Setting the Record Straight: Segregation – From America’s History in Black and White, Part 5: Did you know history shows Republicans were the party pushing legislation for equality and integration? Did you know that Democrats unanimously voted in favor of segregation? Can you guess which party has a history of violence, voter fraud, political corruption, and intimidation? Tune in to learn more surprising facts, as we continue Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black and White.

Air Date: 02/09/2022

On-air Personalities: David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

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Transcription note:  As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast. Transcription will be released shortly. However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

Welcome

Rick:

Welcome to the intersection of faith and politics! This is WallBuilders Live with David Barton and Rick Green. Thank you for joining us today! Visit us online at WallBuilders.com and WallBuildersLive.com. We’re in the middle of an amazing seven-part series called Setting the Record Straight, American History in Black and White. Today is part five, you can get all four of the first parts on our website right now

Today is part five, you can get all four of the first parts on our website right now WallBuildersLive.com. Today we”ll do part five. In the next few days we’ll get part six and part seven. It’s a lot of great information. You don’t want to miss it. We’ll pick up right where we left off with Setting the Record Straight, American History in Black and White.

John Roy Lynch’s Speech

David:

The Democratic response against open education for black youth sometimes went beyond words, to acts of violence. Such as when they burned out eight schools in Memphis, in which black youth were being taught.

Additionally, since churches in the south frequently provide an education for youth, such as St. Phillip’s Church in Richmond, churches were also frequently burned down. This is a flyer distributed by the Klan in North Carolina showing a school teacher being stripped and beaten. That flyer distributed to teachers warned, “Miss Whoever, we send you a picture of the way we treated a Yankee school ma’am in this county last year. Beware lest you share the same fate.”

The evidences of the widespread Democratic opposition to equal education for black youth are numerous and abundant. Black Americans knew how important a good education was to their own future.

As representative John Roy Lynch had accurately noted, “No educated people can be held in bondage.” Black leaders understood that good education was important not only to black Americans but also to the future of the country.

Representative Joseph Hayne Rainey, speaking on a bill to strengthen the education system for all students, including young black students, wisely reminded the opposing Democrats,

“I shall remind the house of one thing more, the youth now springing up to manhood will be the future law makers and rulers of our country. That they should be intelligent and thoroughly educated is a prime necessity and of great importance, which is admitted by all and denied by none. All that may be done with this end in view will be returned with an increased interest. I truly hope that those Democrats who oppose this bill will reconsider their opposition and give it their vote when question shall again be before the House. For one, I shall give it my hearty support, believing it to be just and beneficial in its provisions.”

Black Segregation In Schools

Unfortunately, 87% of the Democrats in Congress at that time voted against that education bill. Segregated, inferior, and dilapidated schools for blacks became the norm and the southern states under Democratic control.

In 1954 the Supreme Court and Brown versus Board of Education finally struck down state segregation laws in education. Thus reinstating what Republicans had done nearly 75 years earlier in the 1875 Civil Rights Bill. What was the Southern Democratic response to the court decision finally ending segregated education?

There was a twofold response, one of words and one of actions. In the category of words, one hundred Democrats in Congress 19 senators and 81 Representatives passed the Southern Manifesto denouncing the court’s decision to end segregation. Those 100 Democrats declared in 1956 that desegregation was, “certain to destroy the system of public education and that there would be what they called an explosive and dangerous condition created by this decision.”

Also in the category of words, Democratic governor Herman Talmadge of Georgia issued a written attack on the court decision and promised that “There will never be mixed schools while I am governor.” He even warned of forthcoming bloodshed because of the desegregation decision.

Mississippi Democratic governor James Coleman when asked in an interview on Meet the Press whether the public schools of Mississippi would ever be integrated, he replied, “I would say that a baby born in Mississippi today will never live long enough to see it integrated school.” This was typical of what many Southern Democrats did in the category of words.

The Democratic Response

But the Democratic response went beyond words and also included actions. Following the 1954 school desegregation decision, southern Democratic governors went to extreme lengths to keep the court decision from going into effect.

For example, in 1956 Democratic Governor Allen Shivers of Texas deployed the Texas Rangers to keep blacks from entering schools in Mansfield. The following year 1957 Democratic Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas called out the National Guard to keep black students from entering Central High School in Little Rock.

However, Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower quickly intervened and he federalized the Arkansas National Guard to take it away from Governor Faubus. Eisenhower then replaced the Arkansas Guard with twelve hundred troops from the elite 101st Airborne Division ordering them to protect the nine black students who had chosen to go to Central High.

Democrats and U.S. Senate strongly protested against Eisenhower’s actions to protect these black students. Georgia Democratic Governor Marvin Griffin also attacked Eisenhower’s actions and promised that as long as he held office he would, “Maintain segregation in the schools and the races will not be mixed come hell or high water.”

To prepare for the possibility that Eisenhower might do in Georgia what he had done in Arkansas, legislation was introduced in the Democratically controlled Georgia legislature so that if desegregation was attempted the public schools of the state would be dissolved and replaced with state-run private schools so that blacks could be excluded.

These types of schools became known as, Segregation Academies. Meanwhile, in Arkansas Democratic Governor Faubus unable to prevent black students from attending school because of the federal protection they had received simply shut down the schools for the next year to prevent further attendance.

Bring A Speaker To Your Area

Tim:

Hey, this is Tim Barton with WallBuilders. And as you’ve had the opportunity to listen to WallBuilders Live, you’ve probably heard a wealth of information about our nation, about our spiritual heritage, about the religious liberties, and about all the things that make America exceptional. And you might be thinking, “As incredible as this information is, I wish there was a way that I could get one of the WallBuilders guys to come to my area and share with my group.”

Whether it be a church, whether it be a Christian school, or public school, or some political event, or activity, if you’re interested in having a WallBuilders speaker come to your area, you can get on our website at www.WallBuilders.com and there’s a tab for scheduling. If you”ll click on that tab, you’ll notice there’s a list of information from speakers bio’s, to events that are already going on. And there’s a section where you can request an event, to bring this information about who we are, where we came from, our religious liberties, and freedoms. Go to the WallBuilders website and bring a speaker to your area.

The Confederate Battle Flag

Virginia Democratic Governor James Allman like other Southern Democratic governors also shut down public schools rather than permit black students to attend. In 1960 in Louisiana for Democratic Governor Jimmy Davis supported segregation it required four federal marshals to accompany little Ruby Bridges so she could attend a public elementary school in New Orleans.

When Ruby entered that school every other parent in that school pulled their children out of the school. And for the entire year, little Ruby was the only student in that school, just Ruby and her school teacher from Boston.

So deep-seated was the racism among Southern Democratic leaders that When the 1964 Civil Rights Bill became law, Lester Maddox who became Democratic governor of Georgia sold the fast food business that he owned rather than serve blacks in his restaurant.

In 1960 Mississippi Democratic Governor Hugh White even requested that evangelist Billy Graham segregate his crusades, something Graham refused to do. In fact, when South Carolina Democratic Governor George Timmerman learned that Billy Graham had invited African-Americans to a reformation rally at the South Carolina State Capitol he promptly denied use of the facilities for evangelism.

This type of Democratic response against black Americans, and the whites who supported them, was common across much of the South. The reasons given by Democratic leaders to justify this disgusting behavior was simply “states rights.”

The same rhetoric they had used a century earlier, first to justify slavery and the creation of a slaveholding nation, and then to an act laws enforcing segregation and withholding voting rights from black Americans for the next 80 years after the Civil War.

During the Era of Desegregation in an effort to remake the image of racism, so long and so properly associated with the Southern cry of “states rights,” Southern leaders began to claim that the Southern Confederate Battle Flag, the quintessential symbol of a perverted state’s rights philosophy, was actually a symbol of heritage rather than hate.

Consequently, many today wrongly, but innocently believe that the battle flag of the South is about heritage and not about hate. Something easily refuted by historical facts and documents.

Democrats Are Still Against Education

Returning to the school desegregation situation, some Democratic southern governors did work for integration, including Tennessee Governor Frank Clement, Florida Governor Leroy Collins, and Kentucky Governor Happy Chandler. But these tended to be the exceptions among Southern Democratic governors rather than the rule. Their admirable behavior was clearly overshadowed by the negative behavior of the others.

Democratic leaders long stood in the doorways of schoolhouses and told black children, “We don’t want you in here to get the good education that our children are getting.” Today, as many black students have become mired in urban schools that are often failing or deteriorating. Democrats are once again standing in the doorway.

Consider the situation in Washington, D.C. where 84% of the city’s students are black despite the fact that nearly $13,500 are spent each year on every student in the district and amount almost twice the national average of $7,500 per student, D.C. schools currently rank among the worst of all schools in the nation.

Congress, therefore, moved to provide help by providing a $7,500 voucher for low-income students who are trapped in failing schools. A voucher they can redeem to attend a better school, a school chosen by that student and his or her parents. When that congressional proposal came to a vote, only 1% of Democrats in Congress supported vouchers and parental choice in education even though nationally, nearly 70% of African-Americans with children support educational choice.

While Democrats once stood in the doorways of public schools and told black students, “We don’t want you in here,” they are again standing in the doorways of public schools. This time telling black students that they don’t want them out. That they want them to remain in failing schools. It appears that for a century and a half Democrats have often taken wrong positions on educational opportunity for black Americans.

Patriotism Still Evident Among African-Americans

Returning back to the 19th century, Representative John Roy Lynch, a congressman from Mississippi was mentioned earlier. He had grown up as a slave until freed by the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Within a decade he’d become speaker of the House in Mississippi and later received presidential appointments from Republican presidents Benjamin Harrison and William McKinley.

Lynch was appointed an army officer during the Spanish-American War, earned a law degree, and was the chairman of the Republican Party in Mississippi. He was a leader who served his state and his nation well.

In 1884 John Roy Lynch became the first black American to preside over a national political convention. The Republican National Convention in Chicago. Lynch’s love for his country was still very evident and reflected the patriotism still evident among African Americans today.

“I love the land that gave me birth. I love the stars and stripes. This country is where I intend to live, where I expect to die. To preserve the honor of the national flag and to maintain perpetually within the union of the states. Hundreds, I may say thousands, of noble, brave, and true-hearted colored men fought, bled, and died.”

America”s History

This is David Barton with another moment from America’s history. Often today it seems that the federal government has become too intrusive in the local matters. And federal micro-management has now, unfortunately, become the norm in education, law enforcement, religious expressions, and even on what is and is not moral.

Strikingly, the Founding Fathers had intended that the federal government never intrude into any of these issues. As Thomas Jefferson explained, “Taking from the states the moral rule of their citizens and subordinating it to the federal government would break up the foundations of the Union. I believe the states can best govern our home concerns and the federal government our foreign ones.”

According to Thomas Jefferson, the original plan was for the federal government to direct foreign affairs but for the states and local communities the domestic and the moral ones.

For more information on God’s hand in American history contact WallBuilders at 1 800 8 REBUILD.

Democrats Love Slavery Better Than Liberty

While Lynch was the first black American to preside over a national political convention, he was not the last. U.S. Senator Edward Brooke presided over the 1968 National Republican Convention. And Representative J.C. Watts presided over the 2,000 National Republican Convention.

While three black Americans have resided over national conventions for Republicans. To date, Democrats have never had a black American preside over any of their national Democratic conventions.

Following the removal of federal troops from the South after the agreement of 1876 Republicans sought different means to try to secure the rights of black Americans in the South. For example, Republicans Posted handbills such as this one from 1880 reminding Southern Democrats first, of the federal laws protecting black voting rights and then warning of huge fines for violations.

The presidential election of that year, of 1880, was between Republican James A. Garfield and Northern Democrat Winfield Scott Hancock. Hancock had been a successful union general during the Civil War. But after the war, he was reassigned because of his leniency toward unreconstructed Democrats. Recall that Northern or Union Democrats such as Hancock sought to preserve the Union but not to end slavery or to grant equality to African-Americans.

Since Hancock was a Democrat, even though he had fought for the Union, this 1880 piece reminded citizens why they should not vote Democratic in that election. The reasons given in this piece would be considered strong language today. At that time, however, there were nothing more than reminders.

Democrats Were Known For Their Bloody Atrocities

The facts recorded in this piece were widely known and understood by voters in that day.

“Why I will not vote the Democratic ticket: I am opposed to the Democratic Party and I will tell you why. Every state that seceded from the United States was a Democratic state. Every man that shot Union soldiers was a Democrat. Every man that loves slavery better than liberty was a Democrat. The man that assassinated Abraham Lincoln was a Democrat. Every man that sympathized with the assassin, every man glad that the noblest president ever elected was assassinated, was a Democrat.

“Every man that wept over the corpse of slavery was a Democrat. Every man that cursed Lincoln because he issued the Proclamation of Emancipation, the grandest paper since the Declaration of Independence, every one of them was a Democrat. Soldiers, every scar you have got on your heroic bodies was given you by a Democrat. Every scar, every arm that is lacking, every limb that is gone, every scar is a souvenir of a Democrat.”

That broadside then contrasted the Republicans with the Democrats. “The Republicans have done some noble things, things that will be remembered as long as there is history. But there are some things they did not do. They did not use an army to force slavery into Kansas. They were not knights of the Golden Circle. They did not oppose emancipation. They were not Ku Klux. They did not scourge, hang, shoot, and murder men for opinion’s sake. They did not organize the Louisiana White League or the South Carolina Rifle clubs. They did not drench the South with the blood of inoffensive colored men.”

The piece concluded with a simple question, “Can the Democratic Party and all Democrats say as much?” A further indication that the Democrats were well-known for their bloody atrocities against blacks is seen in this illustration from Harper’s Weekly showing the major elements and influences of the Democratic Party.

The Southern Redemption Movement

The illustration shows the various banners under which Democrats gathered and those banners included the Stars and Bars carried by Confederate soldiers. The pro-slavery banner, the Ku Klux Klan banner, the New York rioters banner referring to the massive riots instigated against blacks by the Democrats in New York leading to the killing and injuring of as many as one thousand citizens.  And finally the Democratic banner of repudiation referring to the Democrats’ opposition to paying the national debt incurred in putting down the southern pro-slavery rebellion.

These are the various movements led by Democrats. Americans in that day new Democrats stood for. By the 1880s a movement called Southern redemption had begun in earnest. Southern redemption was a political movement to “redeem” the South from the reconstruction acts and the civil rights laws passed by Republicans. Laws and acts the Southern Democrats believed threatened their version of a Southern society.

The best way for the Democratic legislatures to “redeem” their state was to deprive black Americans of their political rights through the passage of state laws that restricted, removed, or even blatantly violated their civil rights, as well as through the prompt repeal of state laws that had suppressed Klan violence.

Representative John Roy Lynch, who not only had helped pass the original federal civil rights law but who also witnessed their subsequent violation at the state level throughout the period of Southern redemption accurately noted, “The opposition to civil rights in the South is confined almost exclusively to states under Democratic control.”

Constitution Alive

Have you ever wanted to learn more about the United States Constitution but just felt like, man, the classes are boring or it’s just that old language from 200 years ago or I don’t know where to start? People want to know. But it gets frustrating because you don’t know where to look for truth about the Constitution either.

Well, we’ve got a special program for you available now called Constitution Alive with David Barton and Rick Green. It’s actually a teaching done on the Constitution at Independence Hall in the very room where the Constitution was framed. We take you both to Philadelphia, the Cradle of Liberty and Independence Hall and to the WallBuilders” library where David Barton brings the history to life to teach the original intent of our Founding Fathers.

We call it the QuickStart guide to the Constitution because in just a few hours through these videos you will learn the Citizen’s Guide to America’s Constitution.  You’ll learn what you need to do to help save our Constitutional Republic. It’s fun! It’s entertaining! And it’s going to inspire you to do your part to preserve freedom for future generations. It’s called Constitution Alive with David Barton and Rick Green. You can find out more information on our website now at WallBuilders.com.

Democrats Burning The Bible

Democrats understood how important it was to their survival to prevent Blacks from voting. In fact, this illustration from that period shows an allegory of the Bible story of Samson who lost his strength when his hair was cut. In the picture you see that the woman has used her razor, called the Lost Cause Regained, to cut the black Samson’s hair and cause him to lose his strength. What is in his hair? His strength, it is called suffrage or voting.

With the strength or the vote of black Americans removed you see the various Democratic groups and leaders rejoicing in the background. Including Confederates, the KKK, Pro-slavery forces, and various famous Democratic leaders of that day including General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who headed the Ku Klux Klan.

By the way, notice the phrase, “The Democratic Barbecue” and the Democrats are burning various books in the foreground including the Holy Bible. As this illustration confirms, limiting Black voting became the major goal for Southern Democrats. Given the explicit federal voting protections that had been established by the 14th and 15th Amendments and by the numerous federal civil rights laws, it was no easy task for Democrats to circumvent these protections.

It required devious and cunning methods. And Southern Democratic legislatures implemented almost a dozen separate devices to keep Blacks from voting. The first device was the poll tax, a fee paid by a voter before he could vote. The fee was high enough that most poor were unable to pay the tax and therefore were unable to vote. While some Southern whites were poor nearly all Southern blacks were poor, having just emerged from slavery, and not yet having established an independent means of living.

Jim Crow Laws Or Black Code

Literacy tests were the second means that Democrats used to disenfranchise blacks. Literacy test required a voter to demonstrate a certain level of specific knowledge before he could vote. In some cases, the test was 20 pages long for Blacks and those administering the test were white Democrats who nearly always ruled that Blacks were illiterate.

Grandfather Clauses were the third device used to disenfranchise Black Americans. Allowing only those individuals to vote whose father or grandfather had been registered to vote prior to the passage of the 15th Amendment. This law ensured that poor and illiterate whites could vote but not blacks.

The fourth device was suppressive election procedures. This included the use of multiple ballots. That is, a Republican voter might be required to cast a ballot in up to eight separate locations or sometimes to vote for each individual Republican on a ballot at a separate location before the ballot would be counted.

Democratic officials often fail to inform black voters of this complicated procedure and their ballots were therefore disqualified. Democrats also used what were called, “Hide and Seek Polling Places, moving voting boxes to unknown locations at the last minute and then posting armed guards in case any Blacks would stumble upon the voting box.

The fifth device included the use of so-called “Black Codes” later called Jim Crow Laws to restrict the freedoms and economic opportunities of Blacks.

Robert Brown Elliott Speech

Representative Robert Brown Elliott reported, “Among the first acts of legislation adopted by the Southern Democratic states where laws which impose upon the colored race, oppressive disabilities, and burdens and curtail their rights in the pursuit of life, liberty, and property to such an extent that their freedom was of little value.”

“Colored citizens where in some states forbidden to even appear in town. They were required to reside only and cultivate the soil without the right to purchase or own it. They were excluded from many occupations and they were not permitted to testify in any court where a white man was the party.”

National observers at that time concluded that the Democratic South was simply trying to institute a new form of slavery through the use of these Black Codes. Representative Richard Kane of South Carolina agreed, “When the government of the United States had made the black man free, when Congress in the greatness of its majesty, prepared to give to every class of men their rights, and in reconstructing the southern states guaranteed to all the people their liberties.

“Democrats refused to agree to the laws enacted by Congress. You, Democrats, refuse to, and I quote, ‘accept the situation.’  To recognize the rights of that class of men in this land. You sought to make the reconstruction acts a nullity if possible. You sought to re-enslaved the black man by every means in your power.”

Rick:

We’re out of time for today folks. That was part five out of a seven part series on Setting the Record Straight, American History in Black and White. If you just tuned in today you can get the first four parts right now at WallBuildersLive.com. Or you can go to WallBuilders.com and get the DVD or the book. We’ll get the last two parts of the series in the next two airings of WallBuilders Live. Thank you so much for listening to WallBuilders Live with David Barton and Rick Green.