@dyslexia,
That was entirely unfair and inaccurate.
Republicans do indeed have a rather continuous record of supporting civil rights - starting with the Civil war and continuing through the 20th century. They have, however, rather consistently opposed what was euphamistically called "affirmative action" on the grounds that it was a dose of the same poison it was intended to cure.
Democrats have a far more complex and somewhat schizophrenic history on both extremes of the issue. It was Democrats, including those who then styled themselves as "progressive" who led the Jim Crow movement in the early 20th century. Their leader, Woodrow Wilson was a notorious racist. Later it was a coalition of powerful Democrats of the "solid South" who preserved it through WWII.
It wasn't until the liberal wing of the Democrat party divorced itself from the "solid South" and, together with the active support of the majority of Republicans, enacted legislation to break the systematic deprivation of civil rights in the South.
Later the parties diverged over issues related to affirmative action and race-based quotas and favoritism. The motivations on both sides of this dispute involved a mixture of both principle and political expediency. Not much basis there to prefer one to the other.
