PropertyValue
?:author
?:datePublished
  • 2016-07-27 (xsd:date)
?:headline
  • Elijah Cummings Said Democrats Gave Black People the Right to Vote? (en)
?:inLanguage
?:itemReviewed
?:mentions
?:reviewBody
  • Around 25 July 2016, various versions of the claim reproduced above began circulating, suggesting that Representative Elijah Cummings incorrectly stated Democrats were responsible for giving black people the right to vote during his 2016 Democratic National Convention speech: The portion most in line with the meme included the following remarks: Cummings' quote was ambiguous, but he appeared to say that the Democrats fought for civil rights and voting rights, a fairly open-ended statement. Many critics held that Cummings' statement was incorrect based on historical fact: The meme reproduced above stated that 141 Republicans voted to approve the 15th Amendment, with zero Democrats in favor, 39 no votes, and seven abstentions. According to the Library of Congress the vote was as follows: A detailed tally of Senate Vote #586 in January 1869 indicated support by Republicans with 33 yea votes, and zero for Democrats: While the meme was close to accurate in providing tallies by party for votes on the 15th amendment, it was less so with Cummings' remarks. Putting aside the fact it did not mention any changes in party dynamics between the 1940s and 1970s [PDF], it also misconstrued Cummings' statements to suggest that he incorrectly attributed the 15th amendment specifically to Democrats and not Republicans. (en)
?:reviewRating
rdf:type
?:url