Romney never saw father on King march

The Boston Globe ^ | December 21, 2007 | Michael Levenson

[Josh Painter]

Susan Englander, assistant editor of the Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University, who is editing the King papers from that era, told the Globe yesterday: "I researched this question, and indeed it is untrue that George Romney marched with [Dr.] King."

She said that when he was governor of Michigan, George Romney issued a proclamation in June 1963 in support of King's march in Detroit, but declined to attend, saying he did not participate in political events on Sundays. A New York Times story from the time confirms Englander's account.

A few days after that march, George Romney joined a civil rights march through the Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe, but King did not attend, Englander said. A report in the New York Times confirms Englander's account of that second march...

Romney has repeated the story of his father marching with King in some of his most prominent presidential campaign appearances, including the "Tonight" show with Jay Leno in May, his address on faith and politics Dec. 6 in Texas, and on NBC's "Meet The Press" on Sunday, when he was questioned about the Mormon Church's ban on full participation by black members. He said that he had cried in his car in 1978 when he heard the ban had ended, and added, "My father marched with Martin Luther King."

Mitt Romney went a step further in a 1978 interview with the Boston Herald. Talking about the Mormon Church and racial discrimination, he said: "My father and I marched with Martin Luther King Jr. through the streets of Detroit."

Yesterday, Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom acknowledged that was not true. "Mitt Romney did not march with Martin Luther King," he said in an e-mail statement to the Globe.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Thanks for the link. It shows that yet ANOTHER thing from the original story was false, in this case the claim that George Romney never marched in the south:

"In 1967, George Romney Was Praised At A National Civil Rights Rally For His Leadership. "Michigan Gov. George Romney walked into a Negro Civil Rights rally in the heart of Atlanta to the chants of 'We Want Romney' and to hear protests from Negroes about city schools."

Again, it appears that almost the entire "story" that started this was false. And almost EVERY aspect of that story that was false was trumpeted here as the truth at some point by Mitt-haters.

And yet they aren't all calling themselves liars for repeating false things. Odd.

[drjimmy]

...and yet you seem to think the entire nation was personally aware of EVERY march King was ever in.

Ah, a very Romneyesque almost a fact. I am not talking about the entire nation. I am talking about the high-school aged son of the governor knowing whether or not he and his father the governor marched down the street along with the most prominent civil rights leader of the time. I am willing to believe that Mitt wished so hard that this had taken place that he eventually came to believe it himself. Maybe some of the "brainwashing" that his father endured took hold of Mitt as well.

[CharlesWayneCT]

And I guess David Broder wished really hard about it, and his father wished very hard about it, and the four books written about it had authors that wished very hard about it.

It will be really funny if, in the end, it turns out that there is more evidence that it HAPPENED than people who say it didn’t.

[Badeye]

I’ll stick with my position. There were other polls at the time showing Kerry around 15%.