He was.
Keep in mind that the Black Codes were in effect at the time. To get registered to vote you had to pass test ( "how many peanuts are in this jar") Blacks could never get the answers right. the Republican party, however, was registering everyone so all blacks who wanted to vote were Republicans.
Condoleeza Rice did a great interview on Leno last year. Leno asked her if she was the first Republican in her family and she absolutely schooled him on why her and her family were all loyal Republicans. You could tell all of what she was saying was the first he had ever heard any of this.
I had a friend from church (black) that worked as a stock boy in a small general store back then and he was told to count out 200 nails and put them in a box one day. A couple of days later he found out that the box of nails was the test the Democrats were giving to get to register so he told all of his family and friends that he put 200 nails in the box. Not one of them guessed correctly.
That is the true history of the Left.
The Democrats have historically been a racist party. From Andrew Jackson through the secessionists, the Confederate government, the segregationists and the lynchers, the racists in this country have been Democrats. Nowadays they pound their chests and loudly proclaim that they are the only non-racists in society. They’re a bunch of lying hypocrites.