Republicans passed the first Civil Rights Act, in 1866

Grand Old Party historian Michael Zak has an interesting article in Human Events.  It begins:

Thanks to Republicans beginning to appreciate the heritage of our Grand Old Party, it has become better known that Republicans in Congress supported the 1964 Civil Rights Act much more than did the Democrats. Indeed, the legislator most responsible for breaking the Democrat filibuster was a Republican senator, Everett Dirksen.
And now, the question that should be before us: How did that landmark legislation come to be?  The answer to that is a source of pride for all Republicans today.

The origin of the 1964 Civil Rights Act can be traced back to the Reconstruction era. That was when the Republican Party enacted the first civil rights act ever, the 1866 Civil Rights Act. Never heard of it? Democrat history professors would rather you didn't. With that law, Republicans took a big step toward making Abraham Lincoln's vision for “a new birth of freedom” a reality.

Ominously, the assassination of the Great Emancipator had left the presidency to his Democrat vice president, Andrew Johnson.  Senator Lyman Trumbull (R-IL), co-author of the 13th Amendment banning slavery, also wrote the 1866 Civil Rights Act. Republican support was nearly unanimous, while Democrats were unanimously opposed.  This would be the first time Congress overrode a presidential veto of a significant bill.

The law conferred U.S. citizenship on all African-Americans, according them “full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property as is enjoyed by white citizens.” Despite Democrat objections, Republicans made sure African-Americans had the right to own property, engage in business, sign contracts and file lawsuits. [...]

Read the whole thing at Human Events.

DC Emancipation Day, brought to you by the Republican Party

A guest column from historian Michael Zak:

DC Emancipation Day, brought to you by the Republican Party

Yesterday, I attended a 150th anniversary ceremony in honor of the DC Emancipation Act.  The event was held at Abraham Lincoln's summer cottage.

The quartet Just Righteous inspired with A Change Is Gonna Come and other classic songs.  Frank Williams discussed President Lincoln's views on the DC Emancipation Act.  Harold Holzer spoke about media reaction. Edna Greene Medford recounted the city's response to the law.

While the speakers were informative, all three over-emphasized Lincoln's role and managed to avoid mentioning an important political context.  So, in the Q&A, I informed the audience of these crucial facts:

The DC Emancipation Act was written by a Republican Senator, Henry Wilson.

Republicans voted unanimously for the DC Emancipation Act

Democrats voted unanimously against the DC Emancipation Act

One of the 3,100 slaves liberated by the GOP made the statute "Freedom" which stands atop the U.S. Capitol dome.

In his closing remarks, Mayor Vincent Gray said that just as slaves back then were held in bondage, city residents today are also "held in bondage" because DC is not a state.  Yes, that's what he said -- trivializing the horrors of slavery in order to make a political point.

Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the country.  Back to Basics for the Republican Party is his acclaimed history of the GOP, cited by Clarence Thomas in a Supreme Court decision.  He is also the author of the 2005 Republican Freedom Calendar.  His Grand Old Partisan website celebrates more than fifteen decades of Republican heroes and heroics.  See www.grandoldpartisan.com and @Michael_Zak for more information.

Historian Michael Zak gives Vadum's Subversion Inc. book a big thumbs up

Historian Michael Zak (of Grand Old Partisan) likes my book Subversion Inc.

Zak is author of Back to Basics for the Republican Party.

Here is an excerpt from a post of his on my book:

Matthew Vadum has described it as a “brilliantly orchestrated criminal organization” that is “part political group, part crime syndicate, part terrorist organization.” Banks and other corporations have paid it billions of dollars in protection money, while the government pays it billions more. Law enforcement cannot keep track of its opaque, endlessly shifting, illicit operations. Anyone who gets in the way is subject to “thuggish tactics.” Nice business you got here. Would be a shame if a flash mob attacked it at, say, 10am tomorrow morning.

This is not the Mafia, but an organization just as insidious, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as ACORN. These “modern-day pirates” helped make Barack Obama the 44th President of the United States. Wait, it gets worse. The Obama administration is setting up what Michael Barone termed “gangster government.” You now being governed Mafia-style, with business shakedowns and disregard for the law, cronies being enriched while opponents are crushed.

As the song goes, “You may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?” Vadum's new book, Subversion, Inc.: How Obama's ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers, answers that question.

Saul Alinsky, godfather of community organizers, learned his craft from Chicago gangland organizers. During the 1930s, he became an associate of Al Capone's chief hitman, who introduced him to Frank Nitti.

No surprise that Alinsky became, in Vadum's words, "a pragmatic, businesslike gangster," whose rhetoric is permeated with violent imagery. [...]

America needs to know that ACORN is restructuring in time to help re-elect President Obama in 2012. Obama used to work for ACORN and represented the group in court as its lawyer. These radical leftists who use the brutal, in-your-face, Machiavellian pressure tactics of Saul Alinsky want to destroy America as we know it and will use any means to do it.

Buy the book at Amazon. Visit the Subversion Inc. Facebook page. Follow me on Twitter.