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The 1964 Civil Rights Act by David Barton

The 1964 Civil Rights Act had banned discrimination in voting, public accommodations, education, federal programs, and employment. The 1965 Voting Rights Act had banned literacy tests and for decades, democrats used the poll tax to reduce the number of black voters authorized the federal government to oversee both voter registration and elections in counties that had used literacy tests. Those Acts opened opportunities for black Americans that they had not enjoyed since Republicans had been in power a century before; the disenfranchisement laws and policies long enforced by southern Democratic legislatures had finally come to an end.

The positive impact of these changes was both obvious and immediate. Within a year, 450,000 new southern blacks were successfully registered to vote. In Mississippi, voter registration of black Americans rose from only 5 percent in 1960 to 60 percent by 1968. And the number of blacks serving in federal and State legislatures rose from only 2 in 1965 to 160 by 1990.

The Voting Rights Act literally reshaped the political landscape; it was the most significant Act since the Republican Reconstruction Acts. The fact that Republicans had made possible the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act would have come as no surprise to Rep. Joseph Hayne Rainey, who nearly a century earlier had declared:

We intend to continue to vote so long as the government gives us the right and necessary protection; and I know that right accorded to us now will never be withheld in the future if left to the Republican Party.

It is significant that over recent years, a popular rumor has been widely circulated across the African American community that if Republicans were elected to Congress or the presidency, they would not extend the 1965 Voting Rights Act and would, in fact, remove the right to vote from African Americans. Many in the African American community have believed this rumor and surveys have indicated that a belief in this rumor was a substantial cause for voting against Republicans. Even though the NAACP has condemned the long standing report as totally false, it has been an effective political tool for Democrats to use against Republicans. In fact, in the 108th Congress when Republicans proposed a permanent extension of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, it was opposed by the Congressional Black Caucus for fear that they would lose an effective political tool against Republicans.

As many today have lost their knowledge of the black political history known so well by previous generations of black Americans and as black Americans have in recent decades become solidly aligned with the Democratic Party, many African Americans today have picked up the Democrats’ long standing hatred for Republicans without understanding its origins; yet the racial issues behind the generations long Democratic hatred for Republicans is well documented.

Returning to the historical timeline by David Barton

Returning to the historical timeline, by 1932, Republican Herbert Hoover had finished his first term as President and was running for re-election. His challenger was Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In that election, Roosevelt – in an unusual move – invited black Americans to vote Democrat. Roosevelt understood his Party, however, and made only subtle overtures to black Americans while avoiding any overt civil rights promises. So how did black Americans respond to Roosevelt’s invitation to join the Democrats? They printed and distributed a special handbill. At the bottom, its caption read, “Who’s a Democrat!” Most would assume this to be a question; however, it was not; it was a declaration rather than a question – notice the exclamation mark rather than the question mark at the end of the caption. So what statement was being made here about the Democrats?

 

Examine the picture: a young black boy gazing upward. At his foot is a newspaper with the title: “Lynch: 2 More in Florida.” This is the only real text on the handbill, and since this piece was designed president Herbert Hoover 1932 response to the invitation for blacks to vote democratic specifically for the 1932 elections, that headline was intended to communicate something specific to the black Americans of that day. It did. That headline referred to two recent lynching’s in Florida: those of Richard and Charles Smoke on August 28, 1931. For black Americans in that day, reminding them of lynching was enough said about Democrats.

 

Of all forms of violent intimidation, lynchings were by far the most effective. Between 1882 and 1964, 4,743 individuals were lynched – 3,446 blacks and 1,297 whites. Republicans often led the efforts to pass federal anti-lynching laws and their platforms consistently called for a ban on lynching; Democrats successfully blocked those bills and their platforms never did condemn lynchings.

 

One of the many Republican attempts to ban lynching’s occurred in 1921 when Republican Rep. Leonidas Dyer of Missouri introduced yet another federal anti-lynching bill. It was once again stalled by Democrats, and the effect of that delay was costly. The NAACP sadly reported that “since the introduction of the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill in Congress on April 11, 1921, there have been 28 persons murdered by lynchings in the United States.” The Dyer bill was eventually killed by Democrats – as was every single anti-lynching bill introduced in Congress, including those occasionally introduced by a Democrat. As a result of the Democrats’ obstruction on this issue, Congress never passed an anti-lynching bill.

The Democratic Party of the South by David Barton

Just as Republicans had passed several civil rights laws during the Civil War, they passed several more after the war. The first was that of 1866, making it illegal to deprive a person of civil rights because of race, color, or previous servitude. Democrats not only opposed that bill but Democratic President Andrew Johnson even vetoed it; however, Republicans overrode his veto  to the jubilation of both black and white civil rights advocates – and the bill became law. Two other civil rights laws were passed that year, one protecting marriages of blacks and one prohibiting slave-hunting. In 1867, five more civil rights laws great rejoicing occurred at the passage of the 15th amendment republicans passed laws to protect marriage were passed, providing for voting rights and for the enforcement and protection of other civil rights. Democratic President Andrew Johnson vetoed three of those five bills, but Republicans again overrode his vetoes. Republicans passed two more civil rights laws in 1868, another in 1869, four more in 1870, two more in 1871, one in 1873, and another in 1875. These last nine civil rights bills were passed under Republican President Ulysses S. Grant, who signed rather than vetoed the bills. African Americans watching civil rights progress at the Capitol greeted the passage of civil rights bills with great celebration.

 

By 1875, only a decade after the Civil War, Republicans had successfully passed almost two-dozen civil rights laws; and black American legislators often played significant roles in the debates surrounding democrat president Andrew Johnson regularly vetoed civil rights bills republican president Ulysses s. grant signed civil rights bills celebrating the passage of republican civil rights bills the passage of these laws. One such example involved a civil rights bill in 1871 a bill to allow the federal government to punish Klan violence. During the debates on that bill, Representative Robert Brown Elliott of South Carolina addressed the issue of southern violence and delivered a compelling speech:

 

The Democratic Party of the South as evidenced in the utterances of its recognized organs official writings and leaders exhibits the declared purpose to defeat the ballot with the bullet and other coercive means. I have presented a few of the manifold proofs in support of the facts warranting the passage of this bill. I have shown the declared purpose of the Ku Klux organization, and I refer to the official records of nearly every southern State during the past ten months to show how that bloody purpose has been in part executed. This bill will tend in some degree to prevent its full achievement. I do not wish to be understood as speaking for the colored man alone when I demand instant protection for the loyal men of the South. No sir my demand is not so restricted. The white Republican of the South is republican U. S. rep. Robert b. Elliott Democrats would drive him into exile the pitiless lash, or doom seeking your revenge for political power lost by moving at midnight along the path of the assassin!. I trust, sir that this bill will pass quickly, and be quickly enforced lest the Democratic Party triumph in the States of the South through armed violence. Also hunted down and murdered or scourged for his opinion’s sake, and during the past two years more than six hundred loyal men of both races have perished in my State alone. Yet, sir, it is true that these masked murderers strike chiefly at the black race. Simply because he exercises his privileges as an American freeman, you with him to swift murder Rep. Joseph Hayne Rainey, another member from South Carolina, also delivered a powerful speech during the debates on that bill, explaining why blacks were most often the targets of Klan violence:

 

When we call to mind the fact that this Klan persecution is waged against men for the simple reason that they dare vote with the Republican Party that saved the Union intact, the question is sometimes asked, “Why do not the courts of law afford redress?” We answer, that the courts are in many instances under the control of those Democrats who are wholly inimical enemies to the impartial administration of law and equity. What benefit would result from appeal republican U. S. rep. Joseph h. Rainey ride into power over the dead body of a legitimate determined to stand by the Republican Party and the grotto tribunals courts whose officers are secretly in sympathy with the very evil against which we are striving?. If the Negroes numbering one-eighth of the population of these United States would only cast their votes in the interest of the Democratic Party, all open measures of violence against them would be immediately suspended and their rights as American citizens recognized.

A Primer on African American Political History by David Barton

African American history – so much of it is truly unknown today. For example, few know of James Armistead – a black patriot and spy who helped make possible the 1781 Yorktown victory during the American Revolution that established America as an independent nation. Or Peter Salem – a black patriot who was a hero of the 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill; he also fought as one of the legendary Minutemen and was a soldier at the Battles of Saratoga and Stony Point. 2 In fact, a monument was erected to his memory in Massachusetts to commemorate his life and deeds.

 

And in the famous picture of the 1776 crossing of the Delaware on Christmas night, two men depicted at the front of the boat include Prince Whipple and Oliver Cromwell – two black patriots who served with George Washington and other American generals during the Revolution. 

 

David Barton explains that few Americans are aware that many of the soldiers who fought during the American Revolution were black – and unlike the later segregated regiments in the Civil War, many of the units in the American Revolution were fully integrated, with black patriots fighting and dying side by side with their white fellow comrades and soldiers.

 

While this part of our history is unknown today, Americans knew this information in revious generations because of black historians peter salem at bunker hill prince whipple & oliver cromwell Setting the Record Straight: such as William Nell. Nell was an award winning young scholar in Boston during the 1830s who studied law and became the first black American to hold a post in the federal government. 6 In 1852, he authored Services of Colored Americans in the Wars of 1776 and 1812, 7 and three years later he penned The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution.
 

David Barton WallBuilders

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Extensive Works by David Barton

David Barton tells us that despite such extensive works, many of our early black heroes and patriots are unknown today; and equally unknown is much of what occurred in black political history. That history will surprise and shock many, but it is a history based on indisputable facts and documents.Too often, only a handful of the heroes from black history are presented – much like showing only a snapshot or two out of several albums of photos. Too much information is not presented today; and often, too many conclusions are wrongly assumed from the little that is seen.

 

For example, while students in school early learn that the first load of slaves sailed up the James River in Virginia in 1619 and thus slavery was introduced into America, 9 few learn about the first slaves that arrived in the Massachusetts Colony set up by the Christian Pilgrims and Puritans. When that slave ship arrived in Massachusetts, the ship’s officers were arrested and imprisoned and the kidnapped slaves were returned to Africa at the Colony’s expense. 10 That side of history is untold today.nell’s 1855 workthe religious pilgrims opposed slavery

 

Declaration of Independence by David Barton

A similar omission occurs when the signers of the Declaration of Independence are discussed. For example, if asked to list the slave-owning Founding Fathers among the Signers, no one would hesitate to name Thomas Jefferson. But if asked to name a second slave-owner from among the 56, few other names would be mentioned. And if asked to name the anti-slavery leaders who signed the Declaration, probably no one would mention Samuel Adams – or Stephen Hopkins, or Benjamin Rush, or Elbridge Gerry, or James Wilson, or John Adams, or Roger Sherman, or Benjamin Franklin, or John Witherspoon, or the many other anti-slavery Founders. (To identify these individuals, see illustration on next page.

 

Today, black history too often is presented just from a southern viewpoint, describing only slavery and its atrocities as well as the numerous civil rights violations that continued well beyond the end of slavery. Yet there was also what may be called a northern viewpoint, with many praiseworthy events; and to be completely accurate in the telling of black history, the story must be told not only of the martyrs but also of the heroes – just as was done by famous black historians such as William Nell, Carter Woodson, Benjamin Quarles, Joseph Wilson, Booker T. Washington, Edward Johnson, and others. 

 

David Barton Believes that one of the world’s oldest history books – the Bible – offers a good lesson on this point and affirms the approach taken by these black historians. All know the Bible story of David’s victory over Goliath, 12 yet the Bible also tells the story of David’s adultery with Bathsheba 13 and of his failure with his son Absalom. 14 If only David and his failures david’s monumental victory over the giant goliaththe prophet nathan confronts david over his adultery with bathsheeba signers of the declaration of independence