MLK Didn’t Publicly Affiliate With Either Political Party
The Claim
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican.
News posted on
Emerging story
On January 18th, 2021, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Lavern Spicer Tweeted that “Martin Luther King was a Republican & not a Democrat.” She followed this up by saying that “If Dr. King was alive today, he’d be a Trump supporter just like his niece.”
This Tweet was retweeted almost 300 times, and many more people replied to the Tweet to discuss it. Most of the replies and retweets strongly disagreed with Lavern Spicer, noting that “Republicans of the 60s are not the Republicans of today.” One user suggested to “Kill this idea with fire.”
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar’s investigation found the claim that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican and not a Democrat to be fake.
An article by Time was written in 2020 about Martin Luther King, Jr. and whether or not he was a Republican or a Democrat. It turns out that the answer is actually very complicated. Both the Democratic and Republican parties have evolved over time, meaning both parties of the 1950s and 1960s aren’t the same parties of today.
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s niece Alveda King has argued that her uncle was a Republican, while King’s son, Martin Luther King III, said in 2008 that it’s “disingenuous” to insist he was Republican when there is no evidence of him casting a Republican vote. “It is even more outrageous to suggest that 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,” he said.
There is no official documentation of King’s party registration.
According to the Time article, King himself said he voted for Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson for President in 1964. King had campaigned actively for Johnson and they worked together to sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law.
Martin Luther King, Jr. said in a 1958 interview, “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.” Ultimately he believed that Civil rights and the right to vote should be bipartisan. This is what he cared most about, rather than committing to a single political party.
According to Clayborne Carson, editor of King’s autobiography and Professor of History and Founding Director of The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, today King would probably be “to the left of the Democratic Party,” perhaps a Democratic Socialist, like Senator Bernie Sanders or Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
