A letter to the editor in The Columbian, “We are all Americans” (Our Readers’ Views, Feb. 4), tried to point out that in history Republicans have been the champions of civil rights and not Democrats. Well the author didn’t finish the story. In 1964 and 1965 President Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat, pushed through the most important civil rights legislation ever.
At the time he mused that Democrats would lose the South forever. That’s exactly what happened. Southern Democrats changed their party affiliation by the droves to the Republican Party and we have what we have today. Republicans are working overtime to suppress the Black vote all over the country, especially in the South where they dominate state legislatures.
