As more than a century of persecution and oppression of blacks at the hands of Democrats comes to light, we’re witnessing an interesting phenomenon: the nation’s Democratic-controlled media conferring near-president-elect status on Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. But Obama-mania hints more of assuaging white Democratic guilt than of serving the party’s African American constituency.

Truth be known, the recently seated Obama is the FIRST black man Democrats have ever elected to the U.S. Senate, and shame on Democrats, the country's oldest political party. Obama was raised by his white mother; so one might argue -- in the race-conscious way liberals do -- that his heritage is more white than black and Democrats, therefore, have yet elect a bona fide black male to the U.S. Senate.

One might assume that the first black Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate was a milestone achieved decades ago; after all, the party is the nation’s oldest. But it wasn’t until 1993 -- when Illinois elected Carol Moseley Braun -- that a black Democrat first served in the country’s most august legislative body. Unfortunately, Braun’s politics were often marked by socialist restrictions to American freedom.

The Republican Party, formed in the 1850s, has elected three blacks to the U.S. Senate. Quite likely more African American Republicans would have been elected during the post-slavery era had Democrats not prevented more blacks from voting in the South for more than 100 years after losing the Civil War.

Because Democrats today control much of the education system, history books fail to note that Andrew Johnson was a Democrat placed on the Republican ticket in 1864 as an afterthought. Following that summer's Republican convention, Johnson replaced the duly nominated GOP vice presidential candidate in a move intended to appease Southerners still loyal to the Union.

After Johnson succeeded Lincoln as president, following the Civil War and Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865, Johnson vetoed or refused to enforce laws passed by the Republican Congress in mid 1860s that permitted blacks to vote, hold office, and more. Southern Democrats then formed the Ku Klux Klan in 1866 while Republicans later impeached Johnson for his militant racism.

By the end of the 19th century, however, Democrats had so undermined national will on black civil rights that the issue languished until the 1960s, when a Republican majority once again ushered legislation through Congress, overcoming objections from such Democrats as Al Gore’s father, a U.S. Senator at the time, and current Sen. Robert Byrd.