During the recent Republican Convention, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, a Black activist, made a passionate appeal to the Black community. He strongly rejected Biden’s statement “if you don’t vote for me, you ain’t Black”. He also suggested that if they think it is strange for him to be a Republican, then “you don’t know history.” In the midst of several months of violent demonstrations and destruction of historical statues, there’s been a movement led by black activist groups called the “cancel culture.” It seeks to destroy any vestige of our American history that is a reminder of racism toward Blacks. So, what was the Black activist referring to when he said, “you don’t know history.”
So, here are some historical points of interest to consider that may give us insights as to why Democrats want to change our culture.
- The issue of slavery became so divisive by the mid-1850’s that it led to the creation of the Republican Party. The Republican party was formed in 1854 specifically to fight slavery.
- The Republicans nominated their first candidate for President, Abraham Lincoln, who was committed to abolishing slavery and keeping the Union from dividing (seven Southern states had already seceded from the Union) and felt the moral issue with slavery, especially as it related to our Constitution based on all men being created equal. Lincoln was inaugurated in March 1861 and the Civil War broke out at Fort Sumter in April 1861.
- The Democrat Party was primarily the party of Southern landowners who relied on slavery for their livelihood and, as a result, were pro-slavery.
- The Civil War, in addition to it being a war between the Industrial North and the plantation owners of the South, was a war between Republicans and Democrats.
- At the end of the war in 1865 and a win for the North, the Southern Democrats were looking for a way to resist the Republican Party’s Reconstruction Era to help Blacks freed from slavery to integrate into society. The Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1865 as a white supremacist, hate group to restore white supremacy and resist Black citizens rights.
- White Republicans were referred to as carpetbaggers for supporting the black cause for freedom and were targeted by the KKK with attacks and lynching. From 1882-1968, of the recorded 4,743 lynchings that occurred in the United States, 73% were black and 27% were white.
- Republicans in Congress would pass historic legislation to support the rights of Blacks including:
- Congress would pass the 13th Amendment to the Constitution to abolish slavery. No Democrats voted in favor of it.
- Congress would pass the 14th Amendment that gave Blacks citizenship. There were three times as many Republicans who voted for it than Democrats.
- Congress would pass the 15th Amendment that gave Blacks the right to vote. In both the House and Senate, all Republicans voted for it and all Democrats voted against it.
- It would take the Civil Rights Act of 1968, led by Black activist Martin Luther King, to continue to grant Blacks their civil rights under the Constitution. 80% of Republicans voted for it versus 63% of Democrats.
Democrats make a point of calling Republicans racist, yet history clearly shows that Democrats were clearly on the side of racism and white supremacy. They may need to cancel the culture and historical facts of the past as it shows they were the party committed to keeping Black people enslaved. It was, in fact, the Republican Party that saw the immorality of slavery and the contradiction with our Constitution. Republicans worked to right that wrong and now the Democrats want to cancel all that progress and clear their name.
