Democratic Parties Military Wing - The KKK

Foner states that the KKK was founded in 1866 as a Tennessee social club and eventually spread to become a nationwide terrorist organization and functioned as de-Facto strong-arm division of the Democratic Party.

The 2007 book Carpetbaggers, Cavalry, and the Ku Klux Klan by J. Michael Martinez states 'many Southern whites ... were Democrats and a smaller number of them joined the KKK'.

Although the KKK has some strong historical links with the Democratic Party the group was not started by the Democratic Party but by members of that Party, and was utilized extensively in Democratic campaigning in the South as well as the North.

Prominent Democratic Politicians such as Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, Al Gore, Sr...See:Gore Family Racist Legacy

Democratic Senator Robert Byrd, the longest serving Senator in history was an actual member of the KKK and served as a KKK recruiter at one time, Former President Bill Clinton rationalized Sen. Robert Byrd's KKK membership by claiming Byrd was simply trying to get elected..

'The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia. -Democratic Senator Robert Byrd..

Dr. Eric Foner details the history and origins of Ku Klux Klan and provides a grizzly and detailed account of some of their atrocities in support of the Democratic Party. At least 3,446 blacks and 1,297 white Republicans died at the end of KKK ropes from 1882 to 1964.

"In effect, the Klan was a military force .. of the Democratic party, the planter class, and all those who desired the restoration of white supremacy. It aimed to destroy the Republican party infrastructure, ... and restore racial subordination in every aspect of Southern life. White gangs roamed New Orleans, intimidating blacks and breaking up Republican meetings".

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 .... [The KKK] purpose at first was to keep the blacks in order ...but its real motives were essentially political. The Negroes were invariably required to promise not to vote the Republican ticket, and threatened with death if they broke their promises.'. [foner]

Democrats thwarted Republican Civil Rights Initiatives

Abraham Lincolns successor, Democrat Andrew Johnson vetoed a bill in 1867 that would have given former slaves voting rights. Republicans overrode Johnson's veto. The First Blacks in Congress were all Republicans

The first grand wizard of the KKK was honored at a Democratic National Convention.

Not a single Democrat voted for the 14th Amendment which granted citizenship to former slaves , 94 percent of Republicans endorsed it. The present History page on the Democratic party website ignores the long standing connection between the Democratic Party and the KKK.

Democrat Franklin Roosevelt appointed Hugo Black, a KKK member to the US Supreme Court. Black is widely regarded as one of the 20th Centuries most influential Supreme Court justices . As a senator, Black once filibustered an anti-lynching bill. Historians who have examined Black's views regarding the KKK generally concur that Black "sympathized with the group's economic, nativist, and anti-Catholic beliefs." Hugo L. Black: Cold Steel Warrior

14th Amendment- Provided a broader definition of citizenship which overruled the 1857 Supreme Court Dred Scott decision and installed a Due Process Clause which prohibited state and local governments from depriving persons of life, liberty, or property without certain steps being taken to ensure fairness. July 9, 1868

Enforcement Act of 1870 Also known as First Ku Klux Klan Act, it restricted the first wave of the KKK by banning the use of terror, force or bribery in order to prevent people from voting because of their race. The First Ku Klux Klan was all but eradicated within a year of federal prosecution.

Civil Rights Acts of 1866

Declared that people born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power are entitled to be citizens, without regard to race, color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude. This legislation was enacted by Congress in 1865 but vetoed by Democrat Andrew Johnson

Civil Rights Act of 1871

The act empowered the President to suspend the writ of habeas corpus to combat the KKK and other Democratic Party sponsored racist organizations during the Reconstruction Era. It protected African Americans Klan by providing a civil remedy for abuses then being committed primarily in the South.

Civil Rights Act of 1957

Eisenhower {Republican} Administration legislation to protect the rights of African American voters.

As a Senate leader, Lyndon Johnson who had consistently voted against any legislation to protect African Americans from lynching, worked vigorously to stifle the Civil Rights Act of 1957