There is a meme going around that says The KKK, was founded by Democrats, it ignores, that action defines a party,not its labels, which is like saying Tulsi Gabard is a Democrat. Through the passage of the civil rights legislation, White southerners switched to the Republican Party at the national level but remained supporting the KKK and racism. Was Lincon a racist? The only thing this meme points out is republicans have no core and have become facists.
This is as tired a canard as saying that if Jews (gypsies, gays, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc) had had guns in Germany they could fight "the SA, SS and the Wehrmacht. The [Russian] Red Army lost 7 million men fighting the Wehrmacht, despite its tanks and planes and artillery. The Jews with pistols and shotguns would have done better?”
(Bartov, Brown U)
As we know, Southern Dems were splitting from the Northern Dems and THEN LBJ signed the CRA. That was it and So Ds became Rs.