Artful Dodger:   You state as the conclusion to this post that, "it's the liberal policies in America that are at fault for ALL the racial problems."

I will certainly grant that neither party can wash its hands of a racist past, & that Dirksen was a hero to the civil rights movement. But, here in the South, we had only 1 political party to speak of until after the Civil Rights Act passed.  Democrats were the only party in this region from Reconstruction to that time.  Senator Thurmond switched parties in '64 because of the Civil Rights Act.  Many of the Dems you mentioned would not be considered "liberals" cuz there was only 1 game in town.

LBJ, whose hands were not clean either, knew he would loose the Dem Party in the South by promoting & signing the Civil Rights Act.  Sure enough, Nixon was able to use a "Southern Strategy" & '68 & '72 to win elections & set up a strong Republican base there.  Many of the Conservative Southern Dems switched parties to the GOP aftewards.  The few that stayed, like Hollins, changed some their positions.  Others like George Wallace & Lester Maddox remained Dems but became loose cannons.  Today, now that all the Party switching has taking place, the Dem. Party, in particular the Progressive wing, is very weak in the Southern states.

But, I agree with you that both parties have a checkered past when it comes to race relations, but there are some compexities, particularly in the South.