The Democratic Party is one of the two main political parties in the United States today. It has a long history and is now the oldest active political party in the world.
Origins of the Party
The party traces its roots to 1792. Followers of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison created the Democratic-Republican Party, which stood for greater states’ rights and less power for a central government.
The Democratic Party was created after the presidential election of 1824. The Democratic-Republicans had four candidates. Andrew Jackson won the popular vote and got 99 Electoral College votes. Jackson didn’t get an electoral majority, so the House of Representatives had to declare the winner. They named John Quincy Adams as the president.
That fired up the mayor of New York, Martin Van Buren. He left the party and started his own offshoot, the Democratic Party. The new group backed Jackson, who defeated Adams easily in 1828. The party dominated the nation until the Civil War when another new group, the Republican Party, offered a candidate by the name of Abraham Lincoln.
Times of Change
The Democrats came back to power during the Great Depression in 1929, under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. During this time of hardship, he promised to put “a chicken in every pot” across America.
Racial segregation was still a big issue. Black Americans lived separately from white Americans, and they had less rights. A lot of people thought this was wrong, such as Democrat President John F. Kennedy in the early 1960s. Kennedy and others paved the way for equal rights between black and white Americans.
Famous Democrats
Barack Obama: Obama was also the country’s first black president. Obama held the office between 2009-2017, and he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize soon after being elected.
John F. Kennedy: One of the most famous Democrat presidents, JFK was the first to say that humans could travel to the moon. He was assassinated in 1963, two years after entering the White House.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt: The only U.S. president to have served more than two terms, FDR occupied the White House from 1933-1945. He was elected during the Great Depression and served until the end of World War Two.
