Don't you find it just a little disingenuous for Democrats to pick Martin Luther King, JR. (MLK) as their hero and role model, when MLK was a Republican? "What".... you say!? "....... no way!"
That's what we thought before we stumbled on the history of this man, so important to the civil rights movement. The greater question might be, what have the Democrats done for the black community? If you look back in history, you will find that the blacks were fighting the Democrats every step of the way, up until the Democrats decided to court and pander to the black community, for votes.
Perhaps you were also unaware that celebrated actor, Charlton Heston, just recently deceased, a true conservative, stood with MLK on many occasions.
A couple of years ago, the County Council of King County, Washington, re-named the county after Martin Luther King Jr., rather than the original name sake, Rufus King, a slave holder. The fact that MLK was a Republican might come as a considerable shock to the Democrat Council members who lobbied for the name change. If they did know it, you can bet that this little piece of conservative information was totally omitted from the propaganda the county put out about re-naming the county in MLK's honor.
Frances Rice, lawyer, retired Army Lieutenant Colonel and president of NBRA (National Black Republican Association), who has studied this issue extensively, made the following statements in a recent article:
"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 1860s, and continuing with the civil rights laws of the 1950s and 1960s."
"During the civil rights era of the 1960s, 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."
Colonel Rice closes her article with this admonition:
"In order to break the Democrats' stranglehold on the black vote and free black Americans from the Democrat Party's economic plantation, we must shed the light of truth on the Democrats. We must demonstrate that the Democrat Party policies of socialism and dependency on government handouts offer the pathway to poverty, while Republican Party principles of hard work, personal responsibility, getting a good education and ownership of homes and small businesses offer the pathway to prosperity."
History is a fragile thing. It seems to ebb and flow, depending on the bias of the writer, or the reader. The true facts of history are indeed a precious commodity. Many writers or historians distort history for their own ends, as have the Democrats done on so many issues. No doubt the Republicans have done the same. The sad part is, a lie, told often enough, becomes the perceived truth in the minds of those who choose not to question what they read and hear. The equally sad part is that so many in the black community are guilty of this unwarranted perception of the Democrat Party, who have convinced a large segment of the black community into believing they are victims of racial discrimination and poverty, for the Party's own ends. Perhaps, when the balloon is finally "popped" on this erroneous perception, a more meaningful dialogue can take place in race relations in this country. But the balloon will never "pop" until those in the black community research the true history of their past and re-arrange their priorities, as well as their affiliations.
General Colin Powell, in a recent speech, said this:
"I stand here today as a direct descendant of those Buffalo Soldiers and of the Tuskeegee Airmen and all the black men and women who have served the nation in uniform," he said. "I will never forget my debt to them. I didn't just show up. I climbed on the backs of those who never had the kind of opportunity that I had."
There are so many black achievers who have risen above race and discrimination, as did General Powell, for all blacks to see what can be accomplished if they would just realize the opportunities that lay before them and quit buying into the perception that they are victims and need to be cared for by mother government. Until then, they lay mired in the sticky quicksand of "poor me". Those that shed the "poor me" label and select principled "achievers" as their true role models, will find that there are almost no limits to their possibilities. Because it is written that "achievement transcends race, creed, or color of skin".
Finally, labeling black Americans as African-Americans is further self-limiting. If such were the case then might most white Americans be labeled European-Americans, since many white ancestors came from Europe. We often respond with; "..... we are an American-American", which of course is absurd. We think it would be much more constructive to remove all labels of race and call ourselves, just Americans, black, white, yellow, or red. Perhaps one day.
NOTE: We would like to gratefully acknowledge Colonel Frances Rice's contribution to this article. If you would like to learn more about this important issue, we encourage you to log onto the NBRA website and click on the "Did You Know" link.
Ron Ewart, President
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF RURAL LANDOWNERS
Website: [url=http://www.narlo.org]http://www.narlo.org[/url]
