"Yikes! I Might Be...Militia!"
Only one of the two African-American men dominating today’s news headlines ever had his name appear on the rolls of the Republican Party. Do you know which one? If not, let’s play “Name that African-American Republican!”
The first man, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was a clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the American civil rights movement. Born in Atlanta, he is well-known for many accomplishments, including his famous “I Have A Dream” speech delivered in Washington, D.C., in 1963. He lived nearly four decades before having his life cut short by an assassin’s bullet in Memphis. We remember him on this day, the 45th anniversary of his death in 1968.
The second man, Sen. Barack Obama, is a first-term U.S. senator from the south side of Chicago who attended college at Columbia and Harvard and worked as a community organizer and law school professor before getting involved in politics. As a politician, he served seven years in the Illinois legislature before being elected to Congress and, in turn, deciding to run for president of the United States. We consider him on this day as he becomes the first African-American man to accept a major party’s nomination to run for president of the United States.
Do you know which man above was a Republican and which man is a Democrat?
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If you’re color blind or can’t figure out the answer to the question by simply examining my use of contrasting colors and type in the text of the question above, I’ll let the proverbial cat out of the bag: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican.
If you don’t believe it, click here to read an article written by his niece, Dr. Alveda C. King, and published on page 17 of the Fall 2008-09 edition of The Black Republican.
Now that you know, please vote wisely.
4 responses so far ↓
1 The Party of King: The Republican Party « Old Ford Road // Aug 28, 2008 at 7:59 pm
[...] Hat Tip Bob McCarty. [...]
2 avery // Aug 31, 2008 at 12:20 pm
so your contention is that king would have been a member of the nixon/goldwater republicans? really?
if you actually read the whole article, the only time frame specified is in the 1950’s, certainly not the 60’s, and definitely not by the time of his assassination.
unless you believe that ‘poor people’s march’ dr. king would have been at the convention with ’southern strategy’ nixon.
3 hotoffthepress2 // Aug 31, 2008 at 12:56 pm
avery — I’m only offering what Dr. Alveda C. King wrote about her grandfather. Why don’t you ask her if you don’t believe it? Geesh!
4 avery // Aug 31, 2008 at 8:56 pm
i know. i read the article last week. the date in the article references the 1950’s. but you have to admit, even if it’s literally true, to make that claim as if the political parties today are identical to their namesakes in the middle of the 20th century is intellectually dishonest. claiming king for a republican, as if his party affiliation would not have been a reaction to the dixiecrats is the worst kind of bait-and-switch.
and i’m aware that you’re not the one who originally made the claim, but truth is bigger than historical veracity. alveda king argues based on a single issue, which has warped her sense of perspective. again, dr. king may have literally been a republican, but to conflate 1955-down-south ‘republican’ with 2008 republican is to commit intellectual fraud. that’s all i’m saying.
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