Was Martin Luther King, Jr. a Republican?
By
Beni Dakar
A radio ad played primarily in Maryland and Ohio, sponsored under the auspices of the Black Republican Association is hoping to inspire otherwise reluctant black voters (who traditionally support the Democrats) in those states to support the GOP and their star black Republican candidates – Maryland Lt. Governor Michael S. Steele who is running for the U.S. Senate from that state and Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell who is running for Governor of Ohio – by suggesting that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican too.
The creators of those ads that put forward that King was a Republican and demonize the Democratic Party for creating a Jim Crow South are relying on most Americans being unaware of how the two modern day parties have changed in vision and membership – beginning with the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt.
Martin Luther King Jr. like most educated African-American southerners of his generation was most likely a registered Republican. The southern branch of the Democratic Party often colloquially called the "Dixiecrats" since the post-Reconstruction period had been steadfast in denying human and civil rights to southern blacks. If a black man or black woman was able to register to vote and participate in elections in the Old South – they would have been voting conspicuously against their own welfare to have voted for most southern Democratic candidates prior to Lyndon Johnson's presidential run in 1964.
After the Civil War with the passage of the 15th amendment to the Constitution giving black men the right to vote most African-Americans chose to be affiliated with the Republican Party – because that was the party of Lincoln "The Great Emancipator" and the predominant party affiliation of Federal troops who were sent to occupy the South during the Reconstruction period from 1865-1877. During Reconstruction there were several black Republicans who were elected to both the United States Senate and the House of Representatives, including Mississippi Senator Blanche K. Bruce, who served from 1874-1880.
"The Compromise of 1877" which gave the disputed 1876 presidential election to Ohio Republican presidential candidate Rutherford B. Hayes – required Republicans to withdraw Federal troops from the South. The departure of Federal troops forced most ‘liberal’ white Republicans to flee to the North or to switch to the Democratic Party – since white carpetbagger Republicans feared the wrath of white southerners without the protection of the Federal Government. Indigenous southern blacks – many who could not leave or choose not to take flight were left at the mercy of angry southern whites – and an era of black political disenfranchisement and a solid Democratic South that lasted almost a century was begun.
An array of so called "Black Codes" that southern white Democrats used in conjunction with terrorist tactics by groups like the Ku Klux Klan were used to socially and economically paralyze blacks too. The few blacks who were able to vote in the South and northern blacks continued to vote mostly Republican until the presidential election of 1936.
New York Democrat, Franklin Roosevelt, first elected in 1932, did little to take segregation head on; but his administration did consciously set-aside 10% of its New Deal programs such as the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to be spent specifically to relieve depression era suffering for African-Americans who were also 10% of the American population at that time. Blacks – mostly from the North who could vote showed their appreciation by voting in increasing numbers for the northern Democrat Roosevelt in subsequent elections.
Blacks further became enamored of Democrats when President Truman issued Executive Order 9981 in July 1948 ending racial segregation of the United States military. Southern Democratic leaders of the time were angry about Roosevelt’s and Truman’s more progressive policies that favored blacks. Eugene Talmadge a leading figure in Georgia politics, including being elected three times as governor was outraged at FDRs New Deal policies and opposed his re-nomination in 1936. In 1948, in response to the desegregation of the military southern Democrats founded the short-lived Dixiecrat Party (autonomous from the Democratic Party) and nominated South Carolina Senator Strom Thurman as its candidate for president.
"We have lost the South for a generation" said President Lyndon Johnson after signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which officially ended the Jim Crow era of racial segregation by law and by custom throughout the South. What Johnson meant was that because of the larger Democratic Party's support of the Civil Rights Act and his signing of it -- that southern white Democrats would abandon the party – and he was right; except the change seems to be permanent instead of generational.
The conservative wing of the Republican Party lead by Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater saw an opportunity to swell its ranks with disenchanted white southern Democrats who were troubled by the national Democratic Party's softening on civil rights issues. During the presidential election of 1964, Goldwater won his home state and five Southern states -- this was the beginning of the ongoing exodus of white southerners (former "Dixiecrats) to the Republican Party. Today, most of the south is solidly Republican – in contrast to the solid Democratic South prior to 1964.
In 1968, when King was assassinated the rabid segregationist Lester Maddox – a Democrat was governor of Georgia -- King's home state. It is unlikely that King would have seen a place for himself in a Georgia Democratic Party headed by the likes of Maddox. However, by 1973, this same Democratic Party would include 35 year old newly elected Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson, the first black Mayor of a large Southern city.
Who knows for certain which, if any, major political party King would support, if he were alive today? Both parties have gone through a metamorphosis in the almost forty years since his death.
However, I do think that King might disapprove of his image and memory being used for political gain by a party that has few visible members who celebrate King’s commitment to social justice and non-violence.
Beni Dakar
A radio ad played primarily in Maryland and Ohio, sponsored under the auspices of the Black Republican Association is hoping to inspire otherwise reluctant black voters (who traditionally support the Democrats) in those states to support the GOP and their star black Republican candidates – Maryland Lt. Governor Michael S. Steele who is running for the U.S. Senate from that state and Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell who is running for Governor of Ohio – by suggesting that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican too.
The creators of those ads that put forward that King was a Republican and demonize the Democratic Party for creating a Jim Crow South are relying on most Americans being unaware of how the two modern day parties have changed in vision and membership – beginning with the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt.
Martin Luther King Jr. like most educated African-American southerners of his generation was most likely a registered Republican. The southern branch of the Democratic Party often colloquially called the "Dixiecrats" since the post-Reconstruction period had been steadfast in denying human and civil rights to southern blacks. If a black man or black woman was able to register to vote and participate in elections in the Old South – they would have been voting conspicuously against their own welfare to have voted for most southern Democratic candidates prior to Lyndon Johnson's presidential run in 1964.
After the Civil War with the passage of the 15th amendment to the Constitution giving black men the right to vote most African-Americans chose to be affiliated with the Republican Party – because that was the party of Lincoln "The Great Emancipator" and the predominant party affiliation of Federal troops who were sent to occupy the South during the Reconstruction period from 1865-1877. During Reconstruction there were several black Republicans who were elected to both the United States Senate and the House of Representatives, including Mississippi Senator Blanche K. Bruce, who served from 1874-1880.
"The Compromise of 1877" which gave the disputed 1876 presidential election to Ohio Republican presidential candidate Rutherford B. Hayes – required Republicans to withdraw Federal troops from the South. The departure of Federal troops forced most ‘liberal’ white Republicans to flee to the North or to switch to the Democratic Party – since white carpetbagger Republicans feared the wrath of white southerners without the protection of the Federal Government. Indigenous southern blacks – many who could not leave or choose not to take flight were left at the mercy of angry southern whites – and an era of black political disenfranchisement and a solid Democratic South that lasted almost a century was begun.
An array of so called "Black Codes" that southern white Democrats used in conjunction with terrorist tactics by groups like the Ku Klux Klan were used to socially and economically paralyze blacks too. The few blacks who were able to vote in the South and northern blacks continued to vote mostly Republican until the presidential election of 1936.
New York Democrat, Franklin Roosevelt, first elected in 1932, did little to take segregation head on; but his administration did consciously set-aside 10% of its New Deal programs such as the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to be spent specifically to relieve depression era suffering for African-Americans who were also 10% of the American population at that time. Blacks – mostly from the North who could vote showed their appreciation by voting in increasing numbers for the northern Democrat Roosevelt in subsequent elections.
Blacks further became enamored of Democrats when President Truman issued Executive Order 9981 in July 1948 ending racial segregation of the United States military. Southern Democratic leaders of the time were angry about Roosevelt’s and Truman’s more progressive policies that favored blacks. Eugene Talmadge a leading figure in Georgia politics, including being elected three times as governor was outraged at FDRs New Deal policies and opposed his re-nomination in 1936. In 1948, in response to the desegregation of the military southern Democrats founded the short-lived Dixiecrat Party (autonomous from the Democratic Party) and nominated South Carolina Senator Strom Thurman as its candidate for president.
"We have lost the South for a generation" said President Lyndon Johnson after signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which officially ended the Jim Crow era of racial segregation by law and by custom throughout the South. What Johnson meant was that because of the larger Democratic Party's support of the Civil Rights Act and his signing of it -- that southern white Democrats would abandon the party – and he was right; except the change seems to be permanent instead of generational.
The conservative wing of the Republican Party lead by Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater saw an opportunity to swell its ranks with disenchanted white southern Democrats who were troubled by the national Democratic Party's softening on civil rights issues. During the presidential election of 1964, Goldwater won his home state and five Southern states -- this was the beginning of the ongoing exodus of white southerners (former "Dixiecrats) to the Republican Party. Today, most of the south is solidly Republican – in contrast to the solid Democratic South prior to 1964.
In 1968, when King was assassinated the rabid segregationist Lester Maddox – a Democrat was governor of Georgia -- King's home state. It is unlikely that King would have seen a place for himself in a Georgia Democratic Party headed by the likes of Maddox. However, by 1973, this same Democratic Party would include 35 year old newly elected Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson, the first black Mayor of a large Southern city.
Who knows for certain which, if any, major political party King would support, if he were alive today? Both parties have gone through a metamorphosis in the almost forty years since his death.
However, I do think that King might disapprove of his image and memory being used for political gain by a party that has few visible members who celebrate King’s commitment to social justice and non-violence.
posted by benindakar | 6:57 AM
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