Critical race theory in our public schools has raised a lot of controversy. I Googled some interesting facts of U.S. history that relate to theories of racism in the U.S. but are probably overlooked by the Democratic teachers union.

1. President Abraham Lincoln formulated the Republican Party to end slavery.

2. During the Reconstruction Era (1863-77), 16 Blacks were elected to Congress in the Republican Party.

3. Joseph Hayne Rainey, born enslaved, helped found the Republican Party of South Carolina and became speaker of the House in 1874 (bitterly opposed by Democrats).

4. The Ku Klux Klan was a militant branch of the Democratic Party.

5. President Grant signed the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 to prevent the Klan from carrying out threats of violence against Rainey.

6. When the Democrats regained control in the late 1870s, they began eviscerating the civil, political and economic rights of Blacks and destroyed the Republican Party in the South.

7. The Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill of 1918 was introduced by a Republican but filibustered by Southern Democrats.

8. The Equal Rights Act of 1965 was opposed by 39% of House Democrats and 79% of Senate Democrats (who tried to filibuster it). The act would not have passed without strong Republican support.

9. Sen. Strom Thurmond, Klan member and Democrat at the time, opposed the Equal Rights Act but nonetheless was highly praised by Joe Biden, Bill Clinton and other leading Democrats.

Dr. Joel I. Last

Greensburg

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