History shows Mitch McConnell is not the civil rights champion he claims to be | Opinion

In a Louisville speech on Friday, Sen. Mitch McConnell said he was deeply offended by "this outrageous mischaracterization of my record as a result of leaving one word out inadvertently," CNN reported.

The minority leader meant a storm of criticism he brewed after saying in a Washington press conference that "African American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans."

McConnell claimed he misspoke. Back in his hometown, the Senate's top Republican insisted he was a civil rights champion.

More: Mitch McConnell slams 'outrageous mischaracterization' over his comment about Black voters

"I was there for Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech in the audience," CNN quoted McConnell. "When I was a student at (University of Louisville), I helped organize the March on Frankfort, the first state public accommodation law. Thanks to my role model, [Kentucky Republican Sen.] John Sherman Cooper, I was actually there when President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act in the Capitol in 1965."

The NAACP, the nation's oldest civil rights organization, rates members of Congress on how they vote on civil rights legislation, not just on their claims of support. McConnell scores 13 percent, a near rock-bottom “F,” on its current Civil Rights Federal Legislative Report Card. (60 is passing).

The CNN story also said that in Louisville, where a news conference followed his talk, McConnell first said he intended to put "almost" before "Americans." "At the end of his news conference, he returned to the mics after consulting with an aide, who seemed to tell him he had misstated it again, clarifying he had meant to say the omitted word was 'all.'"

Previously, a McConnell staffer said his boss meant to say "other" Americans.

McConnell evidently forgot the First Law of Holes: if you've dug yourself in one, stop digging. There's also poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou's observation: "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."

"McConnell spoke from his heart when he said 'African Americans' and 'Americans,'" said Murray State University historian Brian Clardy. "He was very clear."

Anyway, by threatening to filibuster the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act on "states' rights" grounds, McConnell hearkens to old segregationist Southern Democrats. (The bill passed the Democratic-majority House along partisan lines on Jan. 13.)

Yelping "states' rights!" — the old white supremacist invocation for slavery and Jim Crow laws — Dixie Dems almost routinely filibustered against civil rights legislation. Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who ran for president as a segregationist "Dixiecrat" in 1948, was a leader in the talkathons.

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Thurmond joined the 60-day filibuster — the longest one ever — against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which he denounced as an "obnoxious power grab." In stark contrast, McConnell's "mentor," strongly backed the legislation.

Later in 1964, Thurmond switched to the GOP. In a 1997 Senate speech, McConnell praised Thurmond, characterizing his career as "distinguished." An Alabama native, McConnell said he remembered "the excitement, having been a son of the deep South, when Sen. Thurmond decided to become a Republican."

Last year, McConnell said the filibuster "has no racial history at all. None. There’s no dispute among historians about that.” After a slew of historians — Clardy among them —rebuked the Senator, another McConnell staffer said that he "was referring to the origins of the filibuster."

Said Clardy: "What else would you expect from Sen. McConnell? Lying about the true nature of the filibuster speaks to his character."

Berry Craig is a professor emeritus of history at West Kentucky Community College in Paducah and an author of seven books and co-author of two more, all on Kentucky history.

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This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: McConnell is not the civil rights champion he claims to be | Opinion