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History Of The Democrats And The KKK.....(Why the Democrats started the KKK)
Live Leak ^

Posted on 08/06/2009 9:59:36 AM PDT by IrishMike

The original targets of the Ku Klux Klan were Republicans, both black and white, according to a new television program and book, which describe how the Democrats started the KKK and for decades harassed the GOP with lynchings and threats.

An estimated 3,446 blacks and 1,297 whites died at the end of KKK ropes from 1882 to 1964.

The documentation has been assembled by David Barton of Wallbu More..ilders and published in his book "Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White," which reveals that not only did the Democrats work hand-in-glove with the Ku Klux Klan for generations, they started the KKK and endorsed its mayhem.

"Of all forms of violent intimidation, lynchings were by far the most effective," Barton said in his book. "Republicans often led the efforts to pass federal anti-lynching laws and their platforms consistently called for a ban on lynching. Democrats successfully blocked those bills and their platforms never did condemn lynchings."

Further, the first grand wizard of the KKK was honored at the 1868 Democratic National Convention, no Democrats voted for the 14th Amendment to grant citizenship to former slaves and, to this day, the party website ignores those decades of racism, he said.

"Although it is relatively unreported today, historical documents are unequivocal that the Klan was established by Democrats and that the Klan played a prominent role in the Democratic Party," Barton writes in his book. "In fact, a 13-volume set of congressional investigations from 1872 conclusively and irrefutably documents that fact.

"The Klan terrorized black Americans through murders and public floggings; relief was granted only if individuals promised not to vote for Republican tickets, and violation of this oath was punishable by death," he said. "Since the Klan targeted Republicans in general, it did not limit its violence simply to black Republicans; white Republicans were also included."

Barton also has covered the subject in one episode of his American Heritage Series of television programs, which is being broadcast now on Trinity Broadcasting Network and Cornerstone Television.

Barton told WND his comments are not a condemnation or endorsement of any party or candidate, but rather a warning that voters even today should be aware of what their parties and candidates stand for.

His book outlines the aggressive pro-slavery agenda held by the Democratic Party for generations leading up to the Civil War, and how that did not die with the Union victory in that war of rebellion.

Even as the South was being rebuilt, the votes in Congress consistently revealed a continuing pro-slavery philosophy on the part of the Democrats, the book reveals.

Three years after Appomattox, the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting blacks citizenship in the United States, came before Congress: 94 percent of Republicans endorsed it.

"The records of Congress reveal that not one Democrat � either in the House or the Senate � voted for the 14th Amendment," Barton wrote. "Three years after the Civil War, and the Democrats from the North as well as the South were still refusing to recognize any rights of citizenship for black Americans."

He also noted that South Carolina Gov. Wade Hampton at the 1868 Democratic National Convention inserted a clause in the party platform declaring the Congress' civil rights laws were "unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void."

It was the same convention when Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first grand wizard of the KKK, was honored for his leadership.

Barton's book notes that in 1868, Congress heard testimony from election worker Robert Flournoy, who confessed while he was canvassing the state of Mississippi in support of the 13th and 14th Amendments, he could find only one black, in a population of 444,000 in the state, who admitted being a Democrat.

Nor is Barton the only person to raise such questions. In 2005, National Review published an article raising similar points. The publication said in 1957 President Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican, deployed the 82nd Airborne Division to desegregate the Little Rock, Ark., schools over the resistance of Democrat Gov. Orval Faubus.

Further, three years later, Eisenhower signed the GOP's 1960 Civil Rights Act after it survived a five-day, five-hour filibuster by 18 Senate Democrats, and in 1964, Democrat President Lyndon Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act after former Klansman Robert Byrd's 14-hour filibuster, and the votes of 22 other Senate Democrats, including Tennessee's Al Gore Sr., failed to scuttle the plan.

Dems' website showing jump in history

The current version of the "History" page on the party website lists a number of accomplishments � from 1792, 1798, 1800, 1808, 1812, 1816, 1824 and 1828, including its 1832 nomination of Andrew Jackson for president. It follows up with a name change, and the establishment of the Democratic National Committee, but then leaps over the Civil War and all of its issues to talk about the end of the 19th Century, William Jennings Bryan and women's suffrage.

A spokesman with the Democrats refused to comment for WND on any of the issues. "You're not going to get a comment," said the spokesman who identified himself as Luis.

"Why would Democrats skip over their own history from 1848 to 1900?" Barton asked. "Perhaps because it's not the kind of civil rights history they want to talk about � perhaps because it is not the kind of civil rights history they want to have on their website."

The National Review article by Deroy Murdock cited the 1866 comment from Indiana Republican Gov. Oliver Morton condemning Democrats for their racism.

"Every one who shoots down Negroes in the streets, burns Negro schoolhouses and meeting-houses, and murders women and children by the light of their own flaming dwellings, calls himself a Democrat," Morton said.

It also cited the 1856 criticism by U.S. Sen. Charles Sumner, R-Mass., of pro-slavery Democrats. "Congressman Preston Brooks (D-S.C.) responded by grabbing a stick and beating Sumner unconscious in the Senate chamber. Disabled, Sumner could not resume his duties for three years."

By the admission of the Democrats themselves, on their website, it wasn't until Harry Truman was elected that "Democrats began the fight to bring down the final barriers of race and gender."

"That is an accurate description," wrote Barton. "Starting with Harry Truman, Democrats began � that is, they made their first serious efforts � to fight against the barriers of race; yet � Truman's efforts were largely unsuccessful because of his own Democratic Party."

Even then, the opposition to rights for blacks was far from over. As recently as 1960, Mississippi Democratic Gov. Hugh White had requested Christian evangelist Billy Graham segregate his crusades, something Graham refused to do. "And when South Carolina Democratic Gov. George Timmerman learned Billy Graham had invited African Americans to a Reformation Rally at the state Capitol, he promptly denied use of the facilities to the evangelist," Barton wrote.

The National Review noted that the Democrats' "Klan-coddling" today is embodied in Byrd, who once wrote that, "The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia."

The article suggested a contrast with the GOP, which, when former Klansman David Duke ran for Louisiana governor in 1991 as a Republican, was "scorned" by national GOP officials.

Until 1935, every black federal legislator was Republican, and it was Republicans who appointed the first black Air Force and Army four-star generals, established Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday as a national holiday, and named the first black national-security adviser, secretary of state, the research reveals.

Current Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has said: "The first Republican I knew was my father, and he is still the Republican I most admire. He joined our party because the Democrats in Jim Crow Alabama of 1952 would not register him to vote. The Republicans did. My father has never forgotten that day, and neither have I."

Barton's documentation said the first opponents of slavery "and the chief advocates for racial equal rights were the churches (the Quakers, Presbyterians, Methodists, etc.). Furthermore, religious leaders such as Quaker Anthony Benezet were the leading spokesmen against slavery, and evangelical leaders such as Presbyterian signer of the Declaration Benjamin Rush were the founders of the nation's first abolition societies."

During the years surrounding the Civil War, "the most obvious difference between the Republican and Democrat parties was their stands on slavery," Barton said. Republicans called for its abolition, while Democrats declared: "All efforts of the abolitionists, or others, made to induce Congress to interfere with questions of slavery, or to take incipient [to initiate] steps in relation thereto, are calculated to lead to the most alarming and dangerous consequences, and all such efforts have the inevitable tendency to diminish the happiness of the people."

Wallbuilders also cited John Alden's 1885 book, "A Brief History of the Republican Party" in noting that the KKK's early attacks were on Republicans as much as blacks, in that blacks were adopting the Republican identity en masse.

"In some places the Ku Klux Klan assaulted Republican officials in their houses or offices or upon the public roads; in others they attacked the meetings of negroes and displaced them," Alden wrote. "Its ostensible purpose at first was to keep the blacks in order and prevent them from committing small depredations upon the property of whites, but its real motives were essentially political � The negroes were invariable required to promise not to vote the Republican ticket, and threatened with death if they broke their promises."

Barton told WND the most cohesive group of political supporters in American now is African-Americans. He said most consider their affiliation with the Democratic party longterm.

But he said he interviewed a black pastor in Mississippi, who recalled his grandmother never "would let a Democrat in the house, and he never knew what she was talking about." After a review of history, he knew, Barton said.

Citing President George Washington's farewell address, Barton told WND, "Washington had a great section on the love of party, if you love party more than anything else, what it will do to a great nation."

"We shouldn't love a party [over] a candidate's principles or values," he told WND.

Washington's farewell address noted the "danger" from parties is serious.

"Let me now � warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party, generally. � The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism," Washington said.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; Philosophy; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 111th; americanhistory; congress; democratcorruption; democratparty; democrats; kkk; kukluxklan; liberalfascism; liberals; moralabsolutes; plantationhealthcare; racism; socialism
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1 posted on 08/06/2009 9:59:36 AM PDT by IrishMike
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To: IrishMike

2 posted on 08/06/2009 10:04:07 AM PDT by KeyLargo
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To: IrishMike

People need to understand that the KKK was always the paramilitary wing of the Democrats.


3 posted on 08/06/2009 10:07:06 AM PDT by Farmer Dean (Don't blame me,I voted for the American)
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To: IrishMike; nathanbedford

Nathan, what say you?


4 posted on 08/06/2009 10:07:21 AM PDT by CPT Clay (Pick up your weapon and follow me.)
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To: IrishMike

I wonder why an organization like the Klan arose? Was it due to an innate maliciousness found only in Southern whites? Did the Klan arise in response to external factors such as Reconstruction? It is easy just to say it was naughty-which it was.


5 posted on 08/06/2009 10:10:18 AM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS (It is a shame that when these people give a riot)
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To: IrishMike

In Indiana in the middle of the 20th century, the Democratic legislature and governor were CONTROLLED by the KKK, if they weren’t outright KKK members.

Legendary stuff here in Indiana.


6 posted on 08/06/2009 10:13:24 AM PDT by SJSAMPLE
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To: Farmer Dean
People need to understand that the KKK was always the paramilitary wing of the Democrats.

It is more accurate to say that they were founded (and functioned for a very long time) as the terrorist arm of the Democratic Party.

7 posted on 08/06/2009 10:14:09 AM PDT by 3niner (When Obama succeeds, America fails.)
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To: Farmer Dean

“People need to understand that the KKK was always the paramilitary wing of the Democrats.”

And they need to understand that NAACP was started by a white man, that Martin Luther King was a Republican, and that the Civil Rights movement was started by Republicans and hated by Democrats. All true, but the truth never seems to get out.


8 posted on 08/06/2009 10:18:44 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam
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To: IrishMike

Presidents who were members of the KKK:

Warren Harding, Woodrow Wilson, McKinley, Calvin Coolidge, and IIRC Harry Truman.

Also Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, appointed by the radical leftist FDR.


9 posted on 08/06/2009 10:19:29 AM PDT by Jacquerie (We live in a judicial tyranny - Mark Levin)
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To: 3niner

You’re right,their first mission was to suppress the black vote by any means-including murder.


10 posted on 08/06/2009 10:21:25 AM PDT by Farmer Dean (Don't blame me,I voted for the American)
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To: IrishMike

They were insurgent terrorists in the reconstruction South.

No one on the Left wants to proclaim that the Civil War lasted for over 100 years.

But no one on the Left wants to admit that the “Iraq war” ended with the capture of Saddam Hussein.

World War II was immediately followed by the Cold War.

Sometimes related events have different enemies and combat. It is in error to call them ONE event.


11 posted on 08/06/2009 10:21:29 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (There is no truth in the Pravda Media.)
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To: IrishMike

This will be much better than that documentary I watched on the history channel about the KKK. In the KKK a Secret History, they only mentioned one party being associated with the Klan - The Republican party. I watched it in amazement, because it was a complete re-writing of actual historical fact. The biggest secret of that documentary was not one word regarding the Democrats and their role in creating the KKK being uttered.


12 posted on 08/06/2009 10:22:26 AM PDT by jerod (They were pro-abortion, for gun control & wanted a cleaner environment at all cost - The NAZI party)
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To: IrishMike
The KKK was just the Militia arm of the Democrat Party.

Much like the IRA was to Sinn Fein.

13 posted on 08/06/2009 10:24:56 AM PDT by Mikey_1962 (Obama: The Affirmative Action President)
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To: Farmer Dean
Not strictly tied to the KKK, but I think it deserves mention that Democrats have supported gun control for a long, long time -- originally it was explictly race-based: an effort to make sure that blacks could not defend themselves.

Also, Democrats have supported abortion for a long time -- Planned Parenthood began as a eugenics campaign to diminish the number of blacks being born.

The Democrat Party is suffused with policies aimed at keeping blacks in a subservient position in society. They used to rely on paramilitary groups like the KKK, but nowadays they just use Congress and the White House.

14 posted on 08/06/2009 10:27:29 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy
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To: IrishMike

Thanks for posting! I have to find this book.


15 posted on 08/06/2009 10:28:00 AM PDT by cvq3842 (Countless thousands of our ancestors died to give us the freedoms we have today. Stay involved!)
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To: IrishMike
There's a reason I call the Democrat Party the Slavery Party; it fits them.
16 posted on 08/06/2009 10:29:28 AM PDT by PugetSoundSoldier (Indignation over the sting of truth is the defense of the indefensible)
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To: IrishMike
This is what annoys me the most, that the MSM has managed to successfully persuade so much of the public that it's the Republicans and Conservatives who are the racists. When the truth is that it's the Democrats and Liberals who were the racists and, most importantly, STILL are.

Republicans were anti-slavery and were targeted by the KKK.

Democrats were pro-slavery, used the KKK terrorists to further their cause and are still racist to this very day with their obsession with Affirmative Action and their willingness to play the race card at any opportunity.

Conservatives don't care what race or color you are, we care about your actions, your ability and strength of character. We're the least racist group of people as we simply don't care about race in the first place!

It's testament to the GOP’s ineffectual leadership, weak attacks on the biased MSM and lack of a clear presentation of its core principles that has lead to today's sorry state of liberal falsehoods masquerading as facts to the majority of American citizens.

We need a strong Conservative force and we need it NOW!

17 posted on 08/06/2009 10:34:05 AM PDT by Palin + Jindal for 2012 (Good riddance RINOs. True Conservatives are waiting to lead this great country.)
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Comment #18 Removed by Moderator

Comment #19 Removed by Moderator

To: AEMILIUS PAULUS
The KKK was started as a way for Southerners to combat Reconstruction (1866-1877). During that time, the South was ruled by Northern carpetbaggers and Southerners couldn't even vote - see below:

From Section 5, First Reconstruction Act. March 2, 1867: “And be it further enacted, That when the people of any one of said rebel States shall have formed a constitution of government in conformity with the Constitution of the United States in all respects, framed by a convention of delegates elected by the male citizens of said State, twenty-one years old and upward, of whatever race, color, or previous condition, WHO HAVE VEEN RESIDENT IN SAID STATE FOR ONE YEAR PREVIOUS TO THE DAY OF SUCH ELECTION, EXCEPT SUCH AS MY BE DISFRANCHISED FOR PARTICIPATION IN THE REBELLION...” (emphasis mine)

Southerners were treated as “conquered subjects,” even though we were supposedly Americans. First the Yankees said we were Americans who had left the Union and had to be forcibly brought back, then they said we were a separate Nation and deserved to be treated as conquered. So which was it? It can't be both at the same time - but both arguments were used by the “Northern Elites” to try to force us to live our lives according to their rules - just as they are doing today.

20 posted on 08/06/2009 10:58:41 AM PDT by nanetteclaret (Unreconstructed Catholic Texan)
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