"You also might want to familiarize yourself with the history of the Democratic and Republican parties, and see which party has stood up longer for the rights of people of color. Do you know that Democrats opposed the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution – abolishing slavery, granting citizenship rights to newly freed slaves, and guaranteeing the right to vote (at least on paper) to blacks, respectively? Do you know that most of the politicians who stood for segregation were Southern Democrats? Do you know that the Ku Klux Klan was founded by Democrats, one of whose goals was to stop the spread of the Republican Party? Do you know that, as a percentage of the party, more Republicans than Democrats voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964?
So what is new about that? It is well known that Southern white racists used to infest Democratic Party in the old days. But in the late 60s and 70s, Republicans made a concerted effort to woo the racist southerners, with the so called ‘Southern Strategy’ by Nixon. Nixon recognized that there were many more white racists in the south than there were blacks, a lot more votes were to be had by courting the white racists than by courting blacks.
So it was a conscious decision on the part of Republican Party to throw blacks overboard and court the white racists in the south. That is why there was a mass migration of white racists from Democratic Party to Republican Party in the south, to the point that these days the south is predominantly Republican. Also, that is why the blacks are terrified of the Republican Party, they see all the overt and covert racism and they don’t want to have anything to do with it.
Just recently there has been the controversy about Republican Virginia governor declaring April as the Confederate months, thereby glorifying the south’s part in Civil War and in the slavery. Now the governor has apologized for not mentioning slavery in the proclamation, but the damage is done. The proclamation is really symptomatic of what many Republicans feel about blacks. They feel utter contempt and hatred towards blacks.
In recent times every Republican governor of Virginia has issued the proclamation glorifying South's role in the civil war, glorifying slavery. Every Democratic governor has refused to do so.
So the history that you mention means nothing. That only tells us that at one time Republican Party used to be the party of moderation, the party of civil rights, the party of Eisenhower, party of Rockefeller, Party of Thurgood Marshall (former black Supreme Court justice appointed by Eisenhower).
These days it is the party of extremism, party of hate, party of racism. Party of Rush ‘drug addict’ Limbaugh, party of Joan of arc, party of Gingrich, party of teabaggers.