Yes, Republicans Freed The Slaves. They Were NOT These Republicans.

(CNN) - Republicans tried to claim their political ancestors at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night, casting back to Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican President, to argue they deserve more credit from Black voters.

The problem is that the Republicans and the politics of 1860 bear almost zero resemblance to the Republicans of today.

Back then, Republicans were, generally, a party of Northerners and Democrats were, generally, the party of the South.

Today, it's pretty much the opposite.

Back then, a Republican President, Lincoln, tried to hold the union together after Southern states, led by Democrats, seceded.

The parties traded places

Today, it's a Republican President, Donald Trump, who has changed his allegiance to a Southern state, Florida, and is appealing to nostalgia for the Confederacy and stoking racial divisions, not trying to end them or get past them.

So it was factually true and sounded good in real time when Clarence Henderson, a Black man who marched for civil rights in the 1960s and now supports Trump, said this Wednesday night during the convention:

"I'm a Republican. And I support Donald Trump. If that sounds strange, you don't know your history. It was the Republican Party that passed the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery. It was the Republican Party that passed the 14th Amendment, giving Black men citizenship. It was the Republican Party that passed the 15th Amendment, giving Black men the right to vote. "

That's true! But he missed the second part, about the fight over civil rights in the '60s and the dramatic party realignment that's happened since then