Dr. Martin Luther King a Republican

East Texas Review ^

[mnehring]

Martin Luther King a Republican by Frances Rice/Special to ETR

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. And as one pundit so succinctly stated, the Democrat Party is as it always has been, the party of the four S’s: Slavery, Secession, Segregation and now Socialism.

It was the Democrats who fought to keep blacks in slavery and passed the discriminatory Black Codes and Jim Crow laws. The Democrats started the Ku Klux Klan to lynch and terrorize blacks. The Democrats fought to prevent the passage of every civil rights law beginning with the civil rights laws of the 1860’s, and continuing with the civil rights laws of the 1950’s and 1960’s.

During the civil rights era of the 1960’s, Dr. King was fighting the Democrats who stood in the school house doors, turned skin-burning fire hoses on blacks and let loose vicious dogs. It was Republican President Dwight Eisenhower who pushed to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and sent troops to Arkansas to desegregate schools. President Eisenhower also appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren to the U.S. Supreme Court which resulted in the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision ending school segregation. Much is made of Democrat President Harry Truman’s issuing an Executive Order in 1948 to desegregate the military. Not mentioned is the fact that it was President Eisenhower who actually took action to effectively end segregation in the military.

Democrat President John F. Kennedy is lauded as a proponent of civil rights. However, Kennedy voted against the 1957 Civil rights Act while he was a senator, as did Democrat Senator Al Gore, Sr. And after he became president, John F. Kennedy was opposed to the 1963 March on Washington by Dr. King that was organized by A. Phillip Randolph who was a black Republican. President Kennedy, through his brother Attorney General Robert Kennedy, had Dr. King wiretapped and investigated by the FBI on suspicion of being a Communist in order to undermine Dr. King.

In March of 1968, while referring to Dr. King’s leaving Memphis, Tennessee after riots broke out where a teenager was killed, Democrat Senator Robert Byrd, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, called Dr. King a “trouble-maker” who starts trouble, but runs like a coward after trouble is ignited. A few weeks later, Dr. King returned to Memphis and was assassinated on April 4, 1968.

Given the circumstances of that era, it is understandable why Dr. King was a Republican. It was the Republicans who fought to free blacks from slavery and amended the Constitution to grant blacks freedom (13th Amendment), citizenship (14th Amendment) and the right to vote (15th Amendment). Republicans passed the civil rights laws of the 1860’s, including the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Reconstruction Act of 1867 that was designed to establish a new government system in the Democrat-controlled South, one that was fair to blacks. Republicans also started the NAACP and affirmative action with Republican President Richard Nixon’s 1969 Philadelphia Plan (crafted by black Republican Art Fletcher) that set the nation’s first goals and timetables. Although affirmative action now has been turned by the Democrats into an unfair quota system, affirmative action was begun by Nixon to counter the harm caused to blacks when Democrat President Woodrow Wilson in 1912 kicked all of the blacks out of federal government jobs.

Few black Americans know that it was Republicans who founded the Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Unknown also is the fact that Republican Senator Everett Dirksen from Illinois was key to the passage of civil rights legislation in 1957, 1960, 1964 and 1965. Not mentioned in recent media stories about extension of the 1965 Voting Rights Act is the fact that Dirksen wrote the language for the bill. Dirksen also crafted the language for the Civil Rights Act of 1968 which prohibited discrimination in housing. President Lyndon Johnson could not have achieved passage of civil rights legislation without the support of Republicans.

Critics of Republican Senator Barry Goldwater who ran for president against Democrat President Lyndon Johnson in 1964, ignore the fact that Goldwater wanted to force the Democrats in the South to stop passing discriminatory laws and thus end the need to continuously enact federal civil rights legislation.

Those who wrongly criticize Goldwater, also ignore the fact that President Johnson, in his 4,500 State of the Union Address delivered on January 4, 1965, mentioned scores of topics for federal action, but only thirty five words were devoted to civil rights. He did not mention one word about voting rights. Then in 1967, showing his anger with Dr. King’s protest against the Viet Nam War, President Johnson referred to Dr. King as “that Nigger preacher.”

Contrary to the false assertions by Democrats, the racist “Dixiecrats” did not all migrate to the Republican Party. “Dixiecrats” declared that they would rather vote for a “yellow dog” than vote for a Republican because the Republican Party was known as the party for blacks. Today, some of those “Dixiecrats” continue their political careers as Democrats, including Democrat Senator Robert Byrd who is well known for having been a “Keagle” in the Ku Klux Klan.

Another former “Dixiecrat” is Democrat Senator Ernest Hollings who put up the Confederate flag over the state capitol when he was the governor of South Carolina. There was no public outcry when Democrat Senator Christopher Dodd praised Senator Byrd as someone who would have been “a great senator for any moment,” including the Civil War. Democrats denounced Senator Trent Lott for his remarks about Senator Strom Thurmond. Senator Thurmond was never in the Ku Klux Klan and defended blacks against lynching and the discriminatory poll taxes imposed on blacks by Democrats. If Senator Byrd and Senator Thurmond were alive during the Civil War, and Byrd had his way, Thurmond would have been lynched.

The thirty-year odyssey of the South switching to the Republican Party began in the 1970’s with President Richard Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” which was an effort on the part of Nixon to get Christians in the South to stop voting for Democrats who did not share their values and were still discriminating against their fellow Christians who happened to be black. Georgia did not switch until 2002, and some Southern states, including Louisiana, are still controlled by Democrats.

Today, Democrats, in pursuit of their socialist agenda, are fighting to keep blacks poor, angry and voting for Democrats. Examples of how egregiously Democrats act to keep blacks in poverty are numerous.

After wrongly convincing black Americans that a minimum wage increase was a good thing, the Democrats on August 3rd kept their promise and killed the minimum wage bill passed by House Republicans on July 29th. The blockage of the minimum wage bill was the second time in as many years that Democrats stuck a legislative finger in the eye of black Americans. Senate Democrats on April 1, 2004 blocked passage of a bill to renew the 1996 welfare reform law that was pushed by Republicans and vetoed twice by President Bill Clinton before he finally signed it. Since the welfare reform law expired in September 2002, Congress had passed six extensions, and the latest expired on June 30, 2004. Opposed by the Democrats are school choice opportunity scholarships that would help black children get out of failing schools and Social Security reform, even though blacks on average lose $10,000 in the current system because of a shorter life expectancy than whites (72.2 years for blacks vs. 77.5 years for whites).

Democrats have been running inner-cities for the past 30-40 years, and blacks are still complaining about the same problems. Over $7 trillion dollars have been spent on poverty programs since President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty with little, if any, impact on poverty.

[mnehring]

Interesting facts. DUmbass lurkers will want to put their fingers in their ears and yell La La La La...

[twigs]

Bill Bennett does a good in his new book "America: The Last Great Hope" of pointing this out and every difference he can think of between the two parties whenever he can.

[mnehring]

ping.. you'll like this one..

mnehrling- Abaraxas Blogging

[ocr1]

ping

[Tulsa Ramjet]

"Democrat President John F. Kennedy is lauded as a proponent of civil rights. However, Kennedy voted against the 1957 Civil rights Act while he was a senator, as did Democrat Senator Al Gore, Sr. And after he became president, John F. Kennedy was opposed to the 1963 March on Washington by Dr. King that was organized by A. Phillip Randolph who was a black Republican. President Kennedy, through his brother Attorney General Robert Kennedy, had Dr. King wiretapped and investigated by the FBI on suspicion of being a Communist in order to undermine Dr. King."

Just goes to show you, form is more important than substance. I remember reading that when LBJ was president, he was touring some homes somewhere south (might have been texas) and he was explaining to the homeowners what all he was doing for them with the Great Society legislation. And as he turned to leave and thank them for their time, on the wall of the home there was a photo of Jesus Christ and John Kennedy, and it burned him up.

[cotton1706]

He was a Republican. Had Nixon called him when he was arrested, all the blacks would have voted for Nixon and he would have won. Kennedy did call him, so King advised all his supporters to vote for Kennedy. Nixon had a great civil rights record. The democrats were a disgrace.

[Tulsa Ramjet]

"Democrat President John F. Kennedy is lauded as a proponent of civil rights. However, Kennedy voted against the 1957 Civil rights Act while he was a senator, as did Democrat Senator Al Gore, Sr. And after he became president, John F. Kennedy was opposed to the 1963 March on Washington by Dr. King that was organized by A. Phillip Randolph who was a black Republican. President Kennedy, through his brother Attorney General Robert Kennedy, had Dr. King wiretapped and investigated by the FBI on suspicion of being a Communist in order to undermine Dr. King."

Oops, slight modification:

Just goes to show you, form is more important than substance. I remember reading that when LBJ was president, he was touring some homes somewhere south (might have been texas) and he was explaining to the "black" homeowners what all he was doing for them with the Great Society legislation. And as he turned to leave and thank them for their time, on the wall of the home there was a photo of Jesus Christ and John Kennedy, and it burned him up.

[since 1854]

As I point out in my book, Back to Basics for the Republican Party, MLK told Vice President Nixon publicly that he had voted Republican in 1956, but after not voting in 1960 he actually campaigned for Lyndon Johnson in 1964. So, calling MLK a Republican is misleading. See http://www.republicanbasics.com for more information.

[Xenalyte]

How could he be a Republican? He was a Communist.

[bubman]

bump

[Arcy]

"It was the Democrats who fought to keep blacks in slavery and passed the discriminatory Black Codes and Jim Crow laws."

A fact that isn't touted enough to the dumb masses. Bush should state large portions of this during his next State of the Union address.

[Old Grumpy]

VERY enlightening article.

[RockinRight]

That was my first thought, too.

[seasoned traditionalist]

Today, some of those “Dixiecrats” continue their political careers as Democrats, including Democrat Senator Robert Byrd who is well known for having been a “Keagle” in the Ku Klux Klan.

Just so happens, I have a copy of Byrd's driver's license which I thought one and all should see.

I know this, and many others do, (and going on 63, I lived thru the civil rights movement) but what I don't know and maybe I missed it in this article was how the Rats managed to hijack the black vote from the Republicans and however this was done (and again, I missed this throughout the 60's and beyond, probably being too busy serving in Nam and thereafter, being so turned off to anything politic that I tuned it ALL out) it was a sleight of hand and masterful stroke of political genius, with those responsible for pulling this off, worthy of receiving the Joseph Goebbels Propaganda Of the Century Award.

One does not have to wonder very hard as to how the revisionist has turned these facts on their heads and how none of this is being taught today in our schools--especially, not in any inner city or areas heavily populated by minorities.

[Arcy]

"How could he be a Republican? He was a Communist"Speaking of King.

Although all of King's political positions did not fall lock-step with our understanding of conservative positions, a clear and overwhelming majority of them did.

[MikefromOhio]

From the article:

Democrat President John F. Kennedy is lauded as a proponent of civil rights. However, Kennedy voted against the 1957 Civil rights Act while he was a senator, as did Democrat Senator Al Gore, Sr. And after he became president, John F. Kennedy was opposed to the 1963 March on Washington by Dr. King that was organized by A. Phillip Randolph who was a black Republican. President Kennedy, through his brother Attorney General Robert Kennedy, had Dr. King wiretapped and investigated by the FBI on suspicion of being a Communist in order to undermine Dr. King.

well at least you agree with the Kennedys....Come on now....the guy wasn't a lock stock and barrel conservative, but he was nowhere NEAR as liberal as some prominent Republicans today like McCain and Rudy.

[cvq3842]

Dr. King also had no problem whatsoever using the moral authority he felt by virtue of his religious faith to change the law in this country, to everyone's benefit.

That also drives the liberals nuts.

[RockinRight]

Didn't know that.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Although all of King's political positions did not fall lock-step with our understanding of conservative positions, a clear and overwhelming majority of them did.

That's a pretty good definition of any conservative - no member of any political persuasion agrees with every position taken by other members of that persuasion.

[MikefromOhio]

I figured ya didn't so don't take what I said as a slam....

MLK Jr scared the crap out of the Democrats. He was the key to the black vote, where they allowed it the bastards.