Billboards Posted Claiming Martin Luther King Was Republican

In 2006, the National Black Republican Association (NBRA) ran a radio ad trumpeting that Martin Luther King was a Republican. It was, of course, decried as false. As we enter the home stretch of another important political race, the NBRA is again stating the same claim, using billboards this time.

The NBRA's billboards, posted in six Florida counties, show an image of MLK and the words "Martin Luther King Jr. was REPUBLICAN. www.NBRA.info"

Frances Rice, the Republican group's chairwoman, spoke strongly about this in 2006, and continued to do so, telling AP:

"I knew the King family well. We were all Republicans. here was no way Dr. King would have wanted to be in the party of the Ku Klux Klan."

However, as the Washingon Post indicated in their article regarding the 2006 incident:

In 1960, King was arrested for trespassing during a sit-in and held in Georgia's Reidsville prison. Fearing for his son's life, Martin Luther King Sr. appealed to presidential candidate John F. Kennedy to secure his release.

When King was freed, his father vowed to deliver 10 million votes to the Democrat, even though Kennedy was only a reluctant supporter of civil rights. That began four decades of black people voting for liberals.

The younger King voted for Kennedy, and for Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson four years later. In that election, King publicly denounced the Republican candidate, Barry Goldwater.

Today, the vast majority of black voters are Democrats, including former ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young and former presidential hopeful Jesse L. Jackson, two former King aides.

The King Center in Atlanta says there is no proof that King was ever a Republican. And, Rev. Joseph Lowery, who knew MLK well and who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with King, was quoted by AP as follows:

"These guys never give up, do they? Lord have mercy.

That was not the Martin I know and I don't think they can substantiate that by any shape, form or fashion. It's purely propaganda and poppycock. Even if he was, he would have nothing to do with what the Republican Party stands for today. Do they think Martin would support George W. Bush and the war in Iraq?"

He added that King voted for John F. Kennedy, and the only time he openly talked about politics was when he criticized Republican Barry Goldwater during the 1964 presidential campaign.