Juneteenth is time for GOP to reclaim its civil rights reputation

As we celebrate Juneteenth, the Republican Party should use the occasion to reclaim its long history of civil rights advocacy – from the Civil War to today.

In recent years, this legacy has been overshadowed by false Democrat political narratives that fail to acknowledge the GOP’s pivotal role in advancing racial equality – including in the passage of the 1957, 1960, 1964 and 1964 civil rights acts.

The Party can start to reclaim its rightful place as the party of civil rights with the recognition of Juneteenth as an important milestone in America’s racial history.  The GOP should not allow Democrats to falsely claim this history.

Juneteenth, celebrated on June 19th, marked the day in 1865 when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation and free the last remaining enslaved African Americans.  It represents the final chapter in America’s struggle to end slavery and serves as a powerful reminder of the Republican Party’s role in securing freedom for millions. Juneteenth was the real end of the Civil War, weeks after General Robert E. Lee’s surrender of his Army at Appomattox Courthouse. 

Juneteenth has been a celebrated event in the Black community for generations, but was largely a lost part of the Republican Party’s civil rights history.  More recently, the Democratic Party has been laying claim to the event as part of its false narrative of civil rights advocacy.  Once again, they are rewriting history.

Most folks seem unaware that it was the Republican Party that enacted the 13^th, 14^th and 15^th amendments to the Constitution – the most important civil rights provisions ever put into the Constitution – and gave overwhelming support to every civil rights legislation since.  It was the GOP that gave the critical majority support for the passage of the Civil Rights acts of 1957 (opposed by Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson and Senator John F. Kennedy), 1960 (watered down by Democrats, including Johnson and Kennedy), 1964 (only possible because Republicans defeateed a Democrat filibuster) and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (drafted and introduced by Republican Senator Everette McKinley Dirksen).

In modern times, Republicans have pushed for Enterprise Zones to address high unemployment in the inner cities ruled over for generations by the institutional racism of Democrat political machines.  Republicans introduced strict crime and drug bills to reduce inner city crime often defeated by Democrats – or simply unenforced.  It was Republican President Ronald Reagan who successfully pushed to make Martin Luther King’s birthday a national holiday – something previous Democrat presidents failed to do.

In an effort to conceal and rewrite their history, Democrats are now attempting to associate themselves with Juneteenth.  The Republican Party should not allow that to happen.  The Republican National Committee should lay out plans for every local GOP organization in the nation to establish celebratory events to tell the true story of Juneteenth — and which party was on the side of history, and which was not.  Juneteenth should be a day that local Republicans join with the Black community in commemorating one of the most important days in civil rights history — the final end of the Civil War and the end of slavery.

The Republican celebration of Juneteenth should include educational programs, speeches from Black Republican leaders, and community outreach initiatives that promote economic empowerment and opportunity. By embracing Juneteenth, the GOP can strengthen its connection with Black voters and underscore its historic commitment to civil rights. 

Republicans have other opportunities to reclaim their noble civil rights history.  Virtually all the historic abolitionist figures were staunch Republicans, including Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth.  Congressional Republicans should follow through on the proposal to put Tubman on the $20 bill in place of President Jackson – a slave owner and notorious white supremacist.  President Trump failed to act on that proposal in his first term, he should not make the same mistake again.

The GOP should create special recognition events for Douglass and Truth — especially during Black History Month.  Their accomplishments have been lost in the fog of false partisan narratives since the mid-1900s. The GOP now has every opportunity to reverse that trend.

By reclaiming its civil rights legacy, the Republican Party can correct the inaccurate partisan racial narrative perpetrated by Democrat politicians, race-baiters like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, a biased media and left-wing academicians.  It is about time to tell the true and complete history of racism in America.

So, there ‘tis.