Political parties have shifted focus

Dick Clark of Rolling Meadows claims the Democratic Party is the party of white supremacy. Historically they did use their legislative and executive power to enact white supremacy policies and practices in the Southern states and in Northern cities like Chicago.

But the Southern Democratic Party split when Harry S. Truman, a Southern Democrat, introduced a civil rights platform at the party’s 1948 convention. Because of that platform, the self-described Dixiecrats walked out of the convention and held a second one in Birmingham, Alabama. Strom Thurmond ran for president that year on the “States’Rights” ticket at the second convention. He lost to Harry S. Truman, but things had started.

The big break that moved the South from Democrat to Republican happened when Southern Democrat Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law in 1964. The Southern Democrats began in large numbers to switch to Republicans even though the people running were the same. There were some who stayed Democrats throughout the sixties and seventies. Like those who had switched, they were also segregationists who did not want their schools, cities, or churches desegregated.

Ronald Reagan in the 80s cemented the Republican Party’s hold over the South. From that time on the Republican Party, which had been derided by the formerly Southern Democrats as the party of Lincoln, held power in the South.

The point I am making is that the title of Democrat and Republican has not held true to one form of policies throughout history largely around the issues of slavery, race, women’s rights and immigration. To use history as a sole guide to what a party currently stands for is not an accurate representation.

Nancy E. Degnan, Des Plaines