The KKK was crucial to building GOP strength in the South

[The Mikado]

Winfield: you are misinterpreting what everyone here is saying. The argument is that the GOP stopped being the party of Civil Rights in 1876 when Reconstruction ended and after the 1964-65 period when northern Democrats became unequivocally tied to civil rights, southern Democrats deserted to the GOP. Everyone here knows that from its founding in 1854 until 1876 the GOP was by far the more supportive of African-American rights and that, really, up until FDR at the earliest the Democrats were actively hostile to civil rights.

[The Mikado]

I'd be surprised if you found many posters here with red avatars who would not have been proud Republicans in roughly the 20 years between 1855 and 1875. Any decent person would have been.