Posted on 12/21/2007 9:58:28 AM PST by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
You people are really desperate. I stood beside Ronald Reagan in his fight against the Evil Empire. Did I really "stand" beside him? No. I saw my parents fight against the evils of communism in their homeland. Did I actually see them do it? No. It is a figure of speech. I saw someone step up to the plate. I saw someone do the right thing. I saw how one person can make a difference. Is this seeing it literally with my own two eyes or seeing it in my mind's eye?
You people cannot be this daft, are you?
I think you better plead the 5th.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. This huge flap is totally unbelievable to me. I am getting SO sick of this. It is not Romney that is parsing words it is everyone who is trying to make a story out of it.
How could he ‘misremember’ himself marching with MLK?
This marks another error by the mitt-haters.
Earlier, they were claiming that Mitt never said anything about his father marching with King until after his father's death -- implying that he knew it was a lie and waited until his father couldn't correct the story.
Now we see that Mitt told this story decades earlier, while his father was still alive.
And there is no evidence that his father corrected the story -- his father might have well believed the story by that time, and might have been telling it.
When you are 31 years old, and your whole family has the same recollection of something you did when you were 16, it becomes part of your reality.
So if someone tells a lie before a certain date, it’s okay with you? Tell us, what is you cutoff date for lying?
I cannot even watch Mitt being interviewed because he instantly reminds of 1992 when I turned on the tube and there was the con artist from Arkansas.
Good points, great post.
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)
‘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.”
Sounds like George got his "I love Blacks Too" ticket punched, and left before anymore brainwashing occurred.
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)
“We all seem to choose what we want to believe.”
Now thats a truth.
When someone stretches, parses, speaks figuratively,
obfuscates, call it anything you want,
It makes me kinda go hmmmmmmm.
What else are they stretching, parsing, obfuscating?
You can believe what you want to...I tend to take people at their word.
If this was the case, why didn’t he just own up to having made a mistake? Instead he is going on about the definition of saw. I am not a Mitt basher, but can see the road ahead if this sort of thing continues. I thought personal responsibility was a prime attribute of conservatives. Just own up to the mistake and go on.
I think this is a case where we are inflicting a lot of damange on one of the front runners for the nomination, over something trivial in light of what his speech was about, and how well it was received.
It should concern many on this website that the Huffingtonpost leftwingnuts are in full cry using the same language and attitudes about this we are seeing in some quarters here at FR.
Pretty Huffpuff and company want a Dem in the Whitehouse next year.
· 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)
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,
This brouhaha is ridiculous. Mitt's father marched in a civil rights parade, but didn't participate in the exact same march with King, since he didn't feel it would be right to march on Sunday. That's close enough for a 40-year-old remembrance.
Remember Hillary’s lie about who she was named for?
Actually, it is more like me saying, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon on July 20, 1969. I walked on the same date. Therefore, I walked on the moon with Neil Armstrong.
From your link:
Update: Here’s a fact sheet being circulated by Romney’s campaign. There’s little question George Romney was sympathetic to the civil rights movement and publicly known to be so. There’s also little question, it seems, that he never did actually march alongside MLK (although he marched at events sponsored by him).
Amazing how we eat our own, playing right into the Huffington/MoveOn type design for us. And we wonder how the 2006 elections ended the way they did.
Exactly.
The only thing we are doing here is providing the Democrats with talking points for October of 2008.
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