The GOP’s Newest Colin Powell: Martin Luther King, Jr.

That the National Black Republican Association is running ads stating that Martin Luther King was a Republican, without a chad of evidence, must surely underscore their fear of being wiped out by an Obama tsunami of overwhelming black voters in this fall’s election. The NBRA’s argument for why King must have been a Republican is:

"It should come as no surprise that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican. In that era, almost all black Americans were Republicans. Why? From its founding in 1854 as the anti-slavery party until today, the Republican Party has championed freedom and civil rights for blacks."

So, because “almost all black Americans were Republicans,” it stands to reason that King must have been one also.

If you read through the rest of this tortured syllogism, the author, Frances Rice, the association’s chair, never states that King had joined the GOP. It’s inferred. There is no evidence of King being a member of the GOP, and a number of the GOP and Jim Crow Democrats accused him of being a communist.

The NBRA's roster of the black GOP history states that King registered as a Republican in 1956, but it doesn't cite how it knows this. It assumes that just because Kings father was a member of the Republican that he was also. King could have been, but it sure would ne nice to know if there is evidence of a voter registration card.

This all came about because the NBRA is, once again, running bogus ads claiming such. Now, it wouldn’t be a major surprise if King’s father was a member of the GOP, but King wasn’t like his father and had taken a radically different course.

For example, King said this in David Garrow’s Bearing the Cross:

“The Negro must make it palpably clear that he is not inextricably bound to either political party….We will not blindly support any party that refuses to take a forthright stand on the question of civil rights.” (119)

“Nixon has a genius for convincing one that he is sincere…he almost disarms you with his apparent sincerity. If Richard Nixon is not sincere, he is the most dangerous man in America.” (119)

And of Barry Goldwater, upon the Arizona senator winning the 1964 GOP nomination, King said the following:

Goldwater “articulates a philosophy which gives aid and comfort to the racist.” (340)

King went on to urge “all supporters to vote against the Republican nominee and other Republican candidates who did not disassociate themselves from him,” writes Garrow. (340)


Now, does this sound like a good member in standing of the Grand Old Party?