GOP History Lesson: First Lilly White Primary [View All]

Yes, yes, I know this is the Democratic Underground, but I need some historical information concerning--those people. I need to know when the Texas Republicans banned racial minorities from voting in their primaries. I know they did it sometime in the late 1890's, but I don't remember the specific date. I know they called the first few the "Lilly White primaries."

The reason I'm asking is to slam the door on Republican weaseling. As many of us know, one of the favorite dodges of GOP reactionaries is to pretend that they've always supported civil rights and that today they're only interested in "equal rights, not special rights." While most of us are quite aware that the present-day GOP is dominated by former Dixiecrats, the "old" GOP's civil rights record outside the Northeast and certain parts of the Midwest and Northwest wasn't too pretty, either. I think the little mothers' darlings in such organizations as the Young Republicans and the Young Conservatives of Texas deserve to have their noses thoroughly rubbed into the more sordid elements of their "conservative" past.