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by Clarence Page
Frederick Douglass, the most important African American in the 19th century, was loyal to the
"I knew that however bad the Republican party was, the Democratic party was much worse," he wrote in his third autobiography, published in 1881.
How things have changed. The party of Lincoln was the progressive party of its day. While the
Today, in one of history's biggest ironies, resistance to measures intended to secure the hard-won victories of the Civil War and civil rights movement are coming from the
That thought came to mind as the
By a 5-to-4 majority, the Supremes struck down the law's "preclearance" section. It required nine states, mostly in the South, and some jurisdictions in seven others to get federal approval before any proposed election changes can go into effect.
Preclearance was enacted to block gerrymandering, poll taxes, literacy tests and other shenanigans aimed at suppressing black votes after the fall of Reconstruction, a period of racial conflicts that American politics still struggle to resolve.
With the civil rights reforms pushed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, himself a former racial conservative from Texas, a backlash caused South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond and numerous other southern Democrats to find a new haven in the party of their ancient foe, Lincoln.
In a grand understatement, Chief Justice John Roberts declared "Our country has changed" in writing the 5-to-4 decision, which invited
Good luck with that. The current condition of
Some of us are old enough to remember how Republicans, led by Sen. Everett Dirksen of Illinois, hustled up enough crucial votes for the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act to dodge threatened filibusters by southern Democrats.
At first, Dirksen was reluctant, according to the dramatic behind-the-scenes account in a new book titled "Bending Toward Justice: The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy" by history Prof. Gary May of the
But when peaceful demonstrators were brutally attacked in front of TV cameras in Selma, Ala., by state troopers and vigilantes in March 1965, May writes, an infuriated Dirksen told associates that he was willing to accept "revolutionary" legislation.
Republican support of voting rights didn't end there. When renewal of preclearance faced a procedural logjam in the
"The works around here get gummed up pretty easily," May quotes Dole as saying. They still do.
Even though the act was extended again with very strong bipartisan support in 2006, it's hard to imagine today's congressional
Meanwhile, Texas has wasted no time in pushing for a new voter ID law that the
Even so, black turnout in November exceeded all expectations partly, I would argue, because of anger and concern over reports of voter suppression schemes. As Douglass might say: 'Tis better to woo the black vote than to try to suppress it.
AMERICAN POLITICS
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Article: Copyright ©, Tribune Media Services, Inc.
GOP Turns Against Its Own History