Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party Page #4

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fighting it in Congress,

where they lost,

and then fighting it in the states,

where they lost again.

So the Republican Party

is the party of anti-slavery

and equal rights under the law.

The Democratic Party is the party

of the Trail of Tears,

broken treaties, slavery,

and opposition to equal rights

under the law.

And when their old plan

was defeated by the Republicans,

the Democrats needed a new con.

I'm reminded of what Rock told me.

Now we got to get a new plan.

The old one won't work anymore,

you know?

[D'Souza] There's more I need to learn

about the secret history

of the Democratic Party.

I knew exactly

who I had to go see.

Carol Swain,

professor at Vanderbilt Law School,

is one of America's leading experts

on the history of race relations

and civil rights.

Blacks have been used

to oppression from America

and also from the Democratic Party.

And it's been hard for me to accept,

because I was a Democrat

for most of my life.

What made you change?

It was a number of different things.

Some of it had to do with me

learning more about the history

of the Democratic Party

and just watching how they used blacks

for their agenda.

The Democratic Party

was the party of slavery.

And after slavery was abolished in 1865,

it was in total ruins.

Seems like they needed, uh,

a new racket.

Well, they came up with one.

The Ku Klux Klan was founded

by Nathan Bedford Forrest.

- White man's country.

- [all] Let the white man rule!

[Swain] He was the first grand wizard

of the Ku Klux Klan

and a pledged delegate

to the Democratic Convention.

The whole purpose

of the Democratic Party

was to reestablish white supremacy.

In fact, in 1868,

the party platform was

''This is a white man's country.

Let a white man rule.''

Notice how they portrayed blacks.

The lily-white Democrat

against the black Republican.

Why were blacks such a threat

to the Democratic Party?

Blacks were the majority

in several Southern states.

They were able to send numerous people

to the state legislatures.

They had 22 members of Congress.

And so this was a nightmare

for the Democrats

because, all of a sudden,

they were being ruled

by black Republicans,

and they reacted with brutality.

The party had its own war machine,

and its targets were blacks

and white Republicans,

like Congressman James Hinds,

the first sitting member

of Congress assassinated.

[gunshots, all screaming]

[Swain] During the Klan's

long reign of terror,

they killed over 3,000 blacks

and over 1,000 white Republicans.

This is a white man's country.

Let the white man rule.

[Swain] The Klan was the military arm

of the Democratic Party.

Come on, guys.

[Swain] Democrats used

discriminatory laws and violence

to keep blacks in their place.

[all shouting indistinctly]

[grunts]

[grunting]

Why has all this

been swept under the rug?

To cover the tracks

of the Democratic Party.

And we're not even talking

about ancient history.

The racism continued

well into the 20th century.

Sometimes the violence intensified.

Other times, the racism

merely changed forms.

Sit down, Senator Tillman!

Does your hatred know no end?!

- I will not sit down!

- [gavel banging]

I will say to the Republican senator

that as long as the Negroes continue

to ravish our white women,

- we will continue to lynch him!

- [men] Hear, hear!

The white man will not submit

to the black man gratifying his lust

on our wives and daughters

without lynching him!

[men] Hear, hear!

One heroine from that era was

a black journalist named Ida B. Wells.

Long before Rosa Parks refused

to sit in the back of the bus...

- [Ida] Get your hands off me!

- [man] Quit your yelling.

[Swain] ...Ida B. Wells refused to

give up her first-class train seat

to a white man.

- You're going right now.

- Aaah!

- Bit me.

- She bit you?

[Swain] The reason we don't

hear more about this...

See what the law

has to say about that.

...is because Ida B. Wells

was a Republican.

She worked for a Republican paper

that denounced lynching.

[indistinct shouting]

What are you doing?

You gonna pay for what you done did.

[men] Yeah!

[Ida] And what did he do?

- Who are you?

- Press.

People deserve to know

what crime was committed

that sentenced this man to death.

I ain't got to tell you nothing!

Is that a quote, Sheriff McNeil?

He raped a white woman.

- What white woman?

- That white woman.

I ain't forced nothing.

We is friends.

You raped her, boy.

Ain't that right?

Tell him, Margie.

They're gonna kill me!

- How long you known him?

- Get her out of here.

- She's been through enough.

- Margie! Tell them!

- Get her out of here.

- No, please, Margie! Please!

Were there any witnesses? He been tried?

I'm the judge,

they're the jury.

- [all shouting indistinctly]

- Move!

Stay out of the way of the law,

or you'll be strung up yourself.

- Ugh!

- Get her out of here.

What you're doing is murder,

and I'll report this bunch!

No! No!

''After stripping Hose of his clothes

and chaining him to a tree

while some in the crowd plunged knives

into the victim's flesh,

others watched

with unfeigning satisfaction.''

The lesson this teaches,

which every Negro

should ponder well,

is that a Winchester rifle should have

a place of honor in every black home

and should be used

for their protection,

which the law refuses to give!

We must rise against mob rule,

not just from a standpoint of sentiment,

nor even so much from a standpoint

of justice to a weak race,

but from a desire to preserve

our American institutions.

The struggle against lynching

has the same moral import

as the struggle against slavery,

for as the Henry Smith lynching showed,

both were in league with death

and the covenant with hell!

She made the remarkable statement

that what blacks actually needed

was Second Amendment rights.

Throughout the South,

when they passed the Black Codes,

they put in provisions that if you

were black, you couldn't own a gun.

So that means that the KKK

rides up into your yard,

you don't have anything

to defend yourself with.

So the Second Amendment

was very important to blacks.

It was something that she championed

because she knew that as long

as they were unarmed,

they would be prey to white racists.

You're saying that

early Democratic efforts

to have gun control

had a racist motive?

Yes. Almost everything

they did had a racist motive.

Now, the Klan had a revival

in the early part of the 20th century.

Why was that?

Another fan of the KKK was none other

than President Woodrow Wilson.

[D'Souza] Tell me about the screening

of the film called

The Birth of a Nation

by D.W. Griffith.

It was unfortunate for our country

that the first movie

ever screened in the White House

was a racist movie

by a racist Democratic president.

[''Un Bel Di Vedremo'' from

''Madama Butterfly'' plays]

The film led to the rebirth

of the Klan in America.

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