A party platform is a document produced by a political party every four years (prior to each presidential election) that sets forth that party’s beliefs and values as well as its policy positions on important issues of the day. While a platform addresses dozens of issues and sets forth that party’s vision for America, this booklet has compiled the position of the two major parties only on civil rights and racial justice issues – a subject at the forefront of American policy debates for decades. The Democrats and Republicans platform declarations on this subject that appear in this booklet commence with the year 1840 and continue until the 1964 platform immediately preceding the creation and passage of the three major landmark civil rights measures.