In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, I’d like to set the record straight. There seems to be a group of people who believe that MLK could have never been a Republican because most blacks today are Democrats. As far as I know, there is no record of how MLK voted, but his niece Rev. Alveda King, has long argued that her uncle was a Republican. History will tell you that during MLK’s time, most, if not all blacks were Republicans. It stands to reason that if I were black at the time, I’d be too. Why? When the Republican party was founded in 1854, it was known as the party of anti-slavery, it later championed freedom and civil rights for blacks. In an article by Frances Rice, chairman of the National Black Republican Association (NBRA) she outlines the reasons she believes MLK was a Republican. She speaks of how it was the Democratic party that in fact made it impossible for blacks throughout history, and have kept blacks and other minorities in the gutter through a system which makes it appear as if they are the “caring party,” when in fact, its history tells a different story. The article tells of an ominous game being played by the “caring party,” on blacks and other minorities. Rice says,

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.

Now looking at this fact, do you really think MLK would have had anything to do with the Democratic party? I really don’t think so. It’s a no brainer. I think today, many want to believe he was, but all facts point to the contrary. You don’t have to take my word for it. After I read Rice’s article I am thoroughly convinced that MLK was a Republican. Not only for religious reasons, but also because the Republican party stood for the very same principles he stood and  fought for.

Sources: Frances Rice’s Article, MLK was a Conservative-Republican

Most of us know the song or anthem of the South, “Dixie.” What if I told you this song was written by a damned Yankee? Well it was.  On a rainy Sunday night, composer Daniel Decatur Emmett wrote “Dixie,” for Bryant’s Minstrels. Bryant Minstrels was a “blackfaced” minstrel which was popular at that time. Once Bryant wrote the song it became a hit and soon other minstrel shows used it too.

How did it become the South’s anthem? On the inauguration of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States, “Dixie” was played, and he must’ve liked the tune so much because it became the marching song for the Confederate army. This tune spread like wildfire across the south and soon everyone was whistling “Dixie.”

The damned Yankee, Emmett, was aghast because he was a staunch Union supporter. He is quoted as saying, “If I’d known to what use they were going to put my song, I’ll be damned if I’d have written it!” Hum…a damned Yankee he truly was.

I think Lincoln may have had a beef with this because the day after Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, a band outside the White House was asked to play the famous “Dixie.” And Lincoln is quoted as saying, “I have always thought Dixie one of the best tunes I ever heard.” He continues, “Our adversaries over the way attempted to appropriate it, but we have fairly captured it.”  The song continued its popularity for quite a while, in fact, at age 80 Emmett made a farewell tour and sang the song to standing ovations all across the country.

Source, The Greatest Stories Never Told

You might know Jack Johnson (1878-1947) as the first black heavyweight champion of the world (1908-1915), but did you know he also patented a wrench in 1922? However, Johnson is known more for his boxing abilities, and for all the controversy he caused back in the day, than he is for his patent.

Can you believe that because he beat a couple of white boxers, riots soon followed through-out the United States? Some were celebration “riots” by blacks, while the whites tried to stop the celebrations, and in fact, police intercepted some lynchings. It’s hard to even imagine this. But someone once told me that in order to understand history, you have to see it through the eyeglass of the time. Johnson was known for his love of white women, in fact, he married 2 white women in a time white and black marriages were illegal in many states. When he married his second wife, he was forced out of the country, when two ministers in the south recommended Johnson be lynched.

In 1920 Johnson returned to the US and opened up a club in Harlem and sold it 3 years later to a gangster Oweny Madden who later renamed the club to “The Cotton Club.” Johnson had a few fights in Mexico and later returned to the US to only be arrested for “transporting women across state lines for immoral purposes.” He did one year in the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth. It was in prison when he came up with the idea of a tool to help tighten loosening fastening devices, the wrench. Several proposals to grant Johnson a posthumous Presidential pardon have been requested, the latest being one to President George W. Bush. This one has passed the House, and a companion bill is going through the Senate.