Republicans have always believed that every man and woman is created equal. This is not a choice that can be made for us by others. It isn't up to our government. So we required our government to fulfill that promise.

The same year as the first Civil Rights Act, Republicans in Congress wrote another constitutional amendment to extend even further the scope of our civil rights legislation. We extended the concepts of due process of law, and equal protection of the laws, to every state. Now, every state -- even those where Democrats held sway -- would have to implement these principles. No longer just at the federal level, but at the state level as well, the civil rights of every American individual would be protected.

This major civil rights advance -- what we now know as the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution -- is a purely Republican achievement, because every single Democrat in Congress voted against the 14th Amendment. That is another fact deftly omitted from American history textbooks these days: we owe our Constitution's guarantee of equal protection of the laws and due process to Republicans, and this bedrock of American civil rights was unanimously opposed by the Democrats.

Three years later, in 1869, the Republicans proposed yet another constitutional amendment, this one specifically guaranteeing blacks the right to vote. The same partisanship was in evidence: 98% of Republicans voted for it; 97% of the Democrats voted against

Republicans led the integration of pro sports. Branch Rickey, owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, was a Republican businessman who hired his fellow Republican, Jackie Robinson. Together they integrated Major League Baseball when Jackie Robinson took the field in 1947 for his first game. In addition to being a great athlete, a great Dodger, and a great American, Jackie Robinson was a great Republican -- and a very outspoken one.

This year, 2004, is the 50th anniversary of the modern civil rights movement, which most people date to the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. That opinion was written by a Republican Chief Justice appointed by a Republican President, Dwight Eisenhower. And of course that Republican Chief Justice had been our three-term Republican Governor here in California, and he'd been our Republican nominee for Vice President of the United States in 1948

Another great Republican, U.S. Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois, authored and introduced the 1960 Civil Rights Act. It was also he who was most responsible -- more than any other individual -- for the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. As Republican Leader in the Senate, even though his party was in the minority, Dirksen crafted the strategy that overcame long odds and tenacious Democratic opposition


Which political party gave our nation the first Asian American Senator in the United States Senate? The Republican Party

The Democrats' opposition to Republican efforts to protect the civil rights of African-Americans lasted not just through the Reconstruction era, but well into the 20th Century. In the South, the terrorist wing of the Democratic Party, the Ku Klux Klan, virtually destroyed the Republican Party -- which did not recover enough to become a force in the region until President Reagan's message of freedom and equality for all prevailed in the 1980s

Byrd, the longest serving member of congress a (D) was a KKK leader

Ann Margret Thatcher wrote:

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This year, 2004, is the 50th anniversary of the modern civil rights movement, which most people date to the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. That opinion was written by a Republican Chief Justiceappointed by a Republican President, Dwight Eisenhower. And of course that Republican Chief Justice had been our three-term Republican Governor here in California, and he'd been our Republican nominee for Vice President of the United States in 1948


And did you know that Eisenhower later referred to his nomination of Warren as the "biggest damn fool mistake" he'd ever made as president? Or that Republican scion Barry Goldwater voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964? Or that more Northern Democrats voted for it than Northern Republicans? Were Goldwater and Eisenhower racists? I don't believe they were at all. But I do disagree with their conservative philosophy that the civil rights legislation was an attempt at "legislating morality" and therefore not the government's job. I'm actually grateful that Earl Warren was an activist judge. We can also talk about that same bill being introduced to Congress by a Democratic president, and later signed into law by another Democratic president. Or we can talk about a Democratic president ending segregation in the military with the stroke of a pen.

My point here is that you really don't want to get into a debate about which party was strongest on civil rights, because each side have equal victories as well as shame.