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U.S. Senator Robert Byrd of
West Virginia, 2005 |
Some claim Democrats are racist because
more of them opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, what this
actually shows is that the South is more racist.
When broken down by party and area, 7% of
Southern Democrats supported the Civil Rights Act while no
Republicans did. In the North, 94% of Democrats
supported the Civil Rights Act while 85% of Republicans did.
It's easy to mislead by saying more
Democrats voted one way or another because there were more Democrats
in office. However at this time in history, a greater percentage of
the Republicans in office opposed the Civil Rights Act than did
Democrats, showing that the GOP had a greater ratio of the racism. So yes, more Democrats voted against it than did Republicans, but more Democrats also voted for it than did Republicans.
Being able to see this, racists
Democrats tended to gravitate to the Republican Party after the vote.
While other racist Democrats who remained Democrats realized the
error of their ways.
One of the acts greatest foes was
Democrat James Strom Thurmond who switched to the Republican Party
after 1964.
Robert Byrd, another Civil Rights Act
opponent, remained a Democrat; however, he later changed his opinion
and regretted his racism.
Byrd renounced racial segregation,
regretted filibustering the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and said
joining the KKK was "the greatest mistake I ever made."
George Wallace is one of the most well-known supporters of segregation. However, he ran for President in 1968 as the American Independent Party candidate. Richard Nixon was worried he would split the conservative vote rather than the liberal vote.
In 1978, George Wallace became a born-again Christian and apologized for his support of segregationists to black civil rights leaders. He said, "I was wrong. Those days are over, and they ought to be over." In his later years, he defended minority voting rights and appointed black officials to state office during his term as governor that began in 1982. Though some doubt the honesty of his change of heart, these are just the facts of what he said and did.
So, the next time a Republican
apologist says Dixiecrats didn't switch sides after the Civil Rights
Act vote, you can tell them that the ones who remained racists did. Of course, not all politicians did change sides, but several of the most prominent ones, who stayed in office long enough post-1964 to have a change of heart, did.
As you can see, Democrats are the less
racist party and following 1964, the racists and non-racists fell
into the correct parties. This reinforces the saying, "Not all
Republicans are racist, but most racists are Republicans."
The South, unfortunately, remains a
haven for racism and is now more strongly Republican.
The Republican Party has ceased to be a
party of civil rights. They oppose the freedom to marry for some
minorities (gays), and they think women should have to bear the baby
of their rapist. Both are in the official Republican Party platform
of 2012. They also seem to oppose freedom of religion (
unless you're the right kind of Christian). Their Muslim witch-hunting harkens back to the Red Scare of McCarthyism.
The facts and math disprove the
right-wing lie as you can see from the totals:
Totals are listed in the “For” -
“Against” format:
- The original House version: 290–130
(69–31%)
- Cloture in the Senate: 71–29
(71–29%)
- The Senate version: 73–27
(73–27%)
- The Senate version, as voted on by
the House: 289–126 (70–30%)
By party
The original House version:
- Democratic Party: 152–96
(61–39%)
- Republican Party: 138–34
(80–20%)
Cloture in the Senate:
- Democratic Party: 44–23
(66–34%)
- Republican Party: 27–6 (82–18%)
The Senate version:
- Democratic Party: 46–21
(69–31%)
- Republican Party: 27–6 (82–18%)
The Senate version, voted on by the
House:
- Democratic Party: 153–91
(63–37%)
- Republican Party: 136–35
(80–20%)
By party and region
Note: "Southern", as used in
this section, refers to members of Congress from the eleven states
that made up the Confederate States of America in the American Civil
War. "Northern" refers to members from the other 39 states,
regardless of the geographic location of those states.
The original House version:
- Southern Democrats: 7–87
(7–93%)
- Southern Republicans: 0–10
(0–100%)
- Northern Democrats: 145–9
(94–6%)
- Northern Republicans: 138–24
(85–15%)
The Senate version:
- Southern Democrats: 1–20
(5–95%)
- Southern Republicans: 0–1
(0–100%)
- Northern Democrats: 45–1
(98–2%)
- Northern Republicans: 27–5
(84–16%)
Propagandist articles such as this
fail to mention all the facts:
Sources:
"What About Byrd?". Slate.
December 18, 2002. Retrieved September 17, 2007.
"Sen. Robert Byrd Discusses His
Past and Present", Inside Politics, CNN, December 20, 1993
"Civil Rights Act of 1964".
Finduslaw.com. Retrieved June 28, 2010.
King, Desmond (1995). Separate and
Unequal: Black Americans and the US Federal Government. p. 311.
At Wallace Funeral, a Redemptive Tone
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