Allen West Sets the Civil Rights Record Straight

It’s Black History Month for eight more days, and you’ve probably noticed (if you’ve never paid attention before) how modern-day Democrats absolutely love to trumpet their party’s alleged commitment to “civil rights.”

Pardon my French, Save Jerseyans, but it’s a load of crap.

The undeniable truth? From the desperate days leading up to the Civil War when most Americans favored (or at weren’t bothered by) slavery’s preservation and  throughout the historic advances of the 1960s, Republicans have championed the cause of racial equality under the law. What’s more, these advances were often achieved in the face of strenuous Democrat opposition.

Rep. Allen West (R-FL) gave a fantastic speech on the House Floor last week in an effort to set the record straight:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXJ-9QyJtEg

Bravissimo! I particularly enjoyed West’s brief acknowledgment of Marcus Lawrence Ward, New Jersey’s Republican Governor who vetoed an attempt by the Garden State’s Democratic majority legislature to rescind its ratification of the 14th Amendment in 1868.

Not much has changed 144 years later. Republicans are still leading the charge for equality today, most notably in the education arena. Democrats are still playing the role of obstructionists, and another NJ GOP Governor is at the forefront of the pro-reform movement. What we need now are more Republicans with the intestinal fortitude of Governor Christie and Rep. West who aren’t the least bit afraid to discuss the REAL history of civil rights in America.

People need to know the truth, and God knows the public schools aren’t teaching it!

 

Matt Rooney
About Matt Rooney 8446 Articles
MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com's founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of 'The Matt Rooney Show' on 1210 WPHT every Sunday evening from 7-10PM EST.

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  1. October 13, 1858

    During Lincoln-Douglas debates, U.S. Senator Stephen Douglas (D-IL) states: “I do not regard the Negro as my equal, and positively deny that he is my brother, or any kin to me whatever”; Douglas became Democratic Party’s 1860 presidential nominee

    April 16, 1862

    Republican President Lincoln signs bill abolishing slavery in District of Columbia; in Congress, 99% of Republicans vote yes, 83% of Democrats vote no

    July 17, 1862

    Over unanimous Democrat opposition, Republican Congress passes Confiscation Act stating that slaves of the Confederacy “shall be forever free”

    January 31, 1865

    13th Amendment banning slavery passed by U.S. House with unanimous Republican support, intense Democrat opposition

    April 8, 1865

    13th Amendment banning slavery passed by U.S. Senate with 100% Republican support, 63% Democrat opposition

    November 22, 1865

    Republicans denounce Democrat legislature of Mississippi for enacting “black codes,” which institutionalized racial discrimination

    February 5, 1866

    U.S. Rep. Thaddeus Stevens (R-PA) introduces legislation, successfully opposed by Democrat President Andrew Johnson, to implement “40 acres and a mule” relief by distributing land to former slaves

    April 9, 1866

    Republican Congress overrides Democrat President Johnson’s veto; Civil Rights Act of 1866, conferring rights of citizenship on African-Americans, becomes law

    May 10, 1866

    U.S. House passes Republicans’ 14th Amendment guaranteeing due process and equal protection of the laws to all citizens; 100% of Democrats vote no

    June 8, 1866

    U.S. Senate passes Republicans’ 14th Amendment guaranteeing due process and equal protection of the law to all citizens; 94% of Republicans vote yes and 100% of Democrats vote no

    January 8, 1867

    Republicans override Democrat President Andrew Johnson’s veto of law granting voting rights to African-Americans in D.C.

    July 19, 1867

    Republican Congress overrides Democrat President Andrew Johnson’s veto of legislation protecting voting rights of African-Americans

    March 30, 1868

    Republicans begin impeachment trial of Democrat President Andrew Johnson, who declared: “This is a country for white men, and by God, as long as I am President, it shall be a government of white men”

    September 12, 1868

    Civil rights activist Tunis Campbell and 24 other African-Americans in Georgia Senate, each one a Republican, expelled by Democrat majority; would later be reinstated by Republican Congress

    October 7, 1868

    Republicans denounce Democratic Party’s national campaign theme: “This is a white man’s country: Let white men rule”

    October 22, 1868

    While campaigning for re-election, Republican U.S. Rep. James Hinds (R-AR) is assassinated by Democrat terrorists who organized as the Ku Klux Klan

    December 10, 1869

    Republican Gov. John Campbell of Wyoming Territory signs FIRST-in-nation law granting women right to vote and to hold public office

    February 3, 1870

    After passing House with 98% Republican support and 97% Democrat opposition, Republicans’ 15th Amendment is ratified, granting vote to all Americans regardless of race

    May 31, 1870

    President U.S. Grant signs Republicans’ Enforcement Act, providing stiff penalties for depriving any American’s civil rights

    June 22, 1870

    Republican Congress creates U.S. Department of Justice, to safeguard the civil rights of African-Americans against Democrats in the South

    September 6, 1870

    Women vote in Wyoming, in FIRST election after women’s suffrage signed into law by Republican Gov. John Campbell

    February 28, 1871

    Republican Congress passes Enforcement Act providing federal protection for African-American voters

    April 20, 1871

    Republican Congress enacts the Ku Klux Klan Act, outlawing Democratic Party-affiliated terrorist groups which oppressed African-Americans

    October 10, 1871

    Following warnings by Philadelphia Democrats against black voting, African-American Republican civil rights activist Octavius Catto murdered by Democratic Party operative; his military funeral was attended by thousands

    October 18, 1871

    After violence against Republicans in South Carolina, President Ulysses Grant deploys U.S. troops to combat Democrat terrorists who formed the Ku Klux Klan

    November 18, 1872

    Susan B. Anthony arrested for voting, after boasting to Elizabeth Cady Stanton that she voted for “the Republican ticket, straight”

    January 17, 1874

    Armed Democrats seize Texas state government, ending Republican efforts to racially integrate government

    September 14, 1874

    Democrat white supremacists seize Louisiana statehouse in attempt to overthrow racially-integrated administration of Republican Governor William Kellogg; 27 killed

    March 1, 1875

    Civil Rights Act of 1875, guaranteeing access to public accommodations without regard to race, signed by Republican President U.S. Grant; passed with 92% Republican support over 100% Democrat opposition

    January 10, 1878

    U.S. Senator Aaron Sargent (R-CA) introduces Susan B. Anthony amendment for women’s suffrage; Democrat-controlled Senate defeated it 4 times before election of Republican House and Senate guaranteed its approval in 1919. Republicans foil Democratic efforts to keep women in the kitchen, where they belong

    February 8, 1894

    Democrat Congress and Democrat President Grover Cleveland join to repeal Republicans’ Enforcement Act, which had enabled African-Americans to vote

    January 15, 1901

    Republican Booker T. Washington protests Alabama Democratic Party’s refusal to permit voting by African-Americans

    May 29, 1902

    Virginia Democrats implement new state constitution, condemned by Republicans as illegal, reducing African-American voter registration by 86%

    February 12, 1909

    On 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, African-American Republicans and women’s suffragists Ida Wells and Mary Terrell co-found the NAACP

    May 21, 1919

    Republican House passes constitutional amendment granting women the vote with 85% of Republicans in favor, but only 54% of Democrats; in Senate, 80% of Republicans would vote yes, but almost half of Democrats no August 18, 1920

    Republican-authored 19th Amendment, giving women the vote, becomes part of Constitution; 26 of the 36 states to ratify had Republican-controlled legislatures

    January 26, 1922

    House passes bill authored by U.S. Rep. Leonidas Dyer (R-MO) making lynching a federal crime; Senate Democrats block it with filibuster

    June 2, 1924

    Republican President Calvin Coolidge signs bill passed by Republican Congress granting U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans

    October 3, 1924

    Republicans denounce three-time Democrat presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan for defending the Ku Klux Klan at 1924 Democratic National Convention

    June 12, 1929

    First Lady Lou Hoover invites wife of U.S. Rep. Oscar De Priest (R-IL), an African-American, to tea at the White House, sparking protests by Democrats across the country

    August 17, 1937

    Republicans organize opposition to former Ku Klux Klansman and Democrat U.S. Senator Hugo Black, appointed to U.S. Supreme Court by FDR; his Klan background was hidden until after confirmation

    June 24, 1940

    Republican Party platform calls for integration of the armed forces; for the balance of his terms in office, FDR refuses to order it

    August 8, 1945

    Republicans condemn Harry Truman’s surprise use of the atomic bomb in Japan. The whining and criticism goes on for years. It begins two days after the Hiroshima bombing, when former Republican President Herbert Hoover writes to a friend that “The use of the atomic bomb, with its indiscriminate killing of women and children, revolts my soul.”

    September 30, 1953

    Earl Warren, California’s three-term Republican Governor and 1948 Republican vice presidential nominee, nominated to be Chief Justice; wrote landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education

    November 25, 1955

    Eisenhower administration bans racial segregation of interstate bus travel

    March 12, 1956

    Ninety-seven Democrats in Congress condemn Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, and pledge to continue segregation

    June 5, 1956

    Republican federal judge Frank Johnson rules in favor of Rosa Parks in decision striking down “blacks in the back of the bus” law

    November 6, 1956

    African-American civil rights leaders Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy vote for Republican Dwight Eisenhower for President

    September 9, 1957

    President Dwight Eisenhower signs Republican Party’s 1957 Civil Rights Act

    September 24, 1957

    Sparking criticism from Democrats such as Senators John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower deploys the 82nd Airborne Division to Little Rock, AR to force Democrat Governor Orval Faubus to integrate public schools

    May 6, 1960

    Republican President Dwight Eisenhower signs Republicans’ Civil Rights Act of 1960, overcoming 125-hour, around-the-clock filibuster by 18 Senate Democrats

    May 2, 1963

    Republicans condemn Democrat sheriff of Birmingham, AL for arresting over 2,000 African-American schoolchildren marching for their civil rights

    September 29, 1963

    Gov. George Wallace (D-AL) defies order by U.S. District Judge Frank Johnson, appointed by President Dwight Eisenhower, to integrate Tuskegee High School

    June 9, 1964

    Republicans condemn 14-hour filibuster against 1964 Civil Rights Act led by U.S. Senator and former Ku Klux Klansman Robert Byrd (D-WV), who served in the Senate until his death in 2010. At Byrd’s funeral, former Democrat President Bill Clinton said, “He once had a fleeting association with the Ku Klux Klan, what does that mean? I’ll tell you what it means. He was a country boy from the hills and hollows from West Virginia. He was trying to get elected. And maybe he did something he shouldn’t have done come and he spent the rest of his life making it up. And that’s what a good person does. There are no perfect people. There are certainly no perfect politicians.”

    June 10, 1964

    Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL) criticizes Democrat filibuster against 1964 Civil Rights Act, calls on Democrats to stop opposing racial equality. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was introduced and approved by a staggering majority of Republicans in the Senate. The Act was opposed by most southern Democrat senators, several of whom were proud segregationists—one of them being Al Gore Sr. Democrat President Lyndon B. Johnson relied on Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen, the Republican leader from Illinois, to get the Act passed.

    August 4, 1965

    Senate Republican Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL) overcomes Democrat attempts to block 1965 Voting Rights Act; 94% of Senate Republicans vote for landmark civil right legislation, while 27% of Democrats oppose. Voting Rights Act of 1965, abolishing literacy tests and other measures devised by Democrats to prevent African-Americans from voting, signed into law; higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats vote in favor

    February 19, 1976

    Republican President Gerald Ford formally rescinds Democrat President Franklin Roosevelt’s notorious Executive Order authorizing internment of over 120,000 Japanese-Americans during WWII

    September 15, 1981

    Republican President Ronald Reagan establishes the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, to increase African-American participation in federal education programs

    June 29, 1982

    Republican President Ronald Reagan signs 25-year extension of 1965 Voting Rights Act

    August 10, 1988

    Republican President Ronald Reagan signs Civil Liberties Act of 1988, compensating Japanese-Americans for deprivation of civil rights and property during World War II internment ordered by FDR

    November 21, 1991

    Republican President George H. W. Bush signs Civil Rights Act of 1991 to strengthen federal civil rights legislation

    August 20, 1996

    Bill authored by U.S. Rep. Susan Molinari (R-NY) to prohibit racial discrimination in adoptions, part of Republicans’ Contract With America, becomes law

    And let’s not forget the words of liberal icon Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood and someone Hillary Clinton has said is one of her heroes. Sanger said, “We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population….”

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