XPost: dc.urban-planning, wa.politics   
   From: anon@dont-email.me   
      
   The original targets of the Ku Klux Klan were Republicans, both   
   black and white, according to a new television program and book,   
   which describe how the Democrats started the KKK and for decades   
   harassed the GOP with lynchings and threats.   
      
   An estimated 3,446 blacks and 1,297 whites died at the end of   
   KKK ropes from 1882 to 1964.   
      
   The documentation has been assembled by David Barton of Wallbu   
   More..ilders and published in his book "Setting the Record   
   Straight: American History in Black & White," which reveals that   
   not only did the Democrats work hand-in-glove with the Ku Klux   
   Klan for generations, they started the KKK and endorsed its   
   mayhem.   
      
   "Of all forms of violent intimidation, lynchings were by far the   
   most effective," Barton said in his book. "Republicans often led   
   the efforts to pass federal anti-lynching laws and their   
   platforms consistently called for a ban on lynching. Democrats   
   successfully blocked those bills and their platforms never did   
   condemn lynchings."   
      
   Further, the first grand wizard of the KKK was honored at the   
   1868 Democratic National Convention, no Democrats voted for the   
   14th Amendment to grant citizenship to former slaves and, to   
   this day, the party website ignores those decades of racism, he   
   said.   
      
   "Although it is relatively unreported today, historical   
   documents are unequivocal that the Klan was established by   
   Democrats and that the Klan played a prominent role in the   
   Democratic Party," Barton writes in his book. "In fact, a 13-   
   volume set of congressional investigations from 1872   
   conclusively and irrefutably documents that fact.   
      
   "The Klan terrorized black Americans through murders and public   
   floggings; relief was granted only if individuals promised not   
   to vote for Republican tickets, and violation of this oath was   
   punishable by death," he said. "Since the Klan targeted   
   Republicans in general, it did not limit its violence simply to   
   black Republicans; white Republicans were also included."   
      
   Barton also has covered the subject in one episode of his   
   American Heritage Series of television programs, which is being   
   broadcast now on Trinity Broadcasting Network and Cornerstone   
   Television.   
      
   Barton told WND his comments are not a condemnation or   
   endorsement of any party or candidate, but rather a warning that   
   voters even today should be aware of what their parties and   
   candidates stand for.   
      
   His book outlines the aggressive pro-slavery agenda held by the   
   Democratic Party for generations leading up to the Civil War,   
   and how that did not die with the Union victory in that war of   
   rebellion.   
      
   Even as the South was being rebuilt, the votes in Congress   
   consistently revealed a continuing pro-slavery philosophy on the   
   part of the Democrats, the book reveals.   
      
   Three years after Appomattox, the 14th Amendment to the U.S.   
   Constitution, granting blacks citizenship in the United States,   
   came before Congress: 94 percent of Republicans endorsed it.   
      
   "The records of Congress reveal that not one Democrat ? either   
   in the House or the Senate ? voted for the 14th Amendment,"   
   Barton wrote. "Three years after the Civil War, and the   
   Democrats from the North as well as the South were still   
   refusing to recognize any rights of citizenship for black   
   Americans."   
      
   He also noted that South Carolina Gov. Wade Hampton at the 1868   
   Democratic National Convention inserted a clause in the party   
   platform declaring the Congress' civil rights laws were   
   "unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void."   
      
   It was the same convention when Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, the   
   first grand wizard of the KKK, was honored for his leadership.   
      
   Barton's book notes that in 1868, Congress heard testimony from   
   election worker Robert Flournoy, who confessed while he was   
   canvassing the state of Mississippi in support of the 13th and   
   14th Amendments, he could find only one black, in a population   
   of 444,000 in the state, who admitted being a Democrat.   
      
   Nor is Barton the only person to raise such questions. In 2005,   
   National Review published an article raising similar points. The   
   publication said in 1957 President Dwight Eisenhower, a   
   Republican, deployed the 82nd Airborne Division to desegregate   
   the Little Rock, Ark., schools over the resistance of Democrat   
   Gov. Orval Faubus.   
      
   Further, three years later, Eisenhower signed the GOP's 1960   
   Civil Rights Act after it survived a five-day, five-hour   
   filibuster by 18 Senate Democrats, and in 1964, Democrat   
   President Lyndon Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act after   
   former Klansman Robert Byrd's 14-hour filibuster, and the votes   
   of 22 other Senate Democrats, including Tennessee's Al Gore Sr.,   
   failed to scuttle the plan.   
      
   Dems' website showing jump in history   
      
   The current version of the "History" page on the party website   
   lists a number of accomplishments ? from 1792, 1798, 1800, 1808,   
   1812, 1816, 1824 and 1828, including its 1832 nomination of   
   Andrew Jackson for president. It follows up with a name change,   
   and the establishment of the Democratic National Committee, but   
   then leaps over the Civil War and all of its issues to talk   
   about the end of the 19th Century, William Jennings Bryan and   
   women's suffrage.   
      
   A spokesman with the Democrats refused to comment for WND on any   
   of the issues. "You're not going to get a comment," said the   
   spokesman who identified himself as Luis.   
      
   "Why would Democrats skip over their own history from 1848 to   
   1900?" Barton asked. "Perhaps because it's not the kind of civil   
   rights history they want to talk about ? perhaps because it is   
   not the kind of civil rights history they want to have on their   
   website."   
      
   The National Review article by Deroy Murdock cited the 1866   
   comment from Indiana Republican Gov. Oliver Morton condemning   
   Democrats for their racism.   
      
   "Every one who shoots down Negroes in the streets, burns Negro   
   schoolhouses and meeting-houses, and murders women and children   
   by the light of their own flaming dwellings, calls himself a   
   Democrat," Morton said.   
      
   It also cited the 1856 criticism by U.S. Sen. Charles Sumner, R-   
   Mass., of pro-slavery Democrats. "Congressman Preston Brooks (D-   
   S.C.) responded by grabbing a stick and beating Sumner   
   unconscious in the Senate chamber. Disabled, Sumner could not   
   resume his duties for three years."   
      
   By the admission of the Democrats themselves, on their website,   
   it wasn't until Harry Truman was elected that "Democrats began   
   the fight to bring down the final barriers of race and gender."   
      
   "That is an accurate description," wrote Barton. "Starting with   
   Harry Truman, Democrats began ? that is, they made their first   
   serious efforts ? to fight against the barriers of race; yet ?   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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