; Whereas, the 1924 Democratic National Convention convened in New York City at Madison Square Garden; the convention is commonly known as the Klan-Bake due to the overwhelming influence of the Ku Klux Klan in the Democratic Party; Whereas, Democrat President Franklin Delano Roosevelt continued Woodrow Wilson’s policy of segregating White House staff and maintained separate dining rooms for White and Black staffers. He also continued the White House Correspondents Association’s ban on credentialing Black journalists for White House duties until outside pressure from Black publications finally forced a change in policy in 1944, the last year of his presidency. According to the American Journal of Public Health, prior to his presidency, Roosevelt not only banned Blacks from receiving treatment at his polio facility in Warm Springs, Georgia, Black staff were forced to live in the basement of the facility or in a segregated dormitory while White staff lived in the hotel or in surrounding cottages; Whereas, Democrat Congressman Howard Smith, former chairman of the House Rules Committee introduced the Declaration of Constitutional Principles in a speech on the House floor where he attacked the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision on Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (KS) which determined that segregated public schools were unconstitutional. Smith’s declaration urged people to utilize all lawful means to avoid the chaos and confusion which would occur if they desegregated schools. History.House.Gov states that Under Smith, the Rules Committee became a graveyard for numerous civil rights initiatives in the 1950s. ; Whereas, in 1964, the Democratic Party led a 75-calendar-day filibuster against the 1964 Civil Rights Act; Whereas, leading the Democrats in their opposition to civil rights for African-Americans was a fellow member of the Democratic Party, Senator Robert Byrd from West Virginia—a known recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan