Martin Luther King Jr. Was a Republican, Other Claims about Selma March-Truth! & Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
A chain email claims that Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican, that Democratic leaders were responsible for segregation and racism in the south during the 1950s and 60s, and that President Obama has gotten historical details about the march in Selma wrong.
The Truth:
Parts of this email are true, and parts of it are false.
The email went viral as America marked the 50th anniversary of the civil rights march in Selma, Alabama, that was led by Martin Luther King Jr. Protestors marched from Selma to Montgomery to encourage black voters in the south to register to vote. The three-day march drew national attention to the struggle of black voters in the south, and the Voting Rights Act was passed a year later.
This eRumor covers a lot of ground. It makes claims about Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights movement, the 1965 march in Selma, and comments made by President Obama.
We’ll do our best to look at three of its key points separately.
Martin Luther King Jr. Was a Republican – Fiction!
Republicans and Democrats have both tried to claim Martin Luther King Jr. for years, but he never identified with either party. King never endorsed a political candidate, and he said in a 1958 interview:
“I’m not here to tell you how to vote. That isn’t my concern. I’m not a politician. I have no political ambitions. I don’t think the Republican Party is a party full of the almighty God, nor is the Democratic Party. They both have weaknesses. And I’m not inextricably bound to either party. I’m not concerned about telling you what party to vote for. But what I’m saying is this, that we must gain the ballot and use it wisely.”
The South Was Under the Power of the Democratic Party Before the Civil Rights Movement – Fiction!
This claim is false. Prior to the civil rights movement, southern states are what today we call “swing states.” Sometimes they voted Democrat, sometimes Republican, and sometimes third party. Electoral maps from 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964 and 1968 prove this, so the south was not “maintained in power” by any one party, as the eRumor claims. No single political party can be blamed for racism and segregation in the 20th century because the issue crossed party lines.
But the eRumor’s claim that Sheriff Jim Clark, who was known for the “Bloody Sunday” clashes with protestors in Selma, was elected to office on the Democratic ticket is true. Clark served two terms before he was voted out of office in the 1966 Democratic primary, the Washington Post reports
President Obama Said the Selma March Led to His Birth – Truth!
During his first presidential campaign in 2007, then-Senator Obama spoke at an event that commemorated the 42nd anniversary of the march in Selma and talked about how the civil rights movement had made his birth possible.
Obama has been criticized for saying that the march in Selma made his birth possible because it was held in 1965, and he was born in 1961. According to a transcript of the speech, Obama said:
“And what happened in Selma, Alabama and Birmingham also stirred the conscience of a nation and it worried folks in the White House who said, you know, we’re battling communism, how are we going to win the hearts and minds all across the world if right here in our own country, (President Kennedy), we’re not observing the ideals that are set forth in our Constitution?
“…The Kennedys decided, we’re going to do an airlift. We’re going to go out to Africa. And we’re going to start bringing young Africans over to this country and bring them scholarships to study so that they can learn what a wonderful country America is. And this young man named Barack Obama got one of those tickets and came over to this country.
“And he met this woman, whose great-, great-, great-, great-grandfather had owned slaves, but she had a different idea. There’s some good craziness going on because they looked at each other and they decided, we know that in the world as it has been it might not be possible for us to get together and have a child.
“But something stirred across the country because of what happened in Selma, Alabama, because some folks were willing to march across a bridge. And so they got together, Barack Obama Jr. was born.
“So don’t tell me I don’t have a claim on Selma, Alabama. Don’t tell me I’m not coming home when I come to Selma, Alabama. I’m here because somebody marched for our freedom. I’m here because y’all sacrificed for me. I stand on the shoulders of giants. I thank the Moses generation.”
The president was wrong when he said the march in Selma led to his birth.
A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:
Barack’s Selma
If you were born after 1960, you probably don’t know much in the way of authentic American History. They haven’t taught it for nearly 50 years now.
The obscene spectacle of Barack Obama trying to bask in the afterglow of Selma gives us all a chance to be exposed to some historic fact. I for one remember the day even now. Obama wasn’t even born yet. His lies about what happened that day really do call for rebuttal.
Just to set a LITTLE BIT of the tone…………………. ALL of the South and the Ku Klux Klan were maintained in power by the Democrat Party. Here’s a bit more…………
This contemptuous creep will put himself at the center of today’s 50th anniversary remembrance of MLK Jr.s march in Selma AL Before getting to him here’s a quote from an Aug 2013 column Karin McQuillan in American Thinker which summed it all up
“Martin Luther King was a Republican. The original March on Washington was organized mostly by black Republicans. The Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, 1964 and 1965 were passed mostly by Republicans. And it is Republicans who have remained true through the years to Dr. King’s call to judge men by the content of their character. Democrats treat blacks like they can’t finish high school, get a job, start a family after marriage, and support themselves like capable adults. Instead they have to be taken care of their entire life. No wonder black conservatives talk of the “Democrat Plantation.” Once you’ve destroyed a person’s character, as permanent welfare does, you have left nothing.”
Here are a couple of things which will escape mention at the cynical Selma celebration that Left-wing Democrats will conduct today: The degradation of racial segregation and discrimination in Selma, in Alabama, and throughout the South was conducted by members and officials of the Democrat Party. Sheriff Jim Clark, the man who led the opposition to the march and who sparked the violent confrontation at the Pettus Bridge was an elected Democrat. The “Pettus” man to whom this bridge was dedicated, served 2 terms in the U.S. Senate as a Democrat. He was also a leader of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan.
In March 4, 2007, Senator Obama [D-IL] made a speech saluting the Selma anniversary. Not satisfied to just recognize the event, and its historic implications, the shameless narcissist Obama, found it necessary to connect his own sorry existence to this historical march. Here’s how he claimed that his parents were conjugally “inspired” by Selma: “There was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Alabama, because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born. So don’t tell me I don’t have a claim on Selma, Alabama. Don’t tell me I’m not coming home when I come to Selma, Alabama.”
Let’s first note his use of that word, “folks” here. It’s something BO does repeatedly. Remember his recent, vile misrepresentation of the Jewish grocery bloodshed in the Muslim massacre in Paris.
He saw this as: …. “randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris”?
This 2007 claim was astounding though, even for a pathological liar like Obama. It demonstrates two things. His mental illness, and his brazen confidence that that Leftist media hasn’t a shred of integrity.
Here’s his, “coming home” to Selma: He was reportedly born more than 3 years earlier [Aug. 1961], so his purported parents, “got together” in late 1960. Not only didn’t the Selma march inspire this “mating”, then but by 1964, Barack Sr. and Junior’s mother had divorced. In fact when Barack Sr. the man of Barky’s “Dreams”, returned to Kenya from MA in 1964, he was coupled with another white woman whom he would marry in Kenya. And then in 1965, the Selma march was conducted.
Those who braved the Democrats of Selma that day 50 years ago, clearly deserved better than what will be on display today at the Pettus Bridge.
Jim
PS Exactly how many of you who THINK you know American History knew that M. L. King was Republican