In the 1960s some may remember the Republican party put forward a man to be their candidate. That man was Barry Goldwater. A man who was directly opposed to civil rights reform, a man who was massively pro-white. In the age of Dr King, this was more than alarming and King responded with his feel of the situation, his prophecy of sorts for how things were going to turn out if Goldwater won.

King didn’t usually talk specific party politics, this was not his concern, however Goldwater worried him enough to write that Goldwater’s “trigger-happy attitude that could plunge the whole world into the dark abyss of annihilation.”, more of his July 16, 1964 statement read:

“The Republican Party geared its appeal and program to racism, reaction, and extremism…On the urgent issue of civil rights, Senator Goldwater represents a philosophy that is morally indefensible and socially suicidal. While not himself a racist, Mr. Goldwater articulates a philosophy which gives aid and comfort to the racist. His candidacy and philosophy would serve as an umbrella under which extremists of all stripes would stand. In the light of these facts and because of my love for America, I have no alternative but to urge every Negro and white person of goodwill to vote against Mr. Goldwater and to withdraw support from any Republican candidate that does not publicly disassociate himself from Senator Goldwater and his philosophy.”

Reading this is incredibly erie, replace Senator Goldwater and Mr Goldwater with Donald Trump and well… we can see that nothing has changed!

The difference is that Goldwater lost and Trump won….. Oh Shit!

See the full statement in The King Center archives here.