Lifestyle
Meet the American who designed the Empire State Building, New York City native architect William F. Lamb
The Empire State Building has been surpassed by many skyscrapers in height but stands above all others in public imagination.
The masterpiece American landmark was the brainchild of Alfred E. Smith, the former governor of New York and a three-time presidential candidate.
Financing was led by John Jakob Raskob, a former General Motors executive, devout capitalist and chairman at the time of the Democratic National Party.
Starrett Brothers & Eken was the general contractor. Thousands of construction workers and tradesman did the hard labor. Five of them died on the job.
One man designed this breathtaking monument to American exceptionalism.
His name is William F. Lamb.
William F. Lamb was the chief architect of the Empire State Building. “I sketched the design of the Empire State Buidling in just two weeks,” Lamb wrote. “The construction was completed a year and six months from the starting of the drawings.” (Courtesy Empire State Building)
He was the principal architect behind “the most famous building in the world” — visited by four million people each year nearly a century after its completion.
“I sketched the design of the Empire State Building in just two weeks,” Lamb wrote, according to several accounts.
Work began on March 17, 1930. Opening ceremonies were held on May 1, 1931.
The towering marvel of engineering and design was built with shocking speed in the early days of the Great Depression.
Work began on March 17, 1930. Opening ceremonies were held on May 1, 1931.
“The construction was completed a year and six months from the starting of the drawings,” the architect said.
Lamb was a child of New York City. He studied in Paris. He overcame terrifying adversity — the loss of a leg in a motorcycle accident — that crippled his body but not his genius.
The Empire State Building was named the number-one attraction by the 2022 Trip Advisor travelers’ choice awards. You can book a 90-minute tour at the building with the choice of a premium experience, sunrise tour, a pass for the 86th and 102nd floors, and more. (Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)
“There are now many buildings in many countries, and many in New York City, taller than the Empire State Building,” skyscraper expert Carol Willis told Fox News Digital.
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“Yet it remains to this day New York’s signature skyscraper. It’s the opening shot of every movie. It stands as a perpetual symbol of the Manhattan skyline, New York City’s energy and our skyscraper inventiveness.”
Willis is the author of the 2007 book “Building the Empire State” and the founder of the Skyscraper Museum in New York City.
There are now 58 buildings around the world, she notes, and six in Manhattan alone, that are taller than the Empire State Building.
“It stands as a perpetual symbol of the Manhattan skyline, New York City’s energy and our skyscraper inventiveness.” — Empire State Building expert Carol Willis
It turns out that people love the Grand Old Lady of the New York City skyline for more than just her height.
They love her because she’s beautiful and majestic and, like a favorite song, captures our admiration in ways we can’t truly explain.
Former governor, and three-time presidential candidate, Alfred E. Smith celebrated his 69th birthday in a press interview at his offices in the Empire State Building. Smith was president of Empire State Inc., which built the Empire State Building. (Getty Images)
“He himself was very simple,” said Lamb’s wife, Cuthbert Catherine (Dufour), according to an interview years later with the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.
“He loved everything classical; he loved classical music, and simple lines.”
He was infatuated with Romanesque architecture and the grand cathedrals of Europe — “those old, very strong sturdy churches,” as Cuthbert Lamb called them.
Born in monumental times
William Frederick Lamb was born in Brooklyn on Nov. 21, 1883, to William and Mary Louise (Wurster) Lamb.
His father was a native of Glasgow, Scotland. He fought for the Union Army in the Civil War and became a “prominent builder” in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, according to a 1903 obituary.
The Brooklyn Bridge opened on May 24, 1883, connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan. It was the longest bridge in the world at the time and a beautiful monument to American ambition. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)
His mother was born in Manhattan but lived most of her life in Brooklyn. Her brother, Lamb’s uncle, Frederick W. Wurster, was the last mayor of Brooklyn before it was absorbed by Manhattan into New York City in 1898.
The architect was born into a monumental era in New York City history.
“She is a global symbol of risks taken and dreams fulfilled.” — Anthony Malkin, Empire State Realty Trust chairman
New York City welcomed the Brooklyn Bridge in May 1883, six months before it welcomed Lamb.
The completion of the landmark bridge played a significant role in the consolidation of New York City 15 years later.
Lamb was only five when the Statue of Liberty was unveiled in New York Harbor.
It was an era when New York City, and the United States at large, were stepping out onto the world stage in ways that great societies have since the dawn of mankind — with monumental feats of architecture and engineering.
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He studied at Williams College in Massachusetts and the School of Architecture at Columbia University in Manhattan before earning a diploma from the prestigious Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
Success in France, however, was marred by a near-death experience.
The Empire State Building, as seen from the 42nd floor of a residential building on 42nd Street, standing singularly over the Midtown Manhattan skyline. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)
“He had lost a leg in a motorcycle crash in Europe and wore a prosthesis that caused him to limp noticeably,” Mark Kingwell writes in his 2006 book “Nearest Thing to Heaven: The Empire State Building and American Dreams.”
He returned to New York City and became a partner in the firm of Shreve & Lamb, soon to be renamed Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, in the 1920s.
“He lost a leg in a motorcycle crash in Europe and wore a prosthesis that caused him to limp noticeably.” — Author Mark Kingwell
He built his reputation designing many of New York City’s early landmark skyscrapers, including the Standard Oil Building and the General Motors Building.
He also designed the Reynolds Building for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, cited by some as a stylistic precursor of the Empire State Building.
The firm was tabbed to build the Empire State Building in October 1929 — the same month the stock-market crash launched the United States, and much of the world, into the Great Depression.
The Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was designed by Empire State Building architect William F. Lamb. It’s considered a precursor of the famous New York City skyscraper. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Raskob, the financier behind the project, rose from poverty to become a devotee of American exceptionalism. He leaned on his wealthy friends to double down on their faith in capitalism and put their money in the new building despite the fearful economy.
He asked Lamb to manifest that faith in steel, limestone, granite and glass.
Writes Kingwell, “Popular legend has it that, after the firm was hired, Raskob … called Lamb into his office, held an HB pencil rubber-end on his desk and said, ‘Bill, how high can you make it so that it won’t fall down?”
‘Appeal is enormously palpable’
Raskob’s question was answered after just 13 months of construction.
The Empire State Building stands 102 stories and 1,250 feet tall — 1,454 feet high with its gleaming antenna, an addition opposed by the architect.
A construction worker bolts beams during construction of the Empire State Building, New York City, circa 1930. In the background (right) is the Chrysler Building. (Lewis Hine/National Archive/Newsmakers)
The sheer scope of the construction remains hard to believe: 10 million bricks, 200,000 cubic feet of Indiana limestone, 6,400 windows and 37 million cubic feet of space, according to “The Empire State Building: The Making of a Landmark” by John Tauranac.
The building was an instant sensation in the eyes of popular culture.
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“The appeal to the layman is enormously palpable,” New Yorker magazine wrote.
It even added a couplet: “The Empire State’s/Ambitious mass/Is, take it from/The critics class.”
Few described the edifice more poetically than Lamb himself: “Empire State seemed almost to float, like an enchanted fairy tower, over New York,” he wrote.
The giant ape fights off planes atop the Empire State Building in New York City at the end of the film “King Kong,” 1933. (Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)
It soon became a Hollywood darling. The Empire State Building was only two years old when it played a starring role in the 1933 production of “King Kong.”
It’s starred in dozens of movies since while serving as stage-setting New York City backdrop for countless other silver-screen productions.
“The appeal to the layman is enormously palpable.” — New Yorker magazine, 1932
Lamb’s design proved its structural integrity during a deadly incident at the end of World War II.
It was struck by a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bomber on a fog-bound morning on July 28, 1945.
Eleven people were killed in the building and on the ground from falling debris, plus the three crew members.
Empire State suffered only superficial wounds that were quickly repaired.
A striking view of the giant Empire State Building with its upper stories enveloped in smoke and flame after it was rammed by a U.S. Army B-25 bomber. (Getty Images)
It was the tallest building on the planet from its completion in 1931 until 1971 when surpassed by the World Trade Center Towers; it was again the tallest building in NYC from 2001 to 2012.
“The Empire State Building, the ‘World’s Most Famous Building,’ belongs to the world,” Empire State Realty Trust chairman Anthony Malkin told Fox News Digital.
“She is a global symbol of risks taken and dreams fulfilled … She lives in the hearts and imaginations of all peoples, cultures, and ages, as cutting edge today as the day she opened.”
‘Isn’t this marvelous?’
William F. Lamb died on Sept. 8, 1952. He was 68 years old.
He’s buried today in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.
Portrait of architect William F. Lamb (1883-1952), best known for designing the Empire State Building in Manhattan. (National Academy of Design, New York/Bridgeman Images)
The Empire State Building was an immediate personal triumph. Lamb earned the Architectural League’s Medal of Honor in 1931.
The American Society of Civil Engineers named it one of the seven greatest engineering achievements in the nation’s history in 1955.
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The Empire State Building was just 55 years old when it was proclaimed a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service.
Today, it is only the seventh-tallest building in New York City, following a recent historic spate of high-rise construction in Manhattan.
The sun rises behind the Empire State Building in New York City as a person walks on a pier in the Hudson River on March 10, 2023, in Hoboken, New Jersey. (Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)
But it is easily still the most famous skyscraper in New York, and around the world.
An average of 11,000 tourists visit the Empire State Building every day.
Lamb’s design remains the most beautiful skyscraper in the world in eyes of many people, nearly 100 years later.
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Lamb eschewed the spotlight to the point that many architects are much better known despite much lesser works.
There is, as skyscraper expert Willis noted, no biography of Lamb.
The Empire State Building and its architect, William F. Lamb, a native New Yorker. (Fox News Digital/Empire State Building)
He skipped the opening ceremonies of his masterpiece of design on May 1, 1931, to set sail for Europe.
Writes Kingwell, “Three miles out, and so past the Prohibition boundary, he poured two martinis from a chrome shaker, pointed at the building visible in the distance, and said to his wife, ‘Isn’t this marvelous? Here we are and we don’t have to go the party and listen to all those speeches.’”
To read more stories in this unique “Meet the American Who…” series from Fox News Digital, click here.
Lifestyle
On this day in history, March 21, 1952, first rock concert held in Cleveland, ends in chaos, conflict
The first rock ‘n’ roll concert, the ill-fated yet legendary Moondog Coronation Ball, pulsed from the stage of the former Cleveland Arena amid chaos and controversy on this day in history, March 21, 1952.
“There was a sense of dynamite going off,” Indiana University professor emeritus and rock ‘n’ roll historian Glenn Gass told Fox News Digital.
“Right from the start, it was seen as dangerous music. Kids loved it. Parents hated it. Great. What a way for rock ‘n’ roll to get its start.”
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The oversold show ended early and, fittingly, in a conflict with authorities — which quickly became a hallmark of the explosive, controversial and bawdy new musical art form.
“Described as the ‘Big Bang of rock ‘n’ roll,’ the concert was organized by DJ Alan Freed and music store owner Leo Mintz and was headlined by saxophonist Paul Williams and his Hucklebuckers,” writes Guinness World Records in its confirmation of the show’s pioneering status in live-music history.
R&B pianist and singer Amos Milburn with Paul Williams (baritone sax, center), Eddie Silver (tenor sax, left), Jimmy Brown (trumpet), Belton Evans (drums), and Steve Cooper (bass), circa 1950. Paul Williams, performing with the Hucklebuckers, co-headlined with guitarist Tiny Grimes the first rock concert in Cleveland on March 21, 1952. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
“The event was credited with ‘bringing Black and White kids together to dance in post-war America, but was abandoned after approximately 30 minutes due to overcrowding and rioting after more than 20,000 revelers stormed the 9,950-seat venue.”
The concert was co-headlined by guitarist Tiny Grimes, according to promotional posters from the landmark event.
“Described as the ‘Big Bang of rock ‘n’ roll,’ the concert was organized by DJ Alan Freed and music store owner Leo Mintz.” — Guinness World Records
Apparently only Williams, the opening act, got to perform before the show was cut short in haste by local officials as crowds of ticket holders gathered on Euclid Avenue were unable to get into the arena.
“In 1948, at the age of 33, Williams recorded ‘The Hucklebuck,’ an instrumental considered by many music historians to be an important precursor to rock ‘n’ roll,” writes Blackpast.org.
Moondog Coronation Ball in Cleveland, March 21, 1952, organized by DJ Alan Freed and record-store owner Leo Mintz, is regarded as the first-ever rock ‘n’ roll concert. (y GAB Archive/Redferns)
“At a time when record companies promoted ‘race’ records only among African Americans, Williams’ song became a major crossover hit among both Black and White audiences.”
Fellow headliner Grimes recorded with artists such as Charlie Parker and Billie Holiday and pioneered rock sound with his up-tempo jazz-guitar style, according to various sources.
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DJ Freed proved the real breakout star of the first rock concert.
He was “the boundary-smashing, trend-setting evangelist of rock ‘n’ roll,” writes the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which made him a member of its charter class of 1986, alongside the genre’s greatest early icons, including Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley and Little Richard.
“Freed was the most effective proselytizer rock and roll has ever known.” — Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
Freed, among other claims to fame, is credited with popularizing the phrase rock ‘n’ roll as its aggressive beats and sexually suggestive lyrics swept over American radio in the 1950s and soon conquered pop culture.
“Freed was the most effective proselytizer rock ‘n’ roll has ever known,” writes the Rock Hall.
American disc jockey and radio performer Alan Freed (1921-1965), who popularized the term rock ‘n’ roll, sits in a 1010 WINS sound studio during a radio broadcast, 1950s. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
“Spreading the word from a radio pulpit that kicked off nightly to the strains of Freddie Mitchell’s ‘Moondog Boogie,’ Freed kept time to the music by smashing his hand on a telephone book. He first conquered Cleveland over WJW, and then moved his show to New York’s flagship WINS.”
Freed’s celebrity soon extended far beyond the radio studio.
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He appeared in numerous movies that popularized rock’s earliest stars, including “Go, Johnny, Go,” alongside American music icons Berry, Jackie Wilson and Ritchie Valens.
The movie was released in June 1959, four months after Valens was killed in a plane crash with Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper.
Chuck Berry performs his “duck walk” as he plays his electric hollowbody guitar at the TAMI Show on Dec. 29, 1964 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California. Rock promoter and DJ Alan Freed appeared with Berry and other rock icons in the 1959 movie “Go, Johnny Go” — the title taken from the lyrics of Berry’s rock hit “Johnny B. Goode.” (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Freed has also been celebrated on TV and in various rock songs.
“He had an amazing ability to find new music and new artists,” Jason Hanley, vice president of education for the Rock Hall, told Fox New Digital.
“He got rock ‘n’ roll to reach a much bigger audience than it would have otherwise.”
“There was a sense of dynamite going off.” — Glenn Gass, rock ‘n’ roll historian
Freed’s career ended in disgrace, however.
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He was indicted on charges of tax fraud in 1964 and became the center of the “Payola” scandal in which radio stations were accused of taking money from record labels to play their music.
The legend of the Moondog Coronation Ball, and Freed’s ability to see the future of music, changed global pop culture forever.
Photo of marquee at unspecified theater promoting a rock ‘n’ roll concert hosted by DJ and early rock figure Alan Freed. The marquee also highlights “Don’t Knock the Rock,” a 1956 movie about a town that bans rock ‘n’ roll. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Metallica, Motley Crue and AC/DC, among others, played before 1.6 million people in Moscow in 1991, in what’s widely proclaimed the largest rock ‘n’ roll concert in history.
“Crocodile Rock” crooner Elton John is in the midst of his COVID-interrupted global Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour.
Billboard in January proclaimed it the biggest selling concert tour of all time. It’s netted $818 million across 278 concerts with dates still on the docket.
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Cleveland rose to prominence as a birthplace of rock ‘n’ roll, and became home of Rock Hall of Fame in 1995, thanks largely to Freed’s impact, said Hanley.
“Cleveland has always been a rock ‘n’ roll town, and a gospel town, an R&B town and one of the great music towns,” he said.
Lifestyle
TikTok duo goes viral for their dating tips: ‘Excuse My Grandma’ explores changing relationship ideals
The dating scene today often involves social media, apps and more — making the generation gap even more stark when examining how previous generations met, fell in love and got married.
One East Coast family is talking about those differences and using social media to share smart life tips that may never go out of style.
Kim Murstein is a 27-year-old New York native who went to live with her “Grandma Gail” — Gail Rudnick, 80 — in Palm Beach, Florida, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Rudnick and her husband of 60 years, known to the family as Poppy, moved from New York City to Florida upon retiring.
While in Florida, Murstein continued to date as she had been doing in the city.
Murstein was 24 and living in New York City when the pandemic hit. She decided to spend more time in Florida with her grandparents. (Kim Murstein)
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Murstein recalled realizing that she and her grandmother, who has been married for 60 years, had very different dating rules. (SEE the duo discuss their very different views in the video at the top of this article.)
“We realized all the generational differences from the last time she was single, in the ‘50s and ’60s,” she said.
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Together, they started a podcast — “Excuse My Grandma.”
The pair discuss various dating differences, with Grandma Gail sharing the ideas and values she feels stand the test of time.
“Excuse My Grandma” has over 400,000 followers on TikTok and over 170,000 followers on Instagram. (Kim Murstein)
Soon after, the duo’s social media platforms took off. They now have over 400,000 TikTok followers and 170,000 Instagram followers.
“I think sometimes you’ve just got to give it a little time.”
One of the things the two women disagree on is how many dates a person should go on with the same companion before making a judgment call about the partner.
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While Murstein has an estimated two-to-three date rule, Grandma Gail believes a person should go on about 10 dates before deciding whether or not to pursue a serious relationship.
“You don’t even know what the guy is like on the first, second or even third date because everybody’s on their best behavior,” the grandmother of four said.
Murstein (left) and Grandma Gail have a special bond — one they say has only grown since they started doing a podcast together. (Kim Murstein)
“I think sometimes you’ve just got to give it a little time,” she suggested.
But what’s Grandma Gail’s biggest piece of dating advice?
Don’t look for perfection.
“Perfection is an idealized thing … but that’s not reality,” she said. She pointed out that this realization comes with maturity.
Murstein, however, calls herself “a dreamer” — and spends time idealizing romantic comedies from the 1950s.
“I have my own idea of what that [perfection] is, and I don’t think I want to settle for something less than that,” she said.
Grandmother and granddaughter share dating tips and other advice on their social media accounts. (Kim Murstein)
Although Murstein has taught Grandma Gail about modern dating apps and terms such as “ghosting,” Grandma Gail still doesn’t like some of the dating choices that her granddaughter makes.
Grandma Gail thinks young people today overthink and overcomplicate dating, she said. Instead, she recommends that single people go out and have fun without the stress of having a serious relationship.
The two have always had a close relationship, they noted. They lived near each other when Grandma Gail and her husband were still in Manhattan.
“Excuse My Grandma” is a podcast and social media brand that Murstein and Grandma Gail created from real-life events in Murstein’s dating life. (Kim Murstein)
“We lived very close to each other in Manhattan, and I saw her in all stages of growing up,” she recalled.
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The grandmother said that working together now has only deepened the bond that the two share.
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“She’s a terrific young woman, great head on her shoulders, and she knows who to date and not to date,” said her grandmother.
Lifestyle
On this day in history, March 20, 1854, Republican Party founded to oppose expansion of slavery
Brit Hume previews new Fox Nation show
Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume weighs in on President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s meeting to discuss the debt ceiling and shares his new Fox Nation show ‘American Presidents’ on ‘Special Report.’
The Republican Party, forged from of a coalition of political forces to oppose the advance of slavery in the American west, was created in Ripon, Wisconsin, on this day in history, March 20, 1854.
“The Republican Party grew out of resistance to the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which overrode the Missouri Compromise and allowed slavery to spread into Western territory by popular sovereignty,” writes PBS American Experience in its history of political parties in the United States.
“‘Anti-Nebraska’ men included anti-slavery Whigs, Democrats, Free Soilers, reformers, and abolitionists.”
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Alvin Earle Bovay, an attorney and co-founder of Ripon College, was incensed by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in the Senate in March and led a meeting at the town’s Congregational Church.
“This group, considering possible passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill then being debated in Congress, resolved that steps should be taken to form a new Republican Party to appeal to all those who opposed slavery in the territories,” writes the Wisconsin Historical Society.
The birthplace of the Republican Party in Ripon, Wisconsin. The movement that would create the anti-slavery party first met here on March 20, 1854. (MPI/Getty Images)
“Cries of ‘Repeal! Repeal!’ resounded throughout the nation, following the Ripon, Wisconsin meeting of March 20, 1854 in demonstration against the ‘Kansas-Nebraska Swindle,’” The Jefferson Banner of Jefferson Co., Wisconsin wrote years later of the transformative moment in American political history.
Bovay was reportedly the first to call the assembly the “Republican” party.
“Cries of ‘Repeal! Repeal!’ resounded throughout the nation, following the Ripon, Wisconsin meeting of March 20, 1854.” — The Jefferson Banner
His moniker found a powerful ally in influential newspaper publisher Horace Greeley.
“We should not care much whether those thus united against slavery were designated ‘Whig,’ ‘Free Democrat’ or something else,” Greeley wrote in his New-York Tribune in June 1854.
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“Though we think some simple name like ‘Republican’ would more fitly designate those who had united to restore the Union to its true mission of champion and promulgator of Liberty rather than propagandist of slavery.”
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was signed into law by President Franklin Pierce on May 30 amid increasing hostility in the halls of power in Washington, D.C., and amid increasing groundswell of opposition.
Horace Greeley, American newspaper editor known especially for his vigorous articulation of the North’s antislavery sentiments during the 1850s. He is remembered often for his quote, “Go West, Young Man.” (Getty Images)
“Local meetings were held throughout the North in 1854 and 1855. The first national convention of the new party was held in Pittsburgh on Feb. 22, 1856,” writes the Wisconsin Republican Party in its online history.
The party held its first nominating convention in Philadelphia in July 1856. It selected California explorer John C. Fremont as the first Republican to run for president.
“‘Republican’ would more fitly designate those who had united to restore the Union to its true mission of champion and promulgator of Liberty” — Horace Greeley
He lost to Pennsylvania Democrat James Buchanan, but made an impressive showing for the upstart party founded only two years earlier.
Fremont won 11 of 31 states and earned 33% of the popular vote, finishing ahead of former President Millard Fillmore of New York, who represented the short-lived Know Nothing Party.
Campaign banner for presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln and running mate Hannibal Hamlin. (VCG Wilson/Corbis via Getty Images)
The true impact of the Republican earthquake was felt when the party’s candidate, Abraham Lincoln, won the presidency in the hotly contested four-man race of 1860.
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Democrat-led pro-slavery states quickly seceded from the Union in response to the Republican victory, launching the nation into the Civil War.
Republicans after the war pushed through in rapid order the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Collectively known as the Reconstruction Amendments, they abolished slavery, provided equal protection under the law and guaranteed voting rights.
Titled “Scene at the polls in Cheyenne,” this colorized engraving shows a group of women as they line up on the sidewalk to cast their ballots through an open window, in Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, 1888. (Stock Montage/Getty Images)
Democrats regained power in the years after the Civil War.
The Republicans reportedly earned the name Grand Old Party in 1888, after winning back the White House from Democrat Grover Cleveland.
“Let us be thankful that under the rule of the Grand Old Party … these United States will resume the onward and upward march which the election of Grover Cleveland in 1884 partially arrested,” the Chicago Tribune wrote in what some sources say is the first use of the GOP label.
The Republican Party led the fight for woman’s suffrage, first in the Wyoming Territories in 1869 and then pushing through the 19th Amendment after sweeping to power in both houses of Congress in November 1918.
The newly Republican-led Senate approved the amendment in June 1919 and sent it on the states “after 41 years of debate,” notes the chamber’s official history.
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The Republican Party later pushed through the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 in alliance with Democrat President Lyndon B. Johnson, who split with his own party to support the bill.
Illustration entitled “THE CRADLE OF THE G.O.P.,” depicting the first Republican convention held at Lafayette Hall in Pittsburgh on Feb. 22, 1856. Shows two views: one of hall’s exterior, one of interior during proceedings. (Getty Images)
The Civil Rights Act passed despite a ferocious 72-day filibuster in the Senate led by a collection of Democrat icons.
Among those senators who staunchly opposed the Civil Rights Act: Al Gore Sr. of Tennessee (father of the future vice president), J. William Fulbright of Arkansas (mentor of future president Bill Clinton), Strom Thurmond of South Carolina and Robert Byrd of West Virginia.
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“The Republican Party has a rich history of fighting for the rights of all Americans, from opposing slavery to giving women the right to vote to fostering individual rights across every group in our nation today,” A.J. Catsimatidis, vice chairperson of the New York State Republican Party, told Fox News Digital.
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