Democrats vs. Republicans on Civil Rights

The following letter appeared in the Aiken Standard today. Pete Seaha sets forth some very interesting facts.


"Josef Stalin once said "If you tell a lie often enough, eventually it becomes the truth." Such is the Democrat Party's mantra when it comes to Civil Rights.

Lincoln and the Republican Party abolished slavery in 1862. Republicans passed the 14th amendment to the Constitution in 1868 known as the equal protection clause and the 15th amendment in 1870 which granted equal rights to vote.

Republicans also passed an act which guaranteed the right or equal access to all citizens in all public accommodations, whether or not controlled by government. (In 1883 the Supreme Court declared the act unconstitutional).

It was Aaron Sargent, Republican from California who introduced the Susan B. Anthony Amendment in 1878, but it didn't become law of the land until 1920 when Republicans gained the majority in the US House and Senate.

In the 26 major civil rights votes after 1933 a majority of Democrats opposed civil rights legislation in over 80 percent of the votes. By contrast, the Republican majority favored civil rights in over 96 percent of the votes. It should be noted that Democrats held the White House from 1933 to 1952.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (HR 7152) passed the House on Feb 10, 1964. Of the 420 members who voted, 290 supported the Civil Rights bill and 130 opposed it. Republicans favored the bill 138 to 34 or 80 percent. Democrats supported it 152 to 96 or 61 percent.

In the Senate the person most responsible for the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Bill was Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen, a Republican from Illinois. There were 52 days of filibusters by Southern Democrats before Dirksen got the Senate to vote 76 to 18 to adopt a bipartisan substitute he had worked out. On June 19, 1964 the Senate passed the Civil Rights Bill 73 to 27. Senate Democrats voted 46 to 21 in favor or 69 percent, while Republicans voted 27 to 6 or 82 percent in favor. Democratic Senators Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia and Al Gore Sr. of Tennessee along with most Southern Democrats voted in opposition.

On the Voter Rights Act of 1965, House Democrats voted 217 to 54 or 80 percent in favor while Republicans voted 111 to 20 or 85 percent in favor. In the Senate Democrats voted 49 to 17 or 62 percent in favor while Republicans voted 30 to 1 or 97 percent in favor.

Since passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act Republicans have consistently voted in favor of renewal or enhancement of the Act.

Finally, President George W. Bush has appointed more women and minorities to high level positions within his administration than any other President in history. Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice as Secretaries of State, Alberto Gonzalez as Attorney General along with the appointment of an openly gay man, Scott Evertz, as Director of Office of National AIDS Policy and Michael E. Guest, openly gay, to be Ambassador to Romania to name just a few.

Over the past five decades or more, African Americans have been used by the Democrat Party to win elections under the guise of the Party's support of civil rights. In reality, it is Republicans who have been responsible for most of the civil rights African Americans enjoy today."

Peter J. Seaha

Aiken, SC