LETTER TO THE EDITOR - Letter writer offers response to critique
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
The May 7 issue of The Record-Review had a letter from Gary Fergot criticizing my grasp of American history. He accused me of regurgitating what I saw on Fox News and “right wing-nut” radio. If Mr. Fergot thinks that his unkind words will hurt my feelings, he will be disappointed. After all, I always held the flashlight while my father repaired the car.
I regret using the term “Republican-dominated” to characterize the 1964 Congress. I often struggle to convey complex concepts within the brief confines of a letter to the editor. I am very pleased to have this opportunity to provide more details about Jim Crow laws, and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
It is true that the Democrats held majorities in both the House and the Senate at that time, but the old Democrat racist policies were dominated by the equal rights policies of the Republican minority with the historic passage of the Civil Rights Act. Just as David defeated Goliath, the minority Republicans imposed their will on the stronger Democrats with a combination of clever strategy, remarkable perseverance, and the help of God.
After Republican President Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, Democrat politicians used Jim Crow laws to oppress black people for a century. They used these laws to interfere with the right of black people to make and enforce contracts through legal processes, and to restrict their access to education. In the decades immediately following the Civil War this was primarily a regional problem enforced by southern states. Eventually, Democrat President Woodrow Wilson made “Jim Crow” national policy, rigidly segregating the civil service and the Capitol itself.
John F. Kennedy, a northern Catholic Democrat who strongly supported black civil rights, selected Texas Senator Lyndon Johnson to be his running mate to secure crucial support from the powerful southern Democrats.
See LETTER/ page 18 Letter
Continued from page 7
Johnson ascended to the presidency following the suspicious assassination of JFK. The assassination was so suspicious that the government hid the files of the investigation from the American public for over 60 years until President Trump ordered their release several weeks ago. Johnson, who had opposed every civil rights proposal considered in his first 20 years as lawmaker, decided it would be prudent to follow JFK’s civil rights policies under the circumstances of that time.
The Civil Rights Act that was championed by Democrat JFK nevertheless faced fierce Democrat opposition in Congress. Democrats first intended to keep the bill stalled in the House Rules Committee, whose chairman, Democrat Howard W. Smith, indicated his intention to keep the bill bottled up indefinitely. However, Republicans were able to “reach across the aisle” to northern Democrats to find sufficient votes to pass a “petition to discharge.”
To avoid the humiliation of a petition to discharge, Chairman Smith allowed the bill to pass through the Rules Committee, and the House then passed the Bill on to the Senate.
Democrat senators intended to stall the Bill in the Judiciary Committee, chaired by Democrat James O. Eastland, who was a staunch opponent. The Senate took unprecedented procedural steps to bypass the Judiciary Committee and to send the Bill to the Senate floor for immediate debate.
Eighteen Democrat senators, (including Strom Thurmond and former Ku Klux Klan leader Robert Byrd, and one Texas Republican senator, John Tower), led by Democrat Richard Russell, then launched a 75-day filibuster (one of the longest in history). Senator Russell proclaimed, “We will resist to the bitter end any measure or any movement which would tend to bring about social equality and intermingling and amalgamation of the races in our states.”
Minority Republicans were finally able to find enough reluctant Democrats to join them to force cloture. Democrat Senator Richard “KKK” Byrd ended his filibuster in opposition to the bill on June 10, 1964, after over 14 hours of speaking. Never before in its entire history had the Senate been able to defeat a filibuster on a civil rights bill.
Remarkably, the Democrat Party that oppressed black people for a century with Jim Crow laws and the Ku Klux Klan, and that fought a historic battle in Congress to oppose the passage of the Civil Rights Act, then cynically claimed to be the party of civil rights for the next 60 years. Their primary tool to maintain control over the black population switched from blatant racism to socialism (with which the Democrat Party already had decades of experience by 1964).
Bruce Bohr Marathon
