Just a thought: Next time you hear a Democrat supporter start on with yet another old “Racist RepubliKKKan!” rant, throw one of these quotes from famous Democrats at them.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Blacks “are inferior to the whites in the endowments of both of body and mind.”
–Thomas Jefferson, 1787
Co-founder of the Democratic Party (along with Andrew Jackson)
President, 1801-09
“I hold that the present state of civilization, where two races of different origin, and distinguished by color, and other physical differences, as well as intellectual, are brought together, the relation now existing in the slaveholding states between the two, is, instead of an evil, a good–a positive good.”
–Sen. John C. Calhoun (D., S.C.), 1837
Vice President, 1825-32
His statue stands in the U.S. Capitol.
If blacks were given the right to vote, that would “place every splay-footed, bandy-shanked, hump-backed, thick-lipped, flat-nosed, woolly-headed, ebon-colored Negro in the country upon an equality with the poor white man.”
–Rep. Andrew Johnson, (D., Tenn.), 1844
President, 1865-69
“Resolved, That the Democratic Party will resist all attempts at renewing, in Congress or out of it, the agitation of the slavery question, under whatever shape or color the attempt may be made.”
–Platform of the Democratic Party, 1852
Blacks are “a subordinate and inferior class of beings who had been subjugated by the dominant race.”
–Chief Justice Roger Taney, Dred Scott v. Sandford, 1856
Appointed Attorney General by Andrew Jackson in 1831
Appointed Secretary of the Treasury by Andrew Jackson in 1833
Appointed to the Supreme Court by Andrew Jackson in 1836
“I hold that a Negro is not and never ought to be a citizen of the United States. I hold that this government was made on the white basis; made by the white men, for the benefit of white men and their posterity forever, and should be administered by white men and none others.”
–Sen. Stephen A. Douglas (D., Ill.), 1858
Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, 1860
“Resolved, That the enactments of the State Legislatures to defeat the faithful execution of the Fugitive Slave Law, are hostile in character, subversive of the Constitution, and revolutionary in their effect.”
–Platform of the Democratic Party, 1860
“The Almighty has fixed the distinction of the races; the Almighty has made the black man inferior, and, sir, by no legislation, by no military power, can you wipe out this distinction.”
–Rep. Fernando Wood (D., N.Y.), 1865
Mayor of New York City, 1855-58, 1860-62
“My fellow citizens, I have said that the contest before us was one for the restoration of our government; it is also one for the restoration of our race. It is to prevent the people of our race from being exiled from their homes–exiled from the government which they formed and created for themselves and for their children, and to prevent them from being driven out of the country or trodden under foot by an inferior and barbarous race.”
–Francis P. Blair Jr., accepting the Democratic nomination for Vice President, 1868
Democratic Senator from Missouri, 1869-72His statue stands in the U.S. Capitol.
“Instead of restoring the Union, it [the Republican Party] has, so far as in its power, dissolved it, and subjected ten states, in time of profound peace, to military despotism and Negro supremacy.”
–Platform of the Democratic Party, 1868
“While the tendency of the white race is upward, the tendency of the colored race is downward.”
–Sen. Thomas Hendricks (D., Ind.), 1869
Democratic nominee for Vice President, 1876
Vice President, 1885
“The repeal of the fifteenth amendment, one of the greatest blunders and therefore one of the greatest crimes in political history, is a consummation to be devoutly wished for.”
–Rep. John Sharpe Williams (D., Miss.), 1903
House Minority Leader, 1903-08
“Republicanism means Negro equality, while the Democratic Party means that the white man is supreme. That is why we Southerners are all Democrats.”
–Sen. Ben Tillman (D., S.C.), 1906
Chairman, Committee on Naval Affairs, 1913-19
“I am opposed to the practice of having colored policemen in the District [of Columbia]. It is a source of danger by constantly engendering racial friction, and is offensive to thousands of Southern white people who make their homes here.”
–Sen. Hoke Smith (D., Ga.), 1912
Appointed Secretary of the Interior by Grover Cleveland in 1893
“The South is serious with regard to its attitude to the Negro in politics. The South understands this subject, and its policy is unalterable and uncompromising. We desire no concessions. We seek no sops. We grasp no shadows on this subject. We take no risks. We abhor a Northern policy of catering to the Negro in politics just as we abhor a Northern policy of social equality.”
–Josephus Daniels, editor, Raleigh News & Observer, 1912
Appointed Secretary of the Navy by Woodrow Wilson in 1913
Appointed Ambassador to Mexico by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933
USS Josephus Daniels named for him by the Johnson Administration in 1965
“The Negro as a race, in all the ages of the world, has never shown sustained power of self-development. He is not endowed with the creative faculty. . . . He has never created for himself any civilization. . . . He has never had any civilization except that which has been inculcated by a superior race. And it is a lamentable fact that his civilization lasts only so long as he is in the hands of the white man who inculcates it. When left to himself he has universally gone back to the barbarism of the jungle.”
–Sen. James Vardaman (D., Miss.), 1914
Chairman, Committee on Natural Resources, 1913-19
“This is a white man’s country, and will always remain a white man’s country.”
–Rep. James F. Byrnes (D., S.C.), 1919
Appointed to the Supreme Court by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941
Appointed Secretary of State by Harry S. Truman in 1945
“Slavery among the whites was an improvement over independence in Africa. The very progress that the blacks have made, when–and only when–brought into contact with the whites, ought to be a sufficient argument in support of white supremacy–it ought to be sufficient to convince even the blacks themselves.”
–William Jennings Bryan, 1923
Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, 1896, 1900 and 1908
Appointed Secretary of State by Woodrow Wilson in 1913
His statue stands in the U.S. Capitol.
“This passport which you have given me is a symbol to me of the passport which you have given me before. I do not feel that it would be out of place to state to you here on this occasion that I know that without the support of the members of this organization I would not have been called, even by my enemies, the ‘Junior Senator from Alabama.’ ”
–Hugo Black, accepting a life membership in the Ku Klux Klan upon his election to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat from Alabama, 1926
Appointed to the Supreme Court by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937
“Mr. President, the crime of lynching . . . is not of sufficient importance to justify this legislation.”
–Sen. Claude Pepper (D., Fla.), 1938
Spoken while engaged in a six-hour speech against the antilynching bill
“I am a former Kleagle [recruiter] of the Ku Klux Klan in Raleigh County. . . . The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia. It is necessary that the order be promoted immediately and in every state in the union.”
–Robert C. Byrd, 1946
Democratic Senator from West Virginia, 1959-present
Senate Majority Leader, 1977-80 and 1987-88
Senate President Pro Tempore, 1989-95, 2001-03, 2007-present
His portrait stands in the U.S. Capitol.
President Truman’s civil rights program “is a farce and a sham–an effort to set up a police state in the guise of liberty. I am opposed to that program. I have voted against the so-called poll tax repeal bill. . .. I have voted against the so-called anti-lynching bill.”
–Rep. Lyndon B. Johnson (D., Texas), 1948
U.S. Senator, 1949-61
Senate Majority Leader, 1955-61
President, 1963-69
“There is no warrant for the curious notion that Christianity favors the involuntary commingling of the races in social institutions. Although He knew both Jews and Samaritans and the relations existing between them, Christ did not advocate that courts or legislative bodies should compel them to mix socially against their will.”
–Sen. Sam Ervin (D., N.C.), 1955
Chairman, Committee on Government Operations, 1971-75
“The decline and fall of the Roman empire came after years of intermarriage with other races. Spain was toppled as a world power as a result of the amalgamation of the races. . . . Certainly history shows that nations composed of a mongrel race lose their strength and become weak, lazy and indifferent.”
–Herman E. Talmadge, 1955
Democratic Senator from Georgia, 1957-81
Chairman, Committee on Agriculture, 1971-81
“These Negroes, they’re getting pretty uppity these days and that’s a problem for us since they’ve got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we’ve got to do something about this, we’ve got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference. For if we don’t move at all, then their allies will line up against us and there’ll be no way of stopping them, we’ll lose the filibuster and there’ll be no way of putting a brake on all sorts of wild legislation. It’ll be Reconstruction all over again.”
–Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson (D., Texas), 1957
“I have never seen very many white people who felt they were being imposed upon or being subjected to any second-class citizenship if they were directed to a waiting room or to any other public facility to wait or to eat with other white people. Only the Negroes, of all the races which are in this land, publicly proclaim they are being mistreated, imposed upon, and declared second-class citizens because they must go to public facilities with members of their own race.”
–Sen. Richard B. Russell Jr. (D., Ga.), 1961
The Russell Senate Office Building is named for him.
“I did not lie awake at night worrying about the problems of Negroes.”
–Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, 1961
Kennedy later authorized wiretapping the phones and bugging the hotel rooms of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“Everybody likes to go to Geneva. I used to do it for the Law of the Sea conferences and you’d find these potentates from down in Africa, you know, rather than eating each other, they’d just come up and get a good square meal in Geneva.”
–Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D., S.C.) 1993
Chairman, Commerce Committee, 1987-95 and 2001-03
Candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, 1984
“I do not think it is an exaggeration at all to say to my friend from West Virginia [Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a former Ku Klux Klan recruiter] that he would have been a great senator at any moment. . . . He would have been right during the great conflict of civil war in this nation.”
–Sen. Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.), 2004
Chairman, Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs
Candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, 2008
* “You cannot go into a Dunkin’ Donuts or a 7-Eleven unless you have a slight Indian accent.”
* “My state was a slave state. My state is a border state. My state has the eighth largest black population in the country. My state is anything [but] a Northeastern liberal state.”
* “I mean, you got the first mainstream African American [Barack Obama] who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice looking guy.”
* “There’s less than 1% of the population of Iowa that is African American. There is probably less than 4% or 5% that is, are minorities. What is it in Washington? So look, it goes back to what you start off with, what you’re dealing with.”
Sen. Joseph Biden Jr., (D., Del.), 2006-07
Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary, 1987-95
Chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations
Vice President Elect, 2008
Bonus New York Times quote!
“It has of late become the custom of the men of the South to speak with entire candor of the settled and deliberate policy of suppressing the negro vote. They have been forced to choose between a policy of manifest injustice toward the blacks and the horrors of negro rule. They chose to disfranchise the negroes. That was manifestly the lesser of two evils. . . . The Republican Party committed a great public crime when it gave the right of suffrage to the blacks. . . . So long as the Fifteenth Amendment stands, the menace of the rule of the blacks will impend, and the safeguards against it must be maintained.”
–Editorial, “The Political Future of the South,” New York Times, May 10, 1900)
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These quotes and more (I’ve left out the ones which feature the N* word) from “Wrong on Race: The Democratic Party’s Buried Past,” by Bruce Bartlett.
Also, please see related post here, “Official DemoKKKrat History Whitewashed”
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UPDATE: Debunking the false assertion that all of the racist Democrats became Dixiecrats and then Republicans: “‘Dixiecrats’ declared that they would rather vote for a “yellow dog” than vote for a Republican because the Republican Party was known as the party for blacks.” See facts in this article and this factsheet.
UPDATE 2: “Every so often I hear someone attempting to malign Republicans by bringing up Nixon’s “southern strategy” and attempting to use it to “prove” that Republicans are somehow racist. It is an invalid argument for any number of reasons, but since I hear it so often, I figure I should address it.” Read Andrews on “The Southern Strategy” here.
UPDATE 3 (by request): Strom Thurmond vs. Robert Byrd, you ask? “In an effort to deflect attention away from all of the racist Democrats who did not switch parties, Democrats today point a finger at Senators Trent Lott and Strom Thurmond. There was no public outcry when Democrat Senator Christopher Dodd praised the former Ku Klux Klanner Democrat Senator Byrd as someone who would have been “a great senator for any moment,” including the Civil War. Democrats denounced Senator Trent Lott for his remarks about Senator Strom Thurmond. However, Senator Thurmond was never in the Ku Klux Klan and, after he became a Republican, defended blacks against lynching and the discriminatory poll taxes imposed on blacks by Democrats. If Senator Byrd and Senator Thurmond were alive during the Civil War, and Byrd had his way, Thurmond would have been lynched.” [ref]
The Tizona Group 
November 30, 2008, 9:05 pm at 9:05 pm
Rang a mate (yes an American, yes Black, registered Republican, voted for Obama) and pointed out this post, trying to drag him into a stoush.
We’re about to meet up for a drink or two (the Sunday wrap-up) with a few others, but he reckons he’ll post something when he gets back.
Thing is, about your first update, many times he’s made that assertion you debunk. In fact, that’s what made me call him (hey mate, a mate on the blog’s debunking your argument), hehehe.
So here’s a heads-up. He said, “Two words: Stromm Thurmond.”
November 30, 2008, 9:20 pm at 9:20 pm
I’ll put in a Stromm Thurmond vs. Robert Byrd update shortly then – thanks!
And I’m about to put up another post on what the Democrats have conveniently left out of their “Official Party History.”
Good luck – and have fun at drinks – don’t let things get too political, but!
November 30, 2008, 9:26 pm at 9:26 pm
Also, Bingbing, with people who use the “But the Democrats and Republicans have switched sides since the olden days” argument, ask them “And in what year did this switchover happen?”
Look at some of the dates on those quotes just for starters. Was Johnson (“Uppity negroes” ), who was President 1963-1969, a “Democrat” Democrat or a “Republican” Democrat?
November 30, 2008, 9:30 pm at 9:30 pm
[…] Those Racist DemoKKKrats – In Their Own Words « The Tizona Group “Instead of restoring the Union, it [the Republican Party] has, so far as in its power, dissolved it, and subjected ten states, in time of profound peace, to military despotism and Negro supremacy.” –Platform of the Democratic Party, … […]
November 30, 2008, 9:35 pm at 9:35 pm
[…] Comments spot_the_dog on Those Racist DemoKKKrats – In …spot_the_dog on Those Racist DemoKKKrats – In …bingbing on Those Racist DemoKKKrats – In […]
November 30, 2008, 9:41 pm at 9:41 pm
Look at some of the dates on those quotes just for starters. Was Johnson (”Uppity negroes” ), who was President 1963-1969, a “Democrat” Democrat or a “Republican” Democrat?
LOL, you’ll have to word me up on that one.
November 30, 2008, 9:58 pm at 9:58 pm
You have to find out what year your mate thinks the Republicans and Democrats “switched sides” first. People will say anything from the mid-1900’s to the 70’s.
I’ve heard all different answers, but most people who do know some American political history will say 1948, the year of the Dixiecrat walkout from the Democratic National Convention, was when all the racists left the DEMS and joined the GOP instead. But if you look at all the racist Democrats who were still Democrats post 1948, you have to wonder why they didn’t switch over too?
More from the current petition for a formal proclamation of apology for the Democratic Party’s 150-year history of racism including:
December 1, 2008, 11:25 am at 11:25 am
This one is going to get printed out an kept handy, Spot! And also kept on my computer desktop for quick reference
From the start of their party when their founder said
Blacks “are inferior to the whites in the endowments of both of body and mind.”
right thru to the 21st century when so many big Democrats were calling people like Condi Rice, Colin Powell and Justice Clarence Thomas things like mammy and happy negroes and house n____rs and uncle toms – the DNC has never changed its spots, just tried to hide them a little.
Will email you later, got to sign off for the nite now, but thanks for posting this.
December 1, 2008, 12:31 pm at 12:31 pm
Thanks JD – I’ll catch up with you via email – thanks for sending that newsletter on, too. Have a good night, get your Christmas tree up!
December 1, 2008, 7:13 pm at 7:13 pm
You are correct in quoting the various Democrats who made racist or sensitive remarks in their rhetoric. I would like to question why one would say that if Sens. Byrd and Thurmond were alive today during the Civil War, Thurmond would be lynched. The question would be, “would Thurmond change parties.” I would not think so. There were a few events that caused the support of the Democratic Party to shift to the Republican party. The New Deal and the Civil Rights movements cause a few dissatisfied Democrats to create a third party (aka the Dixiecrats) and/or switch over to the Republicans under the idea that they support states rights.
Senators Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms were two powerful politicians that shifted to the Republican party. Of course, one could also say that many stayed with the party.
Back to the events that caused the shift. The New Deal programs under FDR was criticized by Democrats at the time for the reason that it was ineffective. State and local government were being overpowered by the Federal government. There was a publication written in the late 1930s written by some Republican and Southern Democrats called the “Conservative Manifesto” which stressed the need for a reduction in taxes and government spending. Another issue that was stressed in the manifesto was States rights. A bigger issue that changed the direction of the parties was the Civil Rights Movement. The Republican party did not take a side on the issue of civil rights but maintained its ideas of less government intervention (stemming from the New Deal era). The result of the “Conservative Manifesto” was the alliance of some Republicans and Southern Democrats that favored states rights, religious freedoms (in schools as well), opposed Civil Rights. Thurmond and Helms were part of that movement. Thus seeing Thurmond becoming Republican in the 1950s and Helms in the 1970s. (I will continue as soon as finish my dinner. Be back in a few hours.)
December 1, 2008, 7:27 pm at 7:27 pm
Thank you, Mack Honey – I look forward to it.
December 1, 2008, 8:55 pm at 8:55 pm
To the mention of “Strom Thurmond” I offer “Mr Justice Thurgood Marshall”
Cheers
December 1, 2008, 11:31 pm at 11:31 pm
Do come back, Mack. You’ll get support (if he bloody well posts) from a mate I’ve been baiting to post on this.
Should be a good show.
However, you and he have so far failed to convince this Aussie pundit.
December 2, 2008, 3:58 am at 3:58 am
Thanks for the reminder of our shameful history.
Thank god it’s not quite so hateful any more.
I can only say that I grew up in a very political and non racist household with eyes and ears wide open, (I’m 53 now) and that political things seem to be totally ass-backwards now compared to back then. But back then there was ONLY mainstream media to go by, so I can forgive any mistakes…
Just goes to show that the party concept is all FAKE. It’s just whatever is fashionable at the time, and how good someone is at convincing.
December 2, 2008, 7:09 am at 7:09 am
Thanks for stopping by, calhoununderground, and I share your sentiments above.
There are actually signs of progress. For instance, the Democratic Party of North Carolina passed a unanimous resolution in 2007 apologizing for the Democratic Party’s role in the Wilmington Race Riots where dozens of black Americans were massacred (you can see it at http://www.ncdp.org/node/1546 ), and in a letter to the North Carolina Democratic Party, Lt. Governor Richard H. Moore wrote: “We can no longer ignore the fact that many of us grew up being taught a much sanitized – and inaccurate – history…. The truth is ugly.” So, that’s a good start anyway.
Anyway – thanks again for stopping by and taking the time to comment.
December 3, 2008, 4:38 pm at 4:38 pm
Continuing (my long delayed response), I do concur in some aspect with spot_the_dog, but one must realize that there are racist Republicans as well as Democrats. I have given two very powerful Senators that were former Democrats that switched to the Republican party.
Earlier I stating two events that caused a shift for a few politicians as well as voters as well. In 1980, Ronald Reagan catered to Southern Democrats with what was called the “Southern Strategy”. He made an appearance in Philadelphia, Mississippi and talked about the distortion of power between the federal govenment and the states. Although he was correct (if you believe in federalist government), many thought it was offensive because the people who supported “state’s rights” were those who supported segregation. As a side note, Philadelphia, Mississippi was also a key point in the Civil Rights movement (Freedom Summer voter registration drive) when two Jewish men and one black man were brutally murdered. The culprits were caught but it took decades for justice and Southerners criticized the FBI for being too involved. We all knew the outcome of the race as well, Regan became one of the most charismatic presidents in American history.
Anyway the point that I am want to make is that we cannot deny that racist Southern Democrats did shift to the party. If you look at the trend is that the southern part of America is voting republican nationally. If you look a little deeper into the trend, many cities and town vote Democrat in local elections. Constituents like their handouts and big government, the only thing that makes most of them conservative is that they love GOD.
Anyone who want to question my political ideology, I will answer right away. I am a mix of a libertarian conservative and a small government conservative. I believe the federal government can set a policy and the state and local governments can implement them in a way that cater to the needs of the people. I am opposed to one government that interferes with the rights of citizens to live and survive with programs that tend to waste money and does not benefit anyone. Also I believe in the roles of private groups in assessing the needs of a community and being more efficient in providing them. One thing that I don’t agree with some conservatives is laissez-faire politics. We see when companies operate without any rules (now they are in knee pads ready to give orals for a handout– hmmm. bailout). I’m a true believer in interstate commerce and denying the right of one to engage is a federal violation. That is one the greatest things to come out the Civil Rights movement. Anyway, I am glad to join this group of conservative bloggers. You’ll hear from me more.
December 3, 2008, 4:57 pm at 4:57 pm
You’re welcome here Mack.
December 3, 2008, 4:58 pm at 4:58 pm
Cheers, Mack.
And sure, from what this Aussie can gather, it’s not as if the Republicans have been totally devoid of racism in their party. It’s just when one digs a little deeper, the Demoncrats appear to have a lot more of it in their past. This also translates to policies such as affirmative action, and the idea of courting the ‘black vote’, the ‘latino vote’, the ‘women’s vote’ – approaches I suspect the Demoncrats are far more engaged in.
It boils down to that basic difference I see that in general terms, the Republicans have been far more concerned with the ideas in an individual’s head rather than on the color of the sj\kin that covers it. I don’t think it was an accident that MKL Jr was a Republican.
I just think it’s a gross distortion of history and totally unfair, that nowadays, so many so-called ‘informed’ people out there have this idea that the Demoncrats are and always have been all about tolerance and racial respect and that’s it has always been and still is the Republicans who are the evil, nasty, racist ones.
December 3, 2008, 7:12 pm at 7:12 pm
I think that you are being too general. You have to look at the various groups of conservatives that call themselves Republicans. Granted Republicans did not support segregation in the past, but they in fact embraced key Democrats who held those ideas and that is indeed where they are at fault. While many Republicans would not mention race negatively in their rhetoric, one must have to research why Southerners vote Republican. Is it truly about states rights? I believe in states rights, but I don’t move to the suburbs to avoid the wrong people (for example).
Courting votes. Various interests have to be courted. (Minorities, women, disabled, vetrans, business, labor, churches, etc.). I won’t waste my time explaining the first paragraph.
December 3, 2008, 9:55 pm at 9:55 pm
Too general? Well, I did say in general terms. And some of the more knowledgeable Americans out there are more than welcome to comment and provide some extra background.
I’ve a mate I’m still trying to bait into posting, black, kinda southern, registered Republican who nonetheless voted for Obama. Well, you’ll have to take this with a grain of salt as it’s only anecdotal, but he said he helped out at one or more Republican rallies/conventions/whatever. And yes, he was disappointed to see, not so much around the leaders but among some of the crowd, a strong racist undercurrent. Note the word ‘some’, however.
Hey, I’ve never been to America but I have met a lot of Americans teaching over here in Korea and haven’t found any of them to be racist – both Democrat and Republican voters, including quite a few soldiers when I lived in another city that had a US military base.
But back to that ‘in general’ phrasing. The other day, my adult students came into class with an article about Obama. So, anyway, after going through the English, I asked them some of their personal thoughts. One student said that she’d heard Obama sounds like Lincoln. In what way I asked. His voice. I asked her how did she know. Oh, it was in the media over here (I don’t read Korean very well and only understand a little when spoken). Then I asked her whether Lincoln’s voice had ever been recorded and if so, had she heard a recording? Er, no. But up until then she believed Obama sounded like Lincoln since that’s what the media was saying (and yes, I doubled checked whether she meant his actual voice or more how he read). Anyway, I moved on (kind of) and asked them what party Lincoln was. Democratic, of course came the enthusiastic reply. Then I mentioned Lincoln founded the Republican party. Oh. Not being able to resist, I asked so what about MLK. Oh, he was definitely a Democrat I was assured.
Oh.
I’ve had similar conversations numerous times, both with Koreans and ‘foreigners’. Shit, even I was surprised when I found out not too long ago MLK was a Republican. And that comes from years of accepting the general perception that is out there.