Since Democrats routinely accuse America’s Founders and present-day Republicans of racism, we do well to examine the Democrat Party’s track record on the issue of race. The main objective of this list is neither to be pro-Republican or even anti-Democrat, but to uncover historical facts that Democrats have buried and kept the public from knowing and understanding. Our operative question is, “What events have occurred with regard to Democrats and black Americans that, by and large, the public doesn’t know—but needs to”? With just one exception (the second item), items on this list appear in Part 6, Part 7, and Part 8 of a series of articles titled “The Importance of Getting History Right.”

Our operative question is, “What events have occurred with regard to Democrats and black Americans that, by and large, the public doesn’t know—but needs to”?

Historical Truths Democrats Have Successfully Concealed

First, many black soldiers fought alongside whites in the Revolutionary War. Their contributions to the cause of liberty and American independence truly were incalculable.

In an  article titled “Black Revolutionary War Heroes” writer and speaker Amy Reid cites some tremendous examples of African American contributions to American Independence and freedom. Specifically, she mentions Crispus Attucks, Peter Salem, Wentworth Cheswell, James Armistead, Prince Eastabrook, Prince Whipple, and Oliver Cromwell. To this list we can add the name of Salem Poor.

Postage Stamp, 1975

The phrase “Gallant Soldier” on the stamp honoring Poor didn’t come from a 20th century assessment of his actions on the battlefield. Rather, it came from fourteen white officers who saw Poor in action at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775. Several months later, in December, they submitted a petition to the General Court of Massachusetts requesting official recognition of his service. They affirmed Poor had acted “like an Experienced officer, as Well as an Excellent Soldier” and went on to say that it would have been “Tedious” to explain the details of Poor’s military skill, so “We Would Only beg leave to say in the Person of this Negro Centers a Brave & gallant Soldier.” 

Go here to learn more. This is information your history teachers never taught you!

Second, on March 6, 1857, the Supreme Court issued its decision in the Dred Scott case. By a 7 to 2 margin, the court ruled that blacks never could become United States citizens. According to the US Constitution, the majority declared, Mr. Scott, the black slave who had sued for his freedom before the court, was property and not a person. The doctor who owned Scott had moved to areas where slavery was prohibited, but he had taken Scott with him and treated him as his slave anyway. The ruling struck down the Missouri Compromise, thereby establishing slavery in every US territory.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney wrote the majority opinion for the court. Justices John Archibald Campbell, John Catron, Peter Vivian Daniel, Robert Cooper Grier, Samuel Nelson, and James Moore Wayne concurred. All were Democrats. Both of the justices who dissented, Benjamin R. Curtis and John McLean, were Republicans. Benjamin Curtis actually was so distraught by the majority opinion that he resigned from his position on the court. For more information about Dred Scott, go here.

Third, all of the first black Members of Congress were Republicans.

Numerous blacks were sent to Congress during Reconstruction after the Civil War. The first seven were

• Senator Hiram Revels from Mississippi,
• Representative Benjamin Sterling Turner from Alabama,
• Representative Robert C. De Large from South Carolina,
• Representative Josiah Thomas Walls from Florida,
• Representative Jefferson Franklin Long from Georgia,
• Representative Joseph Hayne Rainey from South Carolina, and
• Robert Brown Elliott, also from South Carolina.

These men courageously faced threats and fierce opposition from those who never wanted to free the slaves in the first place, many of whom were Democrats. Learn more about these great Americans here.

Fourth, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution officially ended slavery in the United States. The US Senate passed it on April 8, 1864, and the US House of Representatives passed it on January 31, 1865. One hundred eighteen out of 118 Republicans—100 percent—voted for the amendment, but a mere 19 of 82 Democrats—23 percent—voted for it (see here and here). “Among Democrats, 63 percent of senators and 78 percent of House members voted: ‘No.’”

The passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in the US House of Representatives is celebrated on January 31, 1865.

Fifth, the 14th Amendment specifies that all Americans will have equal protection under the law. “In 1866 94 percent of GOP senators and 96 percent of GOP House members approved” the measure. Every single Democrat in Congress voted no.

Sixth, the 15th Amendment guarantees the right to vote for every American, regardless of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” At the time Congress passed it, there were a total of 56 congressional Democrats, and not one of them voted for it. The 15th Amendment would go on to be ratified on February 3, 1870.

Seventh, the Democrat platform of 1860 “continued to campaign for immigrant rights and slavery. The 1864 platform denounced the Civil War and called for negotiations with the Confederacy. The 1868 platform denounced ‘negro supremacy’.”  Blacks haven’t been the exclusive targets of Democrat racism, however. Democrat Party platforms from the last thirty years of the 19th century, as well as the 1900 platform, show that Asians, the Chinese, “the Mongolian race,” “servile races,” and the Japanese have been targets as well. During this time, Democrats didn’t abandon racism toward blacks, either; their 1892 platform decried blacks’ voting rights.

Eighth, Democrats started the Ku Klux Klan (KKK):

The KKK was founded in Tennessee immediately after the end of the Civil War as a sort of social club for former Confederate Soldiers whose influence quickly spread through the decimated Southern states.  As Columbia professor Eric Foner wrote in his A Short History of Reconstruction, in its early days, the group was loosely bound by one main principle: launching a reign of terror against Republican leaders black and white.

Racism was, of course, a guiding principle, but not quite as guiding as the hatred of the Republicans, the party of Lincoln, the Yankees who[m] early Klansmen believed destroyed their homeland through what they termed a “war of northern aggression.”

According to Larry Elder,

In 1872 congressional investigations, Democrats admitted beginning the Klan as an effort to stop the spread of the Republican Party and to re-establish Democratic control in Southern states. As PBS’ “American Experience” notes, “In outright defiance of the Republican-led federal government, Southern Democrats formed organizations that violently intimidated blacks and Republicans who tried to win political power. The most prominent of these, the Ku Klux Klan, was formed in Pulaski, Tenn., in 1865.” Blacks, who were all Republican at that time, became the primary targets of violence.

“A political cartoon depicting the KKK and the Democratic Party as continuations of the Confederacy”

Ninth, the election of 1876 sent Republican Rutherford B. Hayes to the White House, but only after a compromise was reached that gave him just enough electoral votes to be elected.

Hayes

The results of the election were mired in controversy, although Democrat Samuel J. Tilden had, without question, won the popular vote. According to the website Digital History,

Tilden

At a meeting in February 1877 at Washington, D.C.’s Wormley Hotel (which was operated by an African American), Democratic leaders accepted Hayes’s election in exchange for Republican promises to withdraw federal troops from the South, provide federal funding for internal improvements in the South, and name a prominent Southerner to the president’s cabinet. When the federal troops were withdrawn, the Republican governments in Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina collapsed, bringing Reconstruction to a formal end.

Under the so-called Compromise of 1877, the national government would no longer intervene in southern affairs. This would permit the imposition of racial segregation and the disfranchisement of black voters.

When the federal troops were withdrawn from the South, the Republican governments in Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina collapsed, bringing Reconstruction to a formal end. Under the so-called Compromise of 1877, the national government would no longer intervene in southern affairs. This would permit the imposition of racial segregation and the disfranchisement of black voters.
—Digital History—

Tenth, the presidential election of 1880 is notable for several reasons. First, it was the first presidential election that took place following Reconstruction. Second, the Democrats nominated Winfield Scott Hancock, who had been a Union general during the Civil War. He’d emerged a war hero, but significantly, “Hancock was a Democrat who fought to preserve the Union but not to end slavery or see Black Americans protected by the United States Constitution.”

Hancock

It was a very shrewd move on the part of Democrats. Recognizing this, Republicans distributed a handbill that highlighted the stark differences between the two parties—and that effectively laid out reasons not to vote for the Democratic ticket.