*A Texas group has made billboards saying Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican, and that minority voters should vote Republican too.
The man behind the billboards in Texas, Claver Kamau-Imani, said his group whose site is RagingElephants.org, tries to court minority voters to the Republican Party, reports Memphis station WREG. [Click here to watch the report.]
“The use of Dr. King, because of him being an icon in the community, we feel would be most effective. That’s why we used it. We have the documentation to back the claims we’re making on the billboard,” Kamau-Imani says.
Others would question the claim. For example, Republican congressional candidate Charlotte Bergmann in Memphis made the same assertion about Dr. King in a billboard, and PolitiFact rated her billboard “false.”
Dr. King said himself that he never endorsed candidates.
In 2008, his son, Martin Luther King III, was quoted in an Associated Press article, saying, “It is disingenuous to imply that my father was a Republican. He never endorsed any presidential candidate, and there is certainly no evidence that he ever even voted for a Republican. It is even more outrageous to suggest he would support the Republican Party of today, which has spent so much time and effort trying to suppress African American votes in Florida and many other states.”
Shame in these particular republicans by trying to court minorities thru deceit. They are embodying one of the reasons many minorities don’t trust republicans.
At one time the African-American vote (for those who could vote back then) did side with the GOP. They WERE working back then for the rights of everyone BACK THEN. The question that billboard should be asking today is if MLK was alive today would he be supporting today’s GOP?? and the answer would be a NO. Just like if Bull Connor came back to life would their be any chance that racist would support today’s Democratic Party???? NO. MLK we know this from our history books would have not supported anyone who is just plain code word racist also would not support ANY voter suppression efforts ANY. He fought for the right for EVERYONE to have equal access to the polls what the GOP in these swing states is cleary trying to do is suppress the vote and steal this election. Ronald Reagan was a dem once back in the day swiched to the GOP like all the dixiecrats did. In conclusion the GOP of today is NO WHERE NEAR what the GOP was in the 1950′s where most likely King and other freedom fighters had a home in the party. That is CLEARLY not the case. vote Obama 2012.