To add to what you posted:
Al Gore's own father, the Senator from TN for many years, opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and voted against it. He was one of those who filibustered for 74 days. (He did the next year vote for the Voting Rights Act.)
Another interesting tidbit:
Condi Rice has talked about when blacks were finally allowed to vote in 1965, her father tried to register as a democrat. He was turned away.
He went to the Republican party, where he was welcomed, and Condi said if the Republican party was good enough for her father, it was good enough for her!
From one of the links below:
"The truth is that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 received overwhelming support from Republicans (more so than from the Democrats) in both houses of Congress - with 82% Republican support in the House of Representatives and 94% in the Senate."
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A couple of links on Al Gore Sr.:
http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:soE3I_cYskgJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore_Sr.+al+gore+father+civil+rights&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=9
http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:Hh09EIysJZ4J:www.nationalcenter.org/P21NVDavisVote1099.html+al+gore+father+civil+rights&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1
Here is something else to add to the legacy of Al Gore, Sr.
As you are most likely aware, Occidental Petroluem was run by Armand Hammer, the son of a Russian immigrant doctor. Mr Hammer was a communist and was a close friend to every leader of the USSR till his death. He could walk through the doors of the Kremlin whenever he wanted.
Island Creek Coal Co, where Al Gore, Sr was president after his Senate defeat, had several shaft mines (some more than 1500 ft below the water surface) in Buchanan County VA. Many of these mines were bored in the 1960s, but others were bored after Gore, Sr became president of the coal company. To my knowledge all of the coal produced at these mines went overseas to Japan and Romania. These two countries provided most of the tens, perhaps hundreds, of millions of dollars of capital to open these mines. The coal that was mined was the Pocahontas No 3 seam, highly regarded as the best metallugical coal on Earth. "Met coal" is used in the steel-making process.
Well, we know what happened in the 70s. An oil shortage occurred, which Occidental Petroleum greatly benefited in more ways than one. The "met coal" produced by Island Creek's Buchanan County mines and shipped to Japan was being used to build cars and other products. Many of the cars were exported, a form of dumping steel, to America to entice comsumers to purchase more fuel efficient autos.
I still haven't figured out what USSR-controlled Romania did with all the coal they received from Island Creek, but I think it's a good bet they weren't building cars. I strongly suspect many tools of war and destruction were built using all that coal.
The opinions of what was done with all that coal are mine, and I don't have 100% assurances of what I opined as being true. But, after thinking and pondering about the possible uses of all that coal, I think my opinions could have some validity.