I didn't watch the Con last night but I just heard that he said African-Americans have been

[malaise]

Last edited Wed May 30, 2018, 04:36 PM - Edit history (1)

voting for the Democratic Party for over 100 years.

Well I do know that history has never been either his or his deplorable base's strong subject (I'm being kind here), but as has been pointed out elsewhere, the vast majority of African Americans did not have the right to vote until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Please to go fuck yourself King Con - you're a shameless two-bit LIAR



edited for clarity

[Afromania]

1. ..........................

............................

[SummerSnow]

2. 100 years hu? rofl

[leftofcool]

3. 2018-1965Nope

[Wellstone ruled]

4. That's the trouble

with some Rich Kid's. Only African-Americans they ever knew were the hired help. And we now know,Trump never paid attention in History Class. But,you can not fix Stupid.

[ProudLib72]

5. No, I distinctly remember the YUGE black turnout for Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover

All Republicans. It wasn't till FDR that they switched to voting Dem.

Seriously though, why not just make a statement like, "They've been voting Dem for a thousand years"? No one in his base will know the difference. And can you imagine the response from SHS when confronted with the questions? "God king emperor Trumpustus the First has been the elected sovereign of this country for a bazillion years, and if you contradict him you are a no good liar!"

[braddy]

8. FDR only got 23% of the Black vote in 1932 which was typical for the Democratic party,

and then the permanent reversal was made and he won 71% in 1936.

[kentuck]

13. Yep.

That's when the Republicans lost the African-American vote up until the present time .

[braddy]

6. African Americans were a solid GOP voting block until the 1936 election when they suddenly became a

solid Democratic voting block.

[Blue_true]

25. Actually, most AA voted republican until the 1960 election.

JFK's call to Recerend Martin Luther King while Doctor King was being held in the Birmingham jail and there were fears for his life permanently changed the dynamic of the Black vote.

I keep pointing out, historically Blacks gained NOTHING from FDR policies, Truman did somewhat better, integrating the armed forces and opening up mainline officer ranks to Blacks (instead of the seperate Black officer ranks, which were a lower pecking order). Eisenhower did more than FDR, Ike integrated schools and further increased equality for Blacks in the Armed Forces. The President that did the most was LBJ, by continuing and building on Kennedy's efforts.

[bobbieinok]

28. 1960 election switch is discussed by Taylor Branch in vol I of his series on MLK

[thucythucy]

33. Ike didn't integrate the schools.

Segregation in public schools was ruled unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court in response to a series of lawsuits pursued by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and other civil rights groups, with Thurgood Marshall as the lead attorney arguing for the plaintiffs in the suits that were combined to become Brown v. Board of Education.

What Ike did was to insist that the Supreme Court ruling be enforced, if need be by federal troops. In that sense he DID begin the desegregation of the schools, but only after the USSC ruling, which followed years of hard work by activists and attorneys.

Ike himself would have been just as happy letting the whole issue of school desegregation slide, but what he couldn't abide were people openly defying the federal courts.

That was back in the day--so long ago--when at least some Republicans believed we were a society in which no one was above the law.

FDR did attempt to open up defense work to black workers, with the result that when the defense sector expanded exponentially there was some benefit for black and Hispanic workers (as well as women and people with disabilities). But he had to be dragged into it by advocates.

I agree though, LBJ was the real breakthrough. His speech pushing for passage of the Civil Rights Act, in which he quoted "We Shall Overcome" was a little remembered turning point in our history.

Trump of course has no idea about any of this. It's appalling to think that even I know more about American history than the president of the United States.

[Blue_true]

35. Eisenhower back the Court's ruling with the force of the National Guard.

If Ike didn't do that, the Court's ruling and Marshall's brilliance, would have been wasted. FDR did little for Blacks, they got defense jobs because there was NO other choice given that many White men were too old to work, or at war, and there were no more White women that were not already employed.

[thucythucy]

36. And even with the nation's security at stake

and a shortage of labor in crucial defense industries, there were still riots by white workers who couldn't abide the thought of working with people of color.

Sad history which still has us as a nation tied into knots.

[Blue_true]

41. The story of race in America is a sad one.

So much time and potential has been wasted over many decades. Too many White Americans held to the belief that a marginal White person was better than a top flight Black person. I know some here will attack my belief, but I think that is changing, I see more Whites tacitly admitting that there is such a thing as White trash, and White trash is absolutely not better than solid and even marginal Blacks.

[braddy]

42. Ike used more than the NG, he sent in the 101st Airborne Division, Federal Army troops.

[Rhiannon12866]

46. I have the same thought every day

How did he miss out on learning about important events in American - or world - history?? And then there's geography: 'I never knew there were so many countries'

[braddy]

37. No, the switch was in 1936. In 1932 FDR won 23% of the black vote and then suddenly FDR won 71% of

the black vote in 1936 and blacks have voted overwhelmingly Democratic in every presidential election since then.

[Hortensis]

34. In those days the parties were mixed ideologically.

There's been a big sorting out. Who wears what label has changed.

Southern Democrats then averaged hard-core conservatives, but they left and have become the Republican Party base now.

Most Republican progressives and civil rights advocates then are Democratic progressives and civil rights advocates now.

A switcheroo.

Rabidly conservative, segregationist Southern Democratic governor, George Wallace, blocking entrance to the U of Alabama then:



Democrat running for governor of Georgia now:

?ops=scalefit_720_noupscale

[braddy]

39. George Wallace went back to Alabama to run again for Governor and in his last election won 91% of

the black vote.

[Blue_true]

43. George Wallace.

I view George Wallace as the type of politician that is an opportunist. When segregation was favorable to his political ambitions, he was for it and fought for it, even when it hurt people. But when the times changed, he changed. I see lots of republican politicians in red states that are that type, sadly, I see a few democrats in deep blue states that are that type, their conviction is no deeper that what helps them gain power, but having written that, those democrats are not remotely as bad as their republican counterparts.

[handmade34]

7. well...

AA's could "vote" but the 1965 Act allowed them to vote without literacy tests, poll taxes and other artificial barriers

the 15th Amendment gave Black Men the right and the 19th gave it to Women

before the Voting Rights Act only about 6% AA's voted


DT is ignorant and a liar and it is important that we have the empirical facts to counter all the lies

[malaise]

10. We both know what I mean

There were lots of restrictions on African-American voting - but you are right re how that small minority voted.
Nothing like facts

[braddy]

20. The NAACP estimates that about 5 million blacks voted in the 1960 election, that would far

exceed the 6% estimate which doesn't sound anywhere close to accurate.

[handmade34]

21. hmmm

population of AA's in 1960 was close to 19Mil... the 6% was an example of percentage in Mississippi before 1965...

[LanternWaste]

50. Subdivide that figure regionally for necessary context.

Subdivide that figure regionally for necessary context.

[unblock]

9. Blacks had the legal right to vote as of 1870 when the 15th amendment was ratified

It wasn't always easy in practice, of course, due to voter suppression. But the loyalty was to the Republican Party thanks to Lincoln.

The shift to democrats happened largely in 1964, thanks primarily to Goldwater turning the Republican Party into the bigot party. The civil right act then cemented it for the democrats.

[Blue_true]

27. The shift started in 1960 with Kennedy.

I followed my daddy around and I saw a lot of Black families that kept a portrait of JFF in their living rooms next to Jesus, years after Kennedy was dead, I was a very young child, but remember seeing that.

[unblock]

38. Yes, the civil rights and voting rights acts are a legacy of jfk's politics

Obviously the victory and the struggle belong to black people, but jfk played a key role in selling it to the majority Democratic Party. Then it took lbj's legislative genius to get it through Congress.

Considering that the Democratic Party has been the bigot party up to that point, it as an impressive sell. Trading away the bigot vote to get the black vote probably didn't seem wise at the time, politically speaking. But it certainly had the moral high ground.

[malaise]

55. Thank you folks for filling in details

re numbers

[brush]

11. AAs voted way before the '65 Voting Rights Act. Many southern states however did...

put poll tax and literacy obstacles in the way to stop black people from voting.

[malaise]

12. True but that was a small minority

the vast majority didn't vote until after 1965

[brush]

14. Not true. There are many more states than southern states. My family always voted.

The Voting Rights Act was primarily geared to stop the voting obstacles put in front of black people in the southern states.

[malaise]

17. I defer to you

[Tipperary]

51. Bingo.

[Blue_true]

29. Exactly, Kennedy defeated Nixon largely on the strength of the Black vote for Kennedy.

Before 60, most Blacks that voted, voted republican. Someone said that changed with FDR, but it did not because FDR did nothing of significance for Blacks. Some Black vote started going democrat after the 48 democratic convention and Truman's actions on integrating the military, but most Blacks still voted republican until 1960, when that started a permanent change.

[Alethia Merritt]

15. AND when they did vote they voted Republican because they identified with Abe Lincoln.

My entire family was Republican until FDR ran for office, then the family split. The family split again when JFK ran for office.
Johnson sealed the deal for most of my family and they recognized the "Dixicrats" and stayed away from them but voted for Democrats in the mode of JFK and Johnson.

[Blue_true]

30. I don't understand the FDR part, FDR did nothing for Blacks.

Doing something would have caused him election victories.

[IronLionZion]

16. 100 years ago most African-Americans voted Republican

because the parties were different back then. They voted for the part of Lincoln after the Civil War and switched to the party of civil rights because of efforts to end segregation in the South. The party switch happened during the late 1940s to the late 1960s where civil rights became a big part of the national Democratic party and they lost many segregationists and picked up many African Americans and other minorities.

[braddy]

18. Actually the switch was instant and total, and in 1936. I wonder what happened between the 1932 and

the 1936 elections.

[IronLionZion]

19. Do you have some info or a source for that?

Not being snarky, just curious to find out what happened.

Here's what I found so far:
https://www.factcheck.org/2008/04/blacks-and-the-democratic-party/

[braddy]

22. This chart shows how the switch was instant and an almost perfect reversal before it became even

more solid in 1964. [link:https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-c7ebb648f1ccba77817560a4bb0bf0d8-c|

[IronLionZion]

23. 1936 must be the New Deal jobs programs

1964 was of course the civil rights act and voting rights act

[braddy]

24. I've wondered what happened between 1932 and 1936, it must have been something incredible to

have instantly gone from night to day and stay there.

[uponit7771]

44. economic issues, had to be even with dems not being as inclusive as they're being now.

[Blue_true]

32. Perception.

The New Deal did nothing for Black. Maybe Bkacks benefitted from the largess of benefactor Whites, but as far as FDR policies went, Blacks got nothing.

[OhioBlue]

45. It isn't true that the New Deal did nothing for Afrcan Americans nor is it true that FDR did nothing

Judged from the standards of today, of course, there is much we can criticize about the New Deal/Roosevelt era. It did not bring to an end the tremendous injustices that African Americans had to suffer on a day-to-day basis, and some of its activities, such as the work of the Federal Housing Administration, served to build rather than break down the walls of segregation that separated black from white in Jim Crow America. Yet as Mary McLeod Bethune once noted, the Roosevelt era represented “the first time in their history” that African Americans felt that they could communicate their grievances to their government with the “expectancy of sympathetic understanding and interpretation.” Indeed, it was during the New Deal, that the silent, invisible hand of racism was fully exposed as a national issue; as a problem that at the very least needed to be recognized; as something the county could no longer pretend did not exist.

This shift in attitude, as Havard Sitkoff, the noted historian of the African American experience in the New Deal observes, helped propel the issue of race relations onto the national stage and usher in a new political climate in which “Afro-Americans and their allies could begin to struggle with some expectation of success.” In short, the New Deal, and the rhetorical support given to the cause of civil rights by both Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt gave the African American community hope; the chance to dream of a better future, no matter how difficult the struggle might be along the way.

It is also important to recognize that this hope was not merely based on empty promises of change, but on the actual words and deeds spoken by Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and taken by the federal government at a time when racism was deeply seared into the American psyche. With respect to the critical issue of employment, for example, we know that by 1935, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was employing approximately 350,000 African Americans annually, about 15% of its total workforce. In the Civilian Conservation Corps, the percentage of blacks who took part climbed from roughly 3% at its outset in 1933 to over 11% by the close of 1938 with a total of more than 350,000 having been enrolled in the CCC by the time the program was shut down in 1942. The National Youth Administration, under the direction of Aubrey Williams, hired more black administrators than any other New deal agency; employed African American supervisors to oversee the work the agency was doing on behalf of black youth for each state in the south; and assisted more than 300,000 Africa American youth during the Depression. In 1934, the Public Works Administration (PWA) inserted a clause in all government construction contracts that established a quota for the hiring of black laborers based on the 1930 labor census and as a consequence a significant number of blacks received skilled employment on PWA projects.

http://rooseveltinstitute.org/african-americans-and-new-deal-look-back-history/

[Hortensis]

49. Simply not true. FDR HAD to stave off the rabid opposition

of Southern conservatives (most in a troublemaking faction of the Democratic Party at that time) to get the New Deal passed, and for that reason his record on civil rights is considered mediocre at best.

HOWEVER, (and it is a huge however): All economic and labor advances that benefit women and minorities powerfully advance personal freedoms. Think about it. Money has a magic way of transforming theoretical rights to life, liberty and happiness into the real thing.

I posted a list below of some of the New Deal's accomplishments through just the Department of Labor alone. Take a look at that. Sure, many black people weren't paid minimum wage even after it was mandated by the federal government, but for those who were it transformed their lives.

[Blue_true]

53. At best, peanuts.

While others got steak. Strange concept of progress. Truman did more concrete change and LBJ did by far the most of any President, other than Lincoln.

[Hortensis]

54. Peanuts and getting to pick them is what they had before.

You forget the dreadful situation of most blacks prior to the New Deal. There would not have been a New Deal without very strong black support for it, and I don't think we should assume they were too stupid to know their own business. I like Truman and Johnson both better myself, but the Fair Deal and Great Society built on advances that started before and gained traction in the 1930s and early 1940s.

Reality is that conservatives, both Republican white and southern conservatives, who were a hugely troublesome bloc within the Democratic Party at that time, fought together to keep the New Deal from raising blacks. And because Democrats, including our black bloc, could not pass the New Deal without the support of their large southern conservative bloc, many things inimical to blacks were passed.

But, nevertheless, beginning in the 1930s blacks started joining the Democratic Party increasingly, voting increasingly for Democrats outside the south, and especially voting Democratic in the national elections very strongly. They were voting for the Democratic Party’s progressive economic and civil rights policies, including the New Deal benefits to blacks.

Directly in a lot of cases, btw. Some of those big programs after a few years employed blacks equal to or more than their percentage of the population. Huge numbers of good jobs, and not an accident. Contracts started requiring quotas of blacks to be hired and training provided for skilled jobs. Blacks became supervisors over white workers on New Deal programs.

Another big thing that happened is...talk. Democrats, including FDR from the White House and Eleanor touring the country, started talking about the huge issues of minority problems and civil rights as a national problem. The New Deal changes themselves exposed just how bad things were, but the subject itself was new at that level and they raised it.

Might seem piss-poor today, but that and worse is where blacks were then and they wanted more. To badmouth the New Deal so severely is to diminish their own achievements of those days. They were a critical part of making it all happen, and then what came next.

[JI7]

47. It was Eleanor Roosevelt . FDR couldn't do much in the way of policy because it would turn off

racist white democrats .

[Hortensis]

48. No. :) Look up Frances Perkins. FDR named her SecLabor,

our first female cabinet member, and empowered her to make the projects she brought him happen.

Wickipedia: During her term as Secretary of Labor, Perkins executed many aspects of the New Deal, including

the Civilian Conservation Corps,
the Public Works Administration and its successor the Federal Works Agency,
the labor portion of the National Industrial Recovery Act.

With the Social Security Act she established
unemployment benefits,
pensions for the many uncovered elderly Americans, and
welfare for the poorest Americans.

She pushed to reduce workplace accidents and helped craft
laws against child labor.

Through the Fair Labor Standards Act, she established the first
minimum wage and
overtime laws for American workers, and
defined the standard forty-hour work week.

She formed governmental policy for working with labor unions and helped to alleviate strikes by way of the United States Conciliation Service.

Perkins dealt with many labor questions during World War II, when skilled labor was vital and women were moving into formerly male jobs.

Eleanor was a fine woman and worked very hard on her own, but it was basically separately, on her own. Weird marriage, and the nation wasn't ready for a first lady with genuine, official power. Remember how they went after Hillary over a half century later as if she was trying to re-crucify Jesus? And, frankly, Eleanor was no Frances Perkins.

SHE was amazing and a huge demonstrator of the power of working for change from the inside, where the power and organization are. Using "the establishment's" enormous capabilities to advance progressive change.

?itok=aaGJKTOi

[Kurt V.]

40. it might be this

well shit. i can't get the chart to post but google union membership by year. there is a huge jump in that time frame

[Hortensis]

52. Just looked a bit. Partial answer is FDR happened, or perhaps

just the hope for change he represented. The Great Depression was still on, of course.

Blacks were a big part of his power coalition that, in addition to white liberals, also included union members, ethnic and religious minorities, and recent immigrants, and the big Southern conservative bloc, which still loathed NE white Republicans more than anything. So a lot of segregationist southern whites were, strangely, part of the powerful coalition that created the New Deal. They certainly exacted major pounds of flesh in return for their cooperation.

Yet the very high black vote for FDR in 1936 (71%), again in 1940, and again in 1944 shows clearly that blacks voted for his administration, because actual black registration between parties was fairly evenly split in that period.

Most writing on this focuses on how so many policies hurt blacks more than helped, like cutting farm production and allowing passage of a law closing blacks out of unions. By 1940 and 1944 they certainly would have known that, though, yet black voters still voted for FDR and progressive Democrats in high numbers.

So, more digging required for specifics. Suspect a big part of it will be upswing in jobs. Labor had recovered somewhat by 1933; though unemployment remained @15% until war production created high demand for labor, all rising demand for labor would cause more and more blacks to finally benefit from additional labor-related New Deal programs.

Interesting question.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

26. He's just

so GD rotten. What a shitshow. Imagine the bar and the hoops the rw will insist on from our next dem president just bc we insisted this jack-ass act the part.

[Ilsa]

31. 1. He lies all of the time. 2. He's an idiot. nt