Nashville News Blog

The state GOP is marking the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination with a press release claiming he was a Republican.

"Dr. King exhorted America to fully become a place where people are judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin, and his fellow Republicans responded by passing civil rights legislation over the objection of many Democrats of that era," state GOP chair Robin Smith says in the release.

King may have been a Republican at some point in his life, but it's ridiculous to claim that he belonged to the GOP in the '60s. King voted for John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson for president and criticized Barry Goldwater.

Republicans have tried to claim King as one of their own before. A black conservative group drew harsh reaction in 2006 by running a radio ad asserting King was Republican.

Georgia Congressman John Lewis, who marched with King, called the ads an "insult to the legacy and the memory of Martin Luther King Jr." and "an affront to all that he stood for." And even some conservative Republicans denounced the ads.

Update: State Democratic Party flack Wade Munday comments: "As a graduate of a divinity school which was reformed after the civil rights tradition of individuals such as Martin Luther King Jr, I find it appalling that such a legacy and tradition of reform should be reduced to an unprincipled partisan talking point. To diminish the life of Dr. King for purposes of political gain shows how contrary to Dr. King the Tennessee Republican Party is."

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