Civil Rights: The Pride and Shame of Both Parties (op-ed)
On June 11, 1963 John F. Kennedy addressed the nation concerning civil rights. Kennedy’s speech laid the foundation for The Civil Rights Act of 1964, legislation opposed by the Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater.
Goldwater’s opposition made the Democratic Party the logical choice for blacks, and since the 1964 election the Democrats have portrayed their party as the sole champion of civil rights.
But is this historically accurate?
The Republican Party is known as the party of Lincoln, but there’s a forgotten faction -- The Radical Republicans. They were the progressives of their era that spearheaded the first civil rights act in 1866. That bill granted blacks legal rights, but it excluded the right to vote.
The southern democrats responded by passing black codes. These laws restricted freedom of speech and assembly. They outlawed loitering, vagrancy, interracial marriage, and unemployment. (Maybe that’s why the black unemployment rate is so high under the Obama administration. Obama wants blacks to enjoy every aspect of freedom once denied by racism.) And the Ku, Klux, Klan emerged as the unofficial enforcers of these restrictions.
But the Radical Republicans drafted the 14th amendment (Ratified in 1868) to protect civil liberties provided by the first civil rights act. The 14th amendment also reversed the 1857 Dred Scott decision in which the Supreme Court held that blacks, enslaved or free, could not be American citizens.
In 1870 the fifteenth amendment was ratified. This gave black males and poor landless white males the right the vote. (Which angered the woman suffrage movement; the Radical Republicans were still Republicans.) And the southern states were required to ratify the amendment to be readmitted into the union. In 1871 the Radical Republicans passed the Ku Klux Klan act hoping to stop violence against blacks. (But legislation enforced by hoping it’s obeyed is hopeless.) The Radical Republicans also created the Freeman’s Bureau that distributed basic necessities and established schools for blacks.
Then the economic depression of 1873 shifted national interest away from southern reconstruction. This helped the Democrats regroup in the south and in 1874 the Democrats captured control of the House of Representatives, officially ending the reign of the Radical Republicans.
But the next year, in one last progressive push, the Radical Republicans passed The Civil Rights Act of 1875. This outlawed discrimination in all public places. The democrats effectively ignored the bill, but the final legal blow was delivered in 1883 when the Supreme Court declared The Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional. The court ruled that the 14th amendment prohibited racial discrimination by the federal government not by individuals, and a decade later the Supreme Court decided Plessy v. Ferguson legalizing segregation in the democratic south.
Based on the events described when the Democrats reversed their record on civil rights in the 1960’s, passed The Voting Rights Act of 1965, and launched The Great society programs historians have refer to their efforts as the second reconstruction.
But why don’t Republicans mention their own civil rights record during the first reconstruction period?
After Lyndon Johnson signed The Civil Rights Act of 1964 he said, “We lost the south for a generation.” Many whites became Republicans. This new constituency began a movement in the tradition of Barry Goldwater with a new language of limited government that has dominated the Republican Party from 1980 to the present. Members of this group are the original RINOS. (Republicans in Name Only) And they have no interest in the history of the Radical Republicans because it’s not their tradition.
But the ultimate shame shared by both parties is prejudice blinded their predecessors to the fact that inalienable rights bestowed by the creator belonged to blacks without the aid of their paternalistic political power.
First published in the New Pittsburgh Courier 6/17/15
Goldwater’s opposition made the Democratic Party the logical choice for blacks, and since the 1964 election the Democrats have portrayed their party as the sole champion of civil rights.
But is this historically accurate?
The Republican Party is known as the party of Lincoln, but there’s a forgotten faction -- The Radical Republicans. They were the progressives of their era that spearheaded the first civil rights act in 1866. That bill granted blacks legal rights, but it excluded the right to vote.
The southern democrats responded by passing black codes. These laws restricted freedom of speech and assembly. They outlawed loitering, vagrancy, interracial marriage, and unemployment. (Maybe that’s why the black unemployment rate is so high under the Obama administration. Obama wants blacks to enjoy every aspect of freedom once denied by racism.) And the Ku, Klux, Klan emerged as the unofficial enforcers of these restrictions.
But the Radical Republicans drafted the 14th amendment (Ratified in 1868) to protect civil liberties provided by the first civil rights act. The 14th amendment also reversed the 1857 Dred Scott decision in which the Supreme Court held that blacks, enslaved or free, could not be American citizens.
In 1870 the fifteenth amendment was ratified. This gave black males and poor landless white males the right the vote. (Which angered the woman suffrage movement; the Radical Republicans were still Republicans.) And the southern states were required to ratify the amendment to be readmitted into the union. In 1871 the Radical Republicans passed the Ku Klux Klan act hoping to stop violence against blacks. (But legislation enforced by hoping it’s obeyed is hopeless.) The Radical Republicans also created the Freeman’s Bureau that distributed basic necessities and established schools for blacks.
Then the economic depression of 1873 shifted national interest away from southern reconstruction. This helped the Democrats regroup in the south and in 1874 the Democrats captured control of the House of Representatives, officially ending the reign of the Radical Republicans.
But the next year, in one last progressive push, the Radical Republicans passed The Civil Rights Act of 1875. This outlawed discrimination in all public places. The democrats effectively ignored the bill, but the final legal blow was delivered in 1883 when the Supreme Court declared The Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional. The court ruled that the 14th amendment prohibited racial discrimination by the federal government not by individuals, and a decade later the Supreme Court decided Plessy v. Ferguson legalizing segregation in the democratic south.
Based on the events described when the Democrats reversed their record on civil rights in the 1960’s, passed The Voting Rights Act of 1965, and launched The Great society programs historians have refer to their efforts as the second reconstruction.
But why don’t Republicans mention their own civil rights record during the first reconstruction period?
After Lyndon Johnson signed The Civil Rights Act of 1964 he said, “We lost the south for a generation.” Many whites became Republicans. This new constituency began a movement in the tradition of Barry Goldwater with a new language of limited government that has dominated the Republican Party from 1980 to the present. Members of this group are the original RINOS. (Republicans in Name Only) And they have no interest in the history of the Radical Republicans because it’s not their tradition.
But the ultimate shame shared by both parties is prejudice blinded their predecessors to the fact that inalienable rights bestowed by the creator belonged to blacks without the aid of their paternalistic political power.
First published in the New Pittsburgh Courier 6/17/15
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