Republican Party and People of Color

I am a white male who has never lived in a diverse ethnic environment.  I am also a Republican and a fiscal conservative.  While am am personally a social conservative as well, those issues are not what drive my voting decisions.

The Republican Party was the party that freed the slaves in the 1860's  The Republican Party then worked to protect the rights of those freed slaves from the southern Democrats who tried to deny them those rights.

I do not understand how the party that did that has purportedly become such an enemy of black people and brown people.  I blame the party itself.  But, fortunately we do have notable people in those demographics who are Republicans, conservatives or both.

I call upon leaders such as Marco Rubio, Susana Martinez, Herman Cain, Allen West, Ted Cruz, and others to actively explain why the Republican Party is their party of choice and help others to share that view.