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Why Do African Americans Vote For Democrats?
Let us “unpack” this
Every election season, the debate begins — why do Democrats loyally vote for the Democrats even though the Democrats do nothing for them?
(Full Disclosure: I am not a Democrat. And Full Disclaimer: I am not endorsing anyone to vote for Democrats or Republicans, just vote)
It is a fair question. And it has an easy answer — civil rights.
Specifically, the three major civil rights laws passed in the 1960s. There are also some other supportive laws Democrats support but make no mistake, it is because of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
That’s it. President Lyndon Johnson, the President when these laws passed, famously said that by passing these laws his party would lose millions of white voters. He was correct. Whites immediately jumped to the Republican Party.
Strangely enough, Johnson opposed civil rights laws as a congressman until 1957. In fact, the agenda he pushed through was really the agenda of John F. Kennedy who proposed passing a big civil rights law before he was killed in 1963.
It is also interesting to note that southern Democrats filibustered all of these civil rights bills. These “Dixiecrats” held up the…
