You don't even have to look at history. Look at current events. The Republican president is in lockstep with the KKK, is spreading the KKK's message, is being praised by KKK Grand Wizard David Duke. That same KKK grand wizard ran under the Republican party for the senate in 2016. The KKK / neo-Nazi rally in VA this past weekend wasn't titled "Unite the Left". It was titled "Unite the Right". 

Republicans across the nation are waging a war of Voter Suppression, formerly the province of the Ku Klux Klan, including Kris Kobach, the Republican Sec of State from Kansas and the co-chair of Republican Trump's Voter Sham Committee.

This anti-black white nationalist "Unite the Right" garbage is in the Republican party now, currently, in 2017 regardless of which party Nathan Bedford Forrest belonged to. You can deflect, or you can work to purge these racists and their ideals from your party.