Because of decades of propaganda and misinformation since the era of Franklin D. Roosevelt, many black Americans, as well as many white Americans, would be dumbfounded to hear that Republican Party has always fought for the Civil Rights of African Americans beginning with the abolition of slavery through the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s to today’s Republican focus on Social Security reform and low taxation to encourage black entrepreneurship.

The history of the Democratic Party contrasts starkly with the history of the Republican Party.

Party of the Common Man
President Andrew Jackson’s administration signals the beginning of the modern Democratic Party, which propagandistically favored the “common man”—but only the “white” common man. Under Jackson’s command, slavery of blacks continued and spread, and confiscations of American Indian land reached its zenith, resulting in the Trail of Tears.

The Party of Slavery
The main issue that has driven the Democratic Party since its inception—and actually gave birth to the Republican Party—is the issue of slavery and its subsequent racism against African Americans. The Democratic Party was pro-slavery, and Republican Party came into existence in order to fight and end slavery.

Dominated by Democrats in 1857, the Supreme Court decided the Dred Scott Case in favor of the continuation of slavery. Democratic Chief Justice Roger Taney wrote the majority opinion stating that slaves were not citizens of the United States, and therefore, had no standing to sue in Federal courts.

Democratic Party and African Americans since Slavery
After the Civil War was fought and won by proponents of abolition, the era of reconstruction began. During this time, when former slaves were struggling to take their position as citizens of the republic, a terrorist group called the Ku Klux Klan emerged to quash that struggle. Democrats supported the Klan effort. The first grand wizard of the KKK was the prominent Tennessee Democrat, Nathan Bedford Forest. The Ku Klux Klan Act, also known as the Civil Rights Act of 1871, was introduced into Congress by Republicans to put an end to the KKK’s terrorist activity against newly freed blacks. The congressional Democrats voted against this act.

The thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution were designed to guarantee voting rights to African Americans. Again, the Democratic Party opposed all three. The Democratic Party, however, did not oppose the Black Codes, also known as the Jim Crow laws.

Until 1992, when Carol Moseley Braun (D-Illinois) was elected to the senate, Democrats had not elected one black senator, while the Republicans had elected three: Hiram Revels (1870), Blanche K. Bruce (1875), Edward William Brooke III, 1966).

In 1866, Congressman Thaddeus Stevens (R-Pennsylvania) introduced a bill as part of the Freedmen’s Bureau Act that apportioned land to former slaves (later referred to as “40 acres and mule”), and the Democrats promptly voted it down.

Democrats struggled against African Americans receiving an education by trying to keep historically black colleges and universities from forming. Many historically black colleges are named for white Republicans, including Morehouse College, for Henry L. Morehouse, and Howard University, for General Oliver Howard.

What Are Democrats For?
Down through the years, the Party of the “common man” has opposed the following: Civil Rights Act 1866, Reconstruction Act of 1867, Freedmen’s Bureau Extension Act of 1866, Enforcement Act of 1870, Force Act of 1871, Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, Civil Rights Act of 1875, Civil Rights Act of 1957, and the Civil Rights Act of 1960.

During the 1960s, the Democratic Party filibustered against both pieces of Civil Rights legislation. Despite the fact that a Democratic president, Lyndon Johnson, signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Acts of 1965, Johnson was actually against those acts before he was for them, and as he was signing them he lamented that doing so would result in his losing his party. However, he also brightened as he claimed, "I'll have them n*****s voting Democratic for two hundred years.”

Johnson appears to have been prescient with that obscene remark; yet again in 1972, it was the Democratic Party that opposed the Equal Employment Opportunity Act.

Expanded Government / Social Issues
The Democratic Party favors high taxes to support a welfare state, exemplified most clearly by the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Instead of fostering individual and small business growth, the Democrats lean toward a socialist ordering of society. They campaign on issues that promise handouts instead of help, programs to supervise the lives of people instead of education that motivates independence.

Democrats consistently favor systems that encourage citizens to rely on government instead of on themselves. For these reasons, they argue against vouchers for school choice. On social issues, the Democrats support abortion, marriage for homosexuals, while trying to limit the influence of religion.

Irony – Most Blacks Today are Democrats
Despite its socialist leanings and cultural radicalism, the Democratic Party’s most telling record is in its treatment of African Americans. Many prominent, knowledgeable African Americans ask the same question that researcher and activist Wayne Perryman asks, “Why are most blacks in America Democrats?” Perryman also states, “Many believed the Democrats had a change of heart and fell in love with blacks. To the contrary, history reveals the democrats didn't fall in love with black folks, they fell in love with the black vote knowing this would be their ticket into the white house.”

The answer to Perryman’s question is complex and convoluted, but the National Black Republican Association is working to educate African Americans about the “unfounded loyalty” to a Party that keeps blacks poor and dependent in order to retain their vote.

Reference:
The Democratic Party
An Open Letter to the Democrat Party Written by Lt. Colonel Frances Rice, U.S. Army Retired
The Jim Crow Laws
Unfounded Loyalty