The Republicans in congress overrode the veto on April 9, 1866.  The act declared that "all persons born in the United States not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed," were citizens of the United States. Such citizens were "of every race and color" and "without regard to any previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude." As citizens they could make and enforce contracts, sue and be sued, give evidence in court, and inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real estate and personal property. Persons who denied these rights to former slaves were guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction faced a fine not exceeding $1,000 and/or imprisonment not exceeding one year.

Meanwhile, the former Confederacy became know as the "Solid South" -- voting 100 percent Democrat and instituting policies that gradually stripped the newly-freed blacks of their rights and relegating them to the status of second class citizens.  The post-war South also saw the rise of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), a domestic terrorist group (in today's jargon).  The original KKK arose in the chaos after the Civil War and used terrorism, violence, and lynching to intimidate and oppress American Blacks, Jews, and Catholics, as well as other racial minorities.  The original Klan was founded in 1865 by veterans of the Confederate Army, notably cavalryman Nathan Bedford Forrest.  Its purpose was to restore white supremacy in the aftermath of the Civil War.  The Klan resisted Reconstruction by intimidating "carpetbaggers", "scalawags" and freedmen (ex-slaves).  The KKK methods increased murders until there was a backlash among Southern elites who viewed the Klan's excesses as an excuse for federal troops to continue occupation.  The original KKK declined from 1868 to 1870 and was destroyed by Republican President Grant's prosecution and enforcement under the Civil Rights Act of 1871.

Reconstruction in post-Civil War American had the federal government providing some protection for the civil rights of the newly-freed slaves.  Reconstruction abruptly ended with the Compromise of 1877 and federal troops were withdrawn.  Southern state governments began passing Jim Crow laws that prohibited Blacks from using the same public accommodations as Whites. The Supreme Court had ruled, in the Civil Rights Cases (1883), that the 14th Amendment applied only to the actions of government, not to those of private individuals, and consequently did not protect persons against individuals or private entities who violated their civil rights. In particular, the Court invalidated most of the Civil Rights Act of 1875, a law passed by Congress to protect blacks from private acts of discrimination.  In 1890, the State of Louisiana passed Act 111 that required separate accommodations for blacks and whites on railroads, including separate railway cars, though it specified that the accommodations must be kept "equal".  The law was contested and resulted in a landmark 1896 Supreme Court decision, Plessy vs. Ferguson that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation, even in public accomodations (particularly railroads), under the doctrine of "separate but equal." 

Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 28th American President, was born in Virginia and raised in Georgia.  Wilson was the first Democrat elected to the presidency in the 20th century.  Wilson himself was a highly educated man and a racist.  During his first term, Wilson instituted the practice of segregation in the United States government agencies.  Wilson won the 1912 presidential election because the Republican ticket had been split by the William Howard Taft - Theodore Roosevelt feud.  Also, a large number of American Blacks had defected from the Republican Party to the Democrats because the Wilson promised support for their issues. They were disappointed when early in his administration he allowed the introduction of segregation into several federal departments. The issue came up early in an April 1913 cabinet meeting, when Postmaster General Albert Burleson, a southern native, complained about working conditions at the Railway Mail Service. Offices and restrooms were segregated, sometimes by partitions erected between seating for white and black employees.

Racism was overt in the southern states of the ex-Confederacy, but was more covert in large northern metro areas during and after World War 2.  The Great Depression Second World War had caused a migration of southern blacks to northern metro areas to look for work and do war-related work.  When the shooting was in Europe and the Pacific ended, the civil rights war heated up on the home front.  Black soldiers who had fought bravely and honorably returned to a segregated nation and military.  By Executive Order 9981, President Harry S. Truman (a Democrat) ordered the integration of the armed forces – a major advance in civil rights. Signed on July 26, 1948, the Order states, "It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin."  Truman was hated by the Solid South wing of the Democrat Part for what they perceived as a sellout.

Cracks in the racism wall became huge fissures with the Supreme Court's landmark Brown vs. Board of Education (1954).  The Court overturned earlier rulings going back to Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896), by declaring that state laws that established separate public schools for black and white students denied black children equal educational opportunities. The unanimous (9-0) decision stated that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."  As a result, segregation by law was ruled a violation of  the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.  Brown paved the way for integration and the civil rights movement of the late 1950's and 1960's.

The Civil Rights Act of 1960 established federal inspection of local voter registration polls and introduced penalties for anyone who obstructed someone's attempt to register to vote or actually vote.  The Senate's debate over the passage of this bill actually started on February 29, 1960.  A group of 18 Southern Democrats divided into three teams of six in order to be able to create a continuous filibuster wherein each member would only have to speak for four hours every three days. This system resulted in the longest filibuster in history, lasting over 43 hours from February 29 to March 2. On the morning of March 2nd, only a fifteen-minute break was allowed before the Senate sat for another 82 hours. By the time the 24-hour sessions were called off by majority leader Lyndon Johnson, the Senate had sat for 125 hours and 31 minutes minus a fifteen-minute break.  The act was signed into law by Republican President Dwight Eisenhower on May 6, 1960.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation that outlawed segregation in schools, public places, and employment. Conceived to help American blacks, the bill was amended prior to passage to protect women, and explicitly included white people for the first time. It also created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).  In order to circumvent limitations on congressional power to enforce the Equal Protection Clause imposed by the Supreme Court in the Civil Rights Cases (1883), the law was passed under the Commerce Clause, which had been interpreted by the courts as a broad grant of congressional power. Once the Act was implemented, its effects were far reaching and had tremendous long-term impacts on the whole country. It prohibited discrimination in public facilities, in government, and in employment, invalidating the Jim Crow laws in the southern U.S. It became illegal to compel segregation of the races in schools, housing, or hiring. Powers given to enforce the bill were initially weak, but were supplemented during later years. 

What's interesting is to see who opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The bill was sent to the House and referred to the Judiciary Committee, chaired by Emmanuel Celler (D-NY). After a series of hearings on the bill, Celler's committee greatly strengthened the act, adding provisions to ban racial discrimination in employment. The bill was reported out of the Judiciary Committee in November 1963, but was then referred to the Rules Committee, whose chairman, Howard W. Smith (D-VA), indicated his intention to keep the bill bottled up indefinitely.

It was at this point that President Kennedy was assassinated. The new president, Lyndon Johnson, utilized his experience in legislative politics and the bully pulpit he wielded as president in support of the bill.  Because of Smith's stalling of the bill in the Rules Committee, Celler filed a petition to discharge the bill from the Committee. Only if a majority of members signed the discharge petition would the bill move directly to the House floor without consideration by advocates. Initially Johnson had a difficult time acquiring the signatures necessary, as even many congressmen who supported the civil rights bill itself were cautious about violating House procedure with the discharge petition. By the time of the 1963 winter recess, fifty signatures were still wanting.

On the return from the winter recess, however, matters took a significant turn. The President's public advocacy of the Act had made a difference of opinion in congressmen's home districts, and soon it became apparent that the petition would acquire the necessary signatures. To prevent the humiliation of the success of the petition, Chairman Smith allowed the bill to pass through the Rules Committee.

The bill was brought to a vote in the House on Febrary 10, 1964, and passed by a vote 290 to 130

President Johnson, wanted the bill passed as soon as possible, ensured that the bill would be quickly considered by the Senate. Normally, the bill would have been referred to the Judiciary Committee, chaired by Senator James O. Eastland (D-MS). Under Eastland's care, it seemed impossible that the bill would reach the Senate floor.  Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (D-MT) took a novel approach to prevent the bill from being relegated to Judiciary Committee limbo. Having initially waived a second reading of the bill, which would have led to it being immediately referred to Judiciary, Mansfield gave the bill a second reading on February 26, 1964, and then proposed, in the absence of precedent for instances when a second reading did not immediately follow the first, that the bill bypass the Judiciary Committee and immediately be sent to the Senate floor for debate. Although this parliamentary move led to a brief filibuster, the senators eventually let it pass, preferring to concentrate their resistance on passage of the bill itself.

The bill came before the full Senate for debate on March 30, 1964, and the "Southern Bloc" of southern Senators led by Richard Russell (D-GA) launched a filibuster to prevent its passage. Said Russell "We will resist to the bitter end any measure or any movement which would have a tendency to bring about social equality and intermingling and amalgamation of the races in our (Southern) states."

After 54 days of filibuster, Senators Everett Dirksen (R-IL), Thomas Kuchel (R-CA), Hubert Humphrey (D-MN), and Mike Mansfield (D-MT) introduced a substitute bill that they hoped would attract enough Republican votes to end the filibuster. The compromise bill was weaker than the House version in regards to government power to regulate the conduct of private business, but it was not so weak as to cause the House to reconsider the legislation.

On the morning of June 10, 1964, Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) completed an address that he had begun 14 hours and 13 minutes earlier opposing the legislation. Until then, the measure had occupied the Senate for 57 working days, including six Saturdays. A day earlier, Democratic Whip Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, the bill's manager, concluded he had the 67 votes required at that time to end the debate and end the filibuster. With six wavering senators providing a four-vote victory margin, the final tally stood at 71 to 29. Never in history had the Senate been able to muster enough votes to cut off a filibuster on a civil rights bill. And only once in the 37 years since 1927 had it agreed to cloture for any measure.

Shortly thereafter, the substitute (compromise) bill passed the Senate by a vote of 73-27, and quickly passed through the House-Senate conference committee, which adopted the Senate version of the bill. The conference bill was passed by both houses of Congress, and was signed into law by President Johnson on July 2, 1964. Legend has it that as he put down his pen Johnson told an aide, "We have lost the South for a generation."

^{HOW THEY VOTED}

Totals are in "Yea-Nay" format:

The original House version: 290-130   (69%-31%)
The Senate version: 73-27   (73%-27%)
The Senate version, as voted on by the House: 289-126   (70%-30%)

BY PARTY

The original House version:

Democratic Party: 152-96   (61%-39%)
Republican Party: 138-34   (80%-20%)

The Senate version:

Democratic Party: 46-21   (69%-31%)
Republican Party: 27-6   (82%-18%)

The Senate version, voted on by the House:

Democratic Party: 153-91   (63%-37%)
Republican Party: 136-35   (80%-20%)

Now for the $64,000 question: Republicans have consistenly been the party of civil rights and freedoms for blacks and minorities.  Why do blacks vote 90 percent or more for Democrats?

And that is the story of "racism" in the United States.  Your accuser needs a history lesson.