birth of US democracy

When can we speak of a democratic America? If you read books about the IIWW, you read of Europe saved by US troops representing democracy against fascist and nazist dictatorships. And it is common to speak of US democracy as if it were a long tradition, much longer than Italian tradition, for ex., or other countries' tradition.
The problem is that black people were recognized their civil rights not before the 60s. How can you define US a democracy if so huge a number of people could not vote?
So it will sound surprising to say that Italy (necessarily my point of comparison is often my country of origin) was a democracy before USA. But it is true. In 1946 we had free elections after fascism and women could vote so they are the first real democratic elections in Italy. And in USA black people could not vote yet. So Italy was a democratic country before USA.
It sounds really strange but it is true. So when we speak of US troops liberating Europe from non-democratic powers, we cannot really say that they were freed by a democratic nation.
I think that it is very important for black people to strengthen this idea and if officially the birth of US as a real democracy is set in 1964 when black people could vote, this is a sort of payment that US will give back in historical books in favour of the black population which suffered for lack of civil rights. It is as if officially US's denial of giving rights to black people would stain the historical cronology and this is right for black people. It is not a light matter. It is not obvious to say that yes, black people could vote in the 60s so US democracy is complete in the 60s. It is not a trivial thing. History should be rewritten. I have always studied US as the mother of democracy, the major democracy, and at the time of Roosevelt or even before all the history books speak of US democracy. And they should be rewritten, not to humiliate a country but to recognize the suffering of so many people denied of their rights.