Dr. Marting Luther King, Jr. never claimed to be a Republican in any speech or book. And Dr. King’s wife, his children, his associates, the King Center, and historians all agree that Dr. King didn’t want to align with any party. Democrats don’t claim Dr. King was a Democrat, we claim he was a liberal. We claim this because we can show it was true. Dr. King was anti-war, pro-union, pro-civil rights, pro-big government programs, pro-national voting rights standards, AND pro-family planning--even accepting The Margaret Sanger Award from Planned Parenthood.
He was also in favor of something that looked like affirmative action. Not many of these positions can be said to align well with the Republican Party platform of today or even of Dr. King’s own time. A number of conservative commentators have suggested that Dr. King had “socialist “ leanings.
Despite this, many Republicans have continued to insist that Dr. King was a Republican. The most prominent person promoting this claim was his niece, prominent anti-abortion activist, Alveda King. Her name came up in virtually every discussion on the subject and many conservatives ignored all of the evidence to the contrary--instead relying on Alveda King’s claim as the final word.
Well, as of October 2013, Alveda King has retracted her claim, saying, in part:
"I have few regrets in my life. At the top of the list is the demise of two children in my womb, and one miscarriage. Next to that, I regret having said to a group of peers that my Uncle M. L. (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) was a Republican. I said that without having all the facts. My Grandfather, Dr. Martin Luther King, Sr. was a registered Republican. Uncle M. L. was an independent, who in his own words tended to vote Democrat. I assumed that since Granddaddy was a Republican, Uncle M. L. was too.”
Got that? The most widely accepted authority on MLK being a Republican has recanted. In fact, she recently corrected someone on Twitter regarding this very subject. You can find the link to her full press release down below. So the next time anyone tells you that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr was a Republican, you can tell him that you are certain that he is mistaken--and that even Dr. King's niece agrees.
http://www.christiannewswire.com/...