This past week, July 2nd, was the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Because the history and implications of this event are regularly distorted by the media, especially in respect to the racial attitudes of Republicans and the “Tea Party”, it would be well to remind ourselves of the facts.
Most people are under the mistaken impression that Democrats are the party that is the home of African Americans, but, historically, the opposite is true. After all, the Republican party came into being because of the abolitionist movement and it was Democrat politicians that seceded from the union rather than end slavery. Hundreds of thousands of union soldiers died to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves; the work of the first Republican president.
One hundred years later, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was necessary because the Democrats in the “Solid South” enacted Jim Crow laws and countless laws to disenfranchise African American voters and economically hamstring them.
When the votes were taken in Congress, it was the Republicans who voted for it in larger numbers, approximately 80% for, 20% against in the House and 82%-18%, Senate. The Democrats on the other hand voted for the bill 60% for, 40% against in the House and 69%-31% in the Senate.
Add to that the fact that both houses of Congress were majority Democrat, so if all the Republicans had voted against it, as many today probably assume, the Civil Rights Act would have failed 268 to 152 in the House and 54 to 46 in the Senate.
Also this week, the campaign poster of an African American woman running for political office as a Republican was vandalized. The vandal painted her white. This reveals ignorance and wrong thinking in at least three ways:
1. It denies her the right of association, which is in the First Amendment of the Constitution. In other words, the person who painted the African American Republican in “white face” was denying her Civil Rights, saying she has no right to associate with Republicans.
2. It was wrong because it assumes that Republicans put the rights of whites above the rights of African Americans. The truth is that most conservatives don’t think about people as members of groups to be exploited or rewarded, but as individuals.
3. It was wrong because it refuses to acknowledge that the African American community is not monolithic, but there is a wide spectrum of opinion in the community.
The Democrats look at African Americans as a one-dimensional, one-issue voting bloc. As Herman Cain, the Tea Party favorite, found out, if an African American strays from the Democrat party they must be destroyed.
