GOP has aided women, blacks

The Republican Party has taken some lumps recently with the contentious presidential campaigns and the stridency of the Tea Party right-wingers.

From listening to its members, it appears that they have no clue about the history of the party, what it accomplished in its early years and what it stands for today.

The Republican Party was founded in 1854 by people who were opposed to slavery. The party’s first president was Abraham Lincoln, whose Emancipation Proclamation abolished slavery in the Confederate states in 1863.

And Republican-dominated Congresses passed the 13th Amendment in 1865, outlawing slavery; the 14th Amendment in 1866, which, among other things, requires states to give equal protection of the law to all citizens; the 15th Amendment in 1869, giving all men of color the right to vote; and the 19th Amendment in 1919, giving women the right vote.

In 1964, it was Republicans, under the leadership of Republican Sen. Everett Dirksen, who passed President Lyndon Johnson’s Civil Rights Act when the majority of Democratic senators voted against it.

In the 1980s, when the South went from Democratic domination to Republican majorities, the net migration of African-Americans went back into the South.

Why? Because under Republican leadership, the South became a much friendlier place for them.

This is only a bit of what Republicans have done for minorities and women.

This story was originally published May 18, 2016 at 6:17 PM with the headline "GOP has aided women, blacks."