by JDHURF » Thu Aug 30, 2012 1:41 pm
The minimal sketch of the relevant history Professor can't be bothered to respond to:
The civil rights movement began as the abolitionist movement. The abolitionist movement was anything but conservative. In 1883 the radical Industrial Workers' of the World union issued a founding manifesto, the fifth point: "Equal rights for all without distinction of sex or race." The contemporary CRM comes from this history of the radical left and the radical labor movement. Preceding the Civil Rights Act there were radical groups such as SNCC organizing freedom rides through the south and radicals and socialists such as Bayard Rustin and A. Philip Randolph organizing the March on Washington in which Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous "I have a dream" speech.
Obviously the Democratic and Republican party have undergone considerable changes throughout history. During the Civil War the Republican Party of President Lincoln clearly defended a strong union and it was Lincoln's opinion that wage-slavery only differed from chattel slavery in that it was temporary. Clearly these are not the same political parties.
Mod edit. -u