Did Romney's Father Really March With MLK? (UPDATED)

National Review Online ^ | 12/20/07 | Jim Geraghty

[Reaganesque]

Thursday, December 20, 2007

MITT ROMNEY, 2008 HOMEPAGE CAMPAIGN BOX

Did Romney's Father Really March With MLK? (UPDATED)

I had seen this story yesterday, and been not quite sure what to make of it - some folks said they couldn't find anything to verify Mitt Romney's story of his father, Michigan Governor George Romney, marching with Martin Luther King.

Romney said he remembered watching it, and David Broder had apparently made a reference to it in one of his books. And in the passing decades, records get lost, photos (if any) get lost. Memories fade.

But it looks like Mitt Romney and his campaign are being forced to back off the claim.

On Wednesday, Romney's campaign said his recollections of watching his father, an ardent civil rights supporter, march with King were meant to be figurative.
 
"He was speaking figuratively, not literally," Eric Fehrnstrom, spokesman for the Romney campaign, said of the candidate.

The campaign was responding to questions raised by the Free Press and other media after a Boston publication challenged the accuracy of Mitt Romney's account...

The Boston Phoenix reported Wednesday it could find no evidence that Romney and King ever marched together.

Mitt Romney's older brother, Detroit attorney Scott Romney, said he recalls his father telling him the elder Romney marched with King, possibly in 1963, but he could not remember exactly when the event took place.

Fehrnstrom called the Romney brothers' recollection and the historical materials a "pretty convincing case that George Romney did march with Dr. Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders in Michigan."

UPDATE: Team Romney unloads a massive amount of information, documenting ties between George Romney and King and the rest of the civil rights movement. The only account tht I see has Romney actually marching with King is the Broder book's account, but it appears that Romney appeared at several civil-rights related events, some, it appears, organized by King.

(In fact, if I were Romney, I wouldn't be touting the fact that my father walked with King; I'd be touting that King told an interviewer he thought George Romney would make a good president!)

GOV. GEORGE ROMNEY AND DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
 
FACT: In The Summer Of 1963, Governor Romney Participated In Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Freedom Marches" In Grosse Pointe, Michigan.
 
In 1963, George Romney Gave The Keynote Address At The Conference That Sparked The Martin Luther King "Freedom Marches" In Detroit. "The establishment of these human relations groups came in the wake of several major events (besides the embarrassing racist practices of such suburbs as Dearborn), which took place in 1963 and helped galvanize interracial support and cooperation for integrated housing. The first event was the Metropolitan Conference on Open Occupancy held in Detroit in January 1963. The second event was the Martin Luther King 'Freedom' March in June of the same year, the spinoffs of which were several Detroit NAACP-sponsored interracial marches into Detroit suburbs to dramatize the need for black housing. … Governor George Romney gave the keynote speech at this conference, in which he pledged to use the power of the state to achieve housing equality in Michigan." (Joe T. Darden, Detroit, Race And Uneven Development, 1987, p. 132)

 
Governor Romney Marched In July 1963 In An NAACP-Sponsored March Through Grosse Pointe.  "The next couple of NAACP marches into the suburbs were more pleasant. Both Grosse Pointe and Royal Oak Township welcomed the interracial marchers. Close to 500 black and white marchers, including many Grosse Pointers, marched in 'the Pointes' that July. Governor George Romney made a surprise appearance in his shirt sleeves and joined the parade leaders."  (Joe T. Darden, Detroit, Race And Uneven Development, 1987, p. 132)
 
·        Detroit Free Press: "With Gov. Romney a surprise arrival and marching in the front row, more than 500 Negroes and whites staged a peaceful antidiscrimination parade up Grosse Pointe's Kercheval Avenue Saturday. … 'the elimination of human inequalities and injustices is our urgent and critical domestic problem,' the governor said. … [Detroit NAACP President Edward M.] Turner told reporters, 'I think it is very significant that Governor Romney is here. We are very surprised.' Romney said, 'If they want me to lead the parade, I'll be glad to.'" ("Romney Joins Protest March Of 500 In Grosse Pointe," Detroit Free Press, 6/29/63)
 
·        In Their 1967 Book, Stephen Hess And David Broder Wrote That George Romney "Marched With Martin Luther King Through The Exclusive Grosse Point Suburb Of Detroit."  "He has marched with Martin Luther King through the exclusive Grosse Pointe suburb of Detroit and he is on record in support of full-coverage Federal open-housing legislation." (Stephen Hess And David Broder, The Republican Establishment: The Present And Future Of The G.O.P., 1967, p. 107)
 
FACT: As Governor Of Michigan, George Romney Fought For Civil Rights And Marched In Support Of Martin Luther King Jr.
 
George Romney Was A Strong Proponent Of Civil Rights And Created Michigan's First Civil Rights Commission.  "The governor's record was one of supporting civil rights. He helped create the state's first civil rights commission and marched at the head of a protest parade in Detroit days after violence against civil rights marchers in Selma, Ala., in 1965."  (Todd Sprangler, "Romney Fields Questions On King," Detroit Free Press, 12/20/07)
 
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.  'They had invited me to come and I was interested in hearing things that would give me an insight into Atlanta,' the Michigan Republican said.  Led by Hosea Williams, a top aide to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the all-Negro rally broke into shouts and song when Romney arrived.  'We're tired of Lyndon Baines Johnson,' Williams said from a pulpit in the Flipper Temple AME Church as Romney sat in a front row pew.  'Johnson is sending black boys to Vietnam to die for a freedom that never existed,' Williams said. Pointing to Romney, Williams brought the crowd of 200 to its feet when he said, 'He may be the fella with a little backbone.'  Williams said Romney could be 'the next President if he acts right.' The potential GOP presidential nominee left the rally before it ended." ("Romney Praised At Civil Rights Rally In Atlanta," The Chicago Defender, 9/30/67)
Photograph:  "Dr. Martin Luther King speaking to graduate student Laura L. Leichliter (center) and Michigan's First Lady Mrs. Lenore Romney in February 1965." (Instructional Media Center Collection At Michigan State University Archives And Historical Collections)
 
 George Romney Fought Discrimination In Housing.  "President Nixon tapped then Governor of Michigan, George Romney, for the post of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. While serving as Governor, Secretary Romney had successfully campaigned for ratification of a state constitutional provision that prohibited discrimination in housing."  (U.S. Department Of Housing And Urban Development Official Web Site, www.hud.gov, Accessed 12/19/07)
 
Photograph:  "More than 100 angry white protesters balked at efforts by then-Housing Secretary George Romney, in car, to open their new neighborhoods to blacks."  (Gordon Trowbridge and Oralandar Brand-Williams, "A Policy Of Exclusion," Detroit News, 1/14/02)
 
FACT: In 1965, George Romney Led A March In Michigan To Protest Selma.
 
In 1965, George Romney Led A Protest Parade Of Some 10,000 People In Detroit. "Rarely has public opinion reacted so spontaneously and with such fury. In Detroit, Mayor Jerome Cavanaugh and Michigan's Governor George Romney led a protest parade of 10,000 people." ("Civil Rights – The Central Point," Time Magazine, www.time.com, 10/5/83)
 
·        The Days Of Martin Luther King, Jr.:  "In Detroit, Governor George Romney and Mayor Jerome Cavanaugh called for a march to protest what had happened in Selma."  (Jim Bishop, The Days Of Martin Luther King, Jr., 1971, p. 385)
 
FACT:  Martin Luther King Jr. "Spoke Positively" About The Possible Presidential Candidacy Of George Romney. 
 
In His Pulitzer-Prize Winning Biography Of Dr. King, David Garrow Notes That King "Spoke Positively" About The Possible Presidential Candidacy Of George Romney. "King spoke positively about the possible candidacies of republicans George Romney, Charles Percy, and Nelson Rockefeller. He also stressed the need for greater Afro-American unity, including reaching out to segments of the black community that were not committed to nonviolence." (David J. Garrow, Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 2006, p. 575)
 
FACT:  George Romney Attended King's Funeral In 1968.   
 
George Romney Attended King's Funeral In 1968. "Vice President Hubert Humphrey represented the White House. Senator and Mrs. Robert F. Kennedy; Mrs. John F. Kennedy; Governor and Mrs. Nelson Rockefeller of New York; the mayor of New York City, John V Lindsay; and Michigan's governor, George Romney, were present." (Octavia Vivian, Coretta: The Story of Coretta Scott King, 2006, p. 99)
 
·        George Romney Joined Other Prominent Americans In Attending King's Funeral.  "Inside was the greatest galaxy of prominent national figures there had ever been in Atlanta at one time: Robert Kennedy, George Romney, Mayor Carl Stokes of Cleveland, Nixon, Rockefeller, Harry Belafonte, and an endless array of others equally as famous.  Coretta Scott King, sitting with her family front and center in front of the casket, looked lovely and courageous and dignified in a black mourning veil." (Franklin Miller Garrett, Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events, 1987, p. 517)
 
·        After King's Assassination, George Romney Declared An Official Period Of Mourning, Ordered All Flags To Be Flown At Half Staff And Said King's Death Was "A Great National Tragedy."  "On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated as he stood on a motel balcony in Memphis, Tenn., where he had gone to lead a civil rights march.  The following day, Michigan Gov. George Romney declared an official period of mourning for King. The period extended through King's funeral. Romney ordered all flags on public buildings to be flown at half staff and asked that the same be done on private buildings. Gov. Romney, in an official statement, said: "The assassination of Martin Luther King is a great national tragedy. At a time when we need aggressive nonviolent leadership to peacefully achieve equal rights, equal opportunities and equal responsibilities for all, his leadership will be grievously missed."  ("Rearview Mirror: Detroit Reacts To King's Assassination," The Detroit News, 4/4/07)

12/20 10:11 AM

[George W. Bush]

I'm not sure this actually does win black votes for Mitt. But maybe.

If you have time, I think you should flag all the folks who were dissing Mitt on this totally.

George Romney was a very decent and forward-looking man. And it took some courage for any northern governor, especially a Mormon, to participate in civil rights events in the early Sixties. Mitt Romney was ahead of his time as a Mormon as well. Mitt is right to revere his memory and the example he set.

[El Gato]

Thompson is going nowhere. He looks like he can barely get out of bed in the morning. Duncan Hunter is a non-entity who barely registers in the polls. Yesterday’s hero, Tom Tancredo, has withdrawn and endorsed Mitt. Now he’s been bought off or is suddenly a liberal? Has FR jumped the shark?

IF your analysis were correct, I'd say it was the GoP that jumped the shark.

[Salvation]

[tantiboh]

~”Placing that image of northeast liberal Willard Romney, in front of the great Ronald Reagan is shameless propaganda.”~

Yeah... Ain’t it grand? Great photo, too.

[tantiboh]

~”Yesterday’s hero, Tom Tancredo, has withdrawn and endorsed Mitt. Now he’s been bought off or is suddenly a liberal?”~

Yes, Tancredo has tragically joined the ever-growing list of sold-out, mentally incompetent, RINO, or otherwise-defective influential conservatives. It seems all our spokesmen, role models, and leaders are going quite insane. Whatever are we to do?

[George W. Bush]

Yeah... Ain’t it grand? Great photo, too.

LOL. I'm glad to see you Mitt folk take off the gloves a bit and do some give-and-take roughhouse with the haters. Sometimes, being blatant and confrontational and ridiculing these puny attacks shows your guy and your grassroots have got the right stuff to win. And it has its appeal, especially with a herd of cats like FReepers really are. In politics, you can't be too timid. Not if you intend to win.

Ignore the Mitt-trolls and petty snipers. They'll retreat under their dank bridge soon enough and sulk, muttering to themselves. And they are discrediting themselves at FR more than any damage they're doing to Mitt. Frankly, the mods should consider the real harm done by these trolls who seem to hate everyone (or pretend to support Fred while being registered members of the WAkes site that loves Rudi and hates FR) do to the forum which will last long after the nomination is decided for 2008.

[AmericanMade1776]

Thank you for posting this article.

[George W. Bush]

Yes, Tancredo has tragically joined the ever-growing list of sold-out, mentally incompetent, RINO, or otherwise-defective influential conservatives. It seems all our spokesmen, role models, and leaders are going quite insane. Whatever are we to do?

Tom had a really good interview, talking about Mitt yesterday with Tucker on MSNBC (the single scrap of good media on that blighted cable channel).

Tom laid out his reasons. It was good stuff too, very practical, talked about all the things Romney promised him, that Tom told Mitt he was going to tell everyone exactly what Mitt was saying, that Mitt said fine with him, that he wasn't in perfect agreement with Mitt on H1B's and such but that he saw Mitt as the real choice that moves his issues ahead and can win the nomination and defeat the Hildebeeste. Tucker also asked about Ron Paul and Tom talked about what great friends they are, how Tom has attended Ron's weekly Liberty Caucus dinners for years and how fond he is of him but that Ron's foreign policy meant he simply could not endorse him. He mentioned Duncan positively as well because they're friends too but Tom pointed out it made no sense for him to endorse someone with less support in the polls and a poorer fundraising/organization record than his own.

You guys should YouTube that interview and bookmark it to post later. It was a good interview for Tom and for his endorsement of Mitt.

I hope Tom goes out on the campaign trail to keep talking borders/immigration. Maybe a slot to speak at the convention. Both he and Duncan merit it but Tom more so, just because he was out there alone taking all those bullets on the issue before he finally won and made both parties address it.

[AmericanMade1776]

I knew that Mitt Romney was not lying.

[JRochelle]

Cut and paste and post the part where they marched together because I sure can’t see it.

[cgbg]

He was speaking figuratively, not literally," Eric Fehrnstrom, spokesman for the Romney campaign, said of the candidate.

If I should say at any time that I am supporting Romney just remember that is was figurative and not literal.

:-)

[AmericanMade1776]

In Their 1967 Book, Stephen Hess And David Broder Wrote That George Romney “Marched With Martin Luther King Through The Exclusive Grosse Point Suburb Of Detroit.” “He has marched with Martin Luther King through the exclusive Grosse Pointe suburb of Detroit and he is on record in support of full-coverage Federal open-housing legislation.” (Stephen Hess And David Broder, The Republican Establishment: The Present And Future Of The G.O.P., 1967, p. 107)

[George W. Bush]

More media and establishment liberal bull$hit.

Fred has pulled his TV ads. He's stopped his radio buys and all his mailings, even in puny Iowa. And all he has left is the bus.

Fred is broke. You Fred folk won't even lift a finger to organize Meetups for him and that's free to do. You don't help him win goofy straw polls (cheap enough) or online polls (free publicity). Instead, you sit around FR, certain that if you just troll other candidates long enough, somehow you can make people in Iowa and New Hampshire vote for Fred.

If you really do like Fred, you guys had better forget your little trolling addiction at FR and get your butts off your couches and raise some money for him and organize some real grassroots support in IA/NH.

We RP folk will break $20M this quarter. And we may beat McCain, Fred and Giuliani in Iowa.

And because we raised so much for Ron Paul, among many other things, he's doing at least one 30-minute infomercial in Iowa. And our half-million dollar Shrimp Blimp Of Death will arrive in NH today.

Now, what the hell have you supposed Fred-lovers here at FR done for your candidate besides sit on your couches with bourbon and potato chips, bitching about and trolling other candidates and high-fiving each other? Looks like damned little to me. And now, having done so little for your guy, you want to be bitter to other candidates and their supporters. Hell, you're so damned lazy you won't even do the free things to help your man win puny online polls, set up forums, moneybombs (that work), do sign-wavings and yard sign campaigns or buy billboards for him or blimps.

No, you've left Fred broke while you squander your time and make enemies for him on the internet.

Frankly, I think I'm a better Fred supporter than many of you are. I could vote for him if RP drops out or I could vote for Mitt easily. Or I might vote for either one in my late primary if I'm certain he can never get the nomination or sway the political dialog further when my late primary comes in May. But frankly, Mitt's supporters here at FR are not hateful trolls like so many of the Fred supporters are; you people think that JimRob supporting Fred has given you a license to troll everything in sight. And you have yourselves harmed your own candidate in a way that no one else possibly could have. With supporters like you, who needs enemies? I feel sorry for Fred to have supporters like some of those who claim to support him here at FR.

[BufordP]

Have you seen this? Some good info.

[AmericanMade1776]

I especially liked this part of what you said

" But frankly, Mitt's supporters here at FR are not hateful trolls like so many of the Fred supporters are; you people think that JimRob supporting Fred has given you a license to troll everything in sight"

[cgbg]

If you think the Democrats won't hang Romney on his flip flops and lies you are very naive, my FRiend.

It is far better to vet him here than to have the DNC chew him up and spit him out in the general election. The Clintonoid spinning just ticks off people here and post convention the media will lose track of where they left their kneepads when it comes time to deconstruct Romney's tall tales and switcheroos.

Romney reminds me of his dog, the Irish Setter. They look great and they wag their tails as they run up to you and lick your face.

So then you might be tempted to play a game of fetch with the cute doggy.

However, you soon find out that they don't know when to stop playing. They keep barking in your ear with that high pitched whine (despite every command you can muster). Finally you realize that they are dumb as rocks and so were you.

:-)

[Reagan Man]

Another Mitty boob! LOL

[George W. Bush]

Romney reminds me of his dog, the Irish Setter. They look great and they wag their tails as they run up to you and lick your face.

Well, if Mitt licked my face, I probably wouldn't vote for him. But that's hypothetical since RP will cruise to victory. Mitt's turning into my backup plan, replacing Fred who has such malicious supporters here at FR. Too bad really, Fred deserves better supporters and better support than he's received.

[JRochelle]

LOL.
Could it be they got it wrong?

That is no proof whatsoever! Photos and newspaper clippings from that time would be considered evidence.

Does Mitt believe everything he reads in a book? Of all people he and his family should have know whether it was true or not.

[George W. Bush]

I especially liked this part of what you said

Those of us supporting other candidates have turned the other cheek long enough. Jesus didn't command us to be utter doormats for abuse.

Time to stand on our own two legs and rebuff the cretins and the trolls. For the Mitt folk, the RP folk, for all the rest of us including the poor sad McCain pinglist folk. It's just bad politics for conservatives to allow it. And, if you value FR as a forum, it's been awful for the forum. Notice the decline in article postings in the sidebar? It's not a mystery why people don't want to post articles any more and thread counts are way down. And you know that the largest single political threads on FR this year have been the RP bashfest threads and the anti-Mormon Mitt threads. Man, that's pretty damned sad.

And it's not the Mitt folk or the RP folk who are to blame for it either. Good grief, we RP folk only have a few threads a day and I hide most of them in the ghetto of the RLC Liberty Caucus forum, actually the officially designated website of the national Republican Liberty Caucus (which JimRob agreed to host) and which was founded to run candidates on the Ron Paul agenda and is the caucus/PAC that is one of his secrets for sustaining his congressional career and to getting other libertarian Republicans elected.

So I encourage Mitt folk to take the gloves off, just a bit, and stand up for your man. You aren't second class citizens because you choose not to be intimidated by bullies or the mods of an internet forum who you've never even met. And it's time to tell these religious bigots to just go screw themselves. The mods don't just allow those attacks. The policy amounts to sponsoring those attacks on Mormons in an attempt to defeat Mitt. We all know it too.

...neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. - Matthew 7:6, KJV

I'm comfortable with my decision. I'm not gonna crawl to kowtow to internet trolls like these Paul-haters and Mitt-haters. Especially when they're such truly lousy, lazy, cheapskate supporters of their own supposed candidate, Fred (who deserves far better supporters than the likes of them).

And I do sleep well.