I realize that it is an inconvenient truth for Democrats, but the true party of civil rights in this country was, is, and always will be the Republican Party. From the GOPÂ’s demand for the containment and elimination of slavery to the passage of multiple pieces of civil rights legislation designed to overcome Democrat efforts to keep African-Americans in bondage as second-class citizens, at every turn it was the Republican Party that sought expanded rights for American blacks.

Unfortunately, Democrats continually tried to frustrate those plans.

Eisenhower complained in 1967 that if his critics felt “there was anything good done” in his presidency, “they mostly want to prove that it was somebody else that did it and that I went along as a passenger.” That has been especially true of his championship of civil rights.

The “somebody else” in this instance was Lyndon B. Johnson, who in 1957 was the Senate’s Democratic majority leader. Historians have consistently credited Johnson for the bill’s passage. Yes, Johnson played a role, but hardly the one his advocates might imagine: Eisenhower and his attorney general, Herbert Brownell Jr., first proposed strong legislation, and it was Johnson and his Southern cronies who weakened it beyond recognition.

Johnson wanted a cosmetic bill that would enhance his presidential ambitions without alienating his white Southern base. It was a balancing act, as even a weak bill depended on EisenhowerÂ’s new legislative coalition, which formed after he persuaded the Republicans to abandon their longtime opposition to civil rights legislation. (Republicans provided 37 of the 60 yes votes when the final bill passed the Senate.)

The Eisenhower proposal had four main parts. The first two — the creation of a civil rights commission to investigate voting irregularities and a civil rights division in the Justice Department — survive to this day. The other two pillars, unfortunately, became victims of politics. Part 3 proposed to grant the attorney general unprecedented authority to file suits to protect broad constitutional rights, including school desegregation. Part 4 provided for federal civil suits to prosecute voting rights violations.

Now many Republicans had opposed more civil rights legislation because of repeated efforts by the Democrats to use their congressional majority to prevent its passage or to water it down to the point of uselessness. Even the older statutes had been rendered useless by the refusal of Southern judges and juries to convict defendants under them. Eisenhower wanted to change that by allowing for strong civil enforcement of civil rights laws. Lyndon Johnson and Southern Democrats blocked that change, substantially weakening the legislation and delaying the promise of civil rights for more than a decade.

Republicans today still stand for civil rights for all individuals, with a call for equality under the law for all Americans. We still stand for non-discrimination – as we have for our entire existence as a party.

Posted by: Greg at 12:02 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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