Romney Marched With MLK

As most researchers know, it is largely impossible to prove a negative. Example: How can anyone say with certainty, “George Romney did not march with MLK”? But when the Boston Globe wants to do a hit piece on a Republican or a Mormon or, better yet, a Republican Mormon, they don’t let impossibility or the facts get in the way. So it was that, on December 21, 2007, the Boston Globe, desperate to derail Mitt Romney, pretended to know the unknowable:

Susan Englander, assistant editor of the Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University, who is editing the King papers from that era, told the Globe yesterday: “I researched this question, and indeed it is untrue that George Romney marched with Martin Luther King.”

What sort of researcher is willing to assert, about the activities of any human being, at any time, let alone 40+ years ago, “I researched this question and indeed it is untrue that so-and-so did [fill in the blank]“? How could Susan Englander think, no matter what her title, that her file cabinet contains the whole story and cast of characters of any MLK march? The only way she could prove such a negative would be to conclusively prove a mutually exclusive positive as in:

“I have authenticated video footage of George and Mitt Romney, during every moment of every MLK march, at locations so distant from the march that they could not possibly have marched with MLK.”

Who has that kind of data?

The evidence is now in, thanks to Mark Halperin. Englander’s database isn’t as comprehensive as the BG wishes it were. Romney did march with Martin Luther King and was cheered by black civil rights leaders in Atlanta, according to relatively contemporaneous reports including these:

1. In Their 1967 Book, Stephen Hess And David Broder Wrote That George Romney “Marched With Martin Luther King Through The Exclusive Grosse Point Suburb Of Detroit.” “He has marched with Martin Luther King through the exclusive Grosse Pointe suburb of Detroit and he is on record in support of full-coverage Federal open-housing legislation.” (Stephen Hess And David Broder, The Republican Establishment: The Present And Future Of The G.O.P., 1967, p. 107)

2. In 1967, George Romney Was Praised At A National Civil Rights Rally For His Leadership. “Michigan Gov. George Romney walked into a Negro Civil Rights rally in the heart of Atlanta to the chants of ‘We Want Romney’ and to hear protests from Negroes about city schools. ‘They had invited me to come and I was interested in hearing things that would give me an insight into Atlanta,’ the Michigan Republican said. Led by Hosea Williams, a top aide to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the all-Negro rally broke into shouts and song when Romney arrived. ‘We’re tired of Lyndon Baines Johnson,’ Williams said from a pulpit in the Flipper Temple AME Church as Romney sat in a front row pew. ‘Johnson is sending black boys to Vietnam to die for a freedom that never existed,’ Williams said. Pointing to Romney, Williams brought the crowd of 200 to its feet when he said, ‘He may be the fella with a little backbone.’ Williams said Romney could be ‘the next President if he acts right.’ The potential GOP presidential nominee left the rally before it ended.” (”Romney Praised At Civil Rights Rally In Atlanta,” The Chicago Defender, 9/30/67)

Too many bloggers, journalists and “scholars” are in such haste to publish that they fail to perform basic factual due diligence. For the same caliber of false reporting, corporate executives (who inform the public about relatively trivial stuff like the value of corporate stocks) are sent to prison for a decade or more. What does it say about our societal values that, in contrast to corporate fraudsters, journalists and scholars who lie to voters about candidates for the nation’s military commander-in-chief (who will then make life and death decisions for millions) go on holiday to the Bahamas?

p.s. Changing topics just slightly, for some great material on the history and trajectory of the blacks in the priesthood issue, I highly recommend the FAIR Topical Guide. FAIR has done a masterful job of aggregating and organizing credible thought on the topic. I would have a hard time adding to their trove of papers and historical footnotes.