfere with questions of slavery, or to
take incipient [to initiate] steps in relation thereto, are calculated to lead
to the most alarming and dangerous consequences, and all such efforts have the
inevitable tendency to diminish the happiness of the people."
Wallbuilders also cited John Alden's 1885 book,
"A Brief History of the Republican Party" in noting that the KKK's
early attacks were on Republicans as much as blacks, in that blacks were
adopting the Republican identity en masse.
"In some places the Ku Klux Klan assaulted
Republican officials in their houses or offices or upon the public roads; in
others they attacked the meetings of negroes and
displaced them," Alden wrote. "Its ostensible purpose at first was to
keep the blacks in order and prevent them from committing small depredations
upon the property of whites, but its real motives were essentially political � The negroes were invariable
required to promise not to vote the Republican ticket, and threatened with
death if they broke their promises."
Barton told WND the most cohesive group of
political supporters in American now is African-Americans. He said most
consider their affiliation with the Democratic party
longterm.
But he said he interviewed a black pastor in
Citing President George Washington's farewell
address, Barton told WND, "
"We shouldn't love a party [over] a
candidate's principles or values," he told WND.
"Let me now � warn
you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of
party, generally. � The alternate domination
of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to
party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the
most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism," Washington said.