The first black U.S. representative stood up in the House of Representatives and addressed the Democrats. “Now you come to us and say that you are our best friends,” he said. “We would that we could look upon you as such.” Their votes and their actions for many years past had proved them enemies rather than friends of black Americans. There was ample reason for the distrust that the congressman felt.
Yet oddly enough, though Democrat policies are just as destructive today to black Americans — and indeed all Americans — many black voters are Democrat. Rep. Joseph Rainey (R-SC) would have warned them not to believe the rhetoric, for actions speak louder than words.
Joseph Rainey, who was born into slavery on June 21, 1832, had all too much experience of Democrat racism, lies, abuse, and false compassion in his native state of South Carolina, both before, during, and after the Civil War. In an 1871 speech, Rainey showed that the Democrats’ voting record was against them, as they claimed to befriend the black man, and therefore that Democrats could not be trusted.
“If the Democrats are such staunch friends of the Negro, why is it that when propositions are offered here and elsewhere looking to the elevation of the colored race, and the extension of right and justice to them, do the Democrats array themselves in unbroken phalanx, and vote against every such measure?” Rainey challenged. The Democrats consistently voted against legislation that would give the “poor Negro his just rights, and because they proposed to knock off his shackles and give him freedom of speech, freedom of action, and the opportunity of education, that he might elevate himself to the dignity of manhood.”
Related: Juneteenth: Dems’ Holiday to Claim They Weren’t the Racists
Rainey referred to the fact that the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, abolishing slavery and guaranteeing citizenship and voting rights regardless of skin color, were passed in spite of the Democrats, who overwhelmingly voted against all of them. The Democrats were the party of the slavery, the architects of Jim Crow. Rainey added:
Now you come to us and say that you are our best friends. We would that we could look upon you as such. We would that your votes as recorded in the Globe from day to day could only demonstrate it. But your votes, your actions, and the constant cultivation of your cherished prejudices prove to the Negroes of the entire country that the Democrats are in opposition to them, and if they [the Democrats] could have sway our race would have no foothold here.
His words could have come from a speech in 2025 just as aptly. Except that in one sense, the Democrats have become more prejudiced. They no longer want to keep only black Americans oppressed, now they want to make all Americans except themselves and their elite cronies ignorant, fearful, angry, impoverished, and subservient.
They want a Marxist dictatorship where we are all ideological and economic slaves on the plantation, where only the Democrat masters enjoy power, privilege, and success. That is why the attack on constitutional rights, the economic crisis, and the wokeificatiom of the education system were so egregious under the Biden administration.
Evidence indicates that black workers are disproportionately harmed by companies hiring illegal aliens for lower wages in blue-collar jobs. But Democrats are happy to keep black Americans on welfare while paying less to illegal aliens. Schools in predominantly black areas of major cities often have very low test scores, yet the Democrats make the schools stupider all the time, because they prefer a population of Americans ignorant, illiterate, and dependent. The issue is not genetic, because both white and black children in the late 1800s and early 1900s in one-room schoolhouses could run rings around most college students now. The issue is an educational system designed for failure.
As I noted above, Democrats would like to see Americans of all skin colors poor and oppressed. They lie to white children as much as to black children. Blue-collar Americans of all ethnic backgrounds lose out in the preference for hiring illegal aliens. But since Dems’ rhetoric is so constant about supposedly hating racism, the harms they do to black voters make them particularly hypocritical. Rainey knew why. He saw through the rhetoric and observed the actions taken. Jesus said, “By their fruits you shall know them" (Matthew 7:16). The fruit of the Democrat Party is rotten and poisonous indeed.
