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The article:

No, Martin Luther King was not a Republican

By Bill Adair
Published on Wednesday, February 1st, 2012 at 9:20 a.m.

Related rulings:

False
"Martin Luther King was a Republican."

Travis Rowley, Saturday, January 21st, 2012.

Ruling: False | Details

False
"Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican."

Charlotte Bergmann, Tuesday, January 10th, 2012.

Ruling: False | Details

False
"Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican!"

Raging Elephants, Friday, January 7th, 2011.

Ruling: False | Details

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A billboard along a Memphis highway for congressional candidate Charlotte Bergmann repeats a claim we've checked several times.

A billboard along a Memphis highway for congressional candidate Charlotte Bergmann repeats a claim we've checked several times.

Our state partners have spotted a popular Republican talking point: the claim that Martin Luther King Jr. was a member of the GOP.

We heard it in Texas, then Tennessee and now Rhode Island.

To check it out, we checked with King biographers, including Pulitzer Prize winner David Garrow, and found that King avoided partisan identification. "It's simply incorrect to call Dr. King a Republican," Garrow told PolitiFact Texas.

We rated the claim False.

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Researchers: Bill Adair

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