Then-governor George Romney did indeed march in Grosse Pointe, on Saturday, June 29, 1963, but Martin Luther King Jr. was not there; he was in New Brunswick, New Jersey, addressing the closing session of the annual New Jersey AFL-CIO labor institute at Rutgers University.

Those facts are indisputable, and quite frankly, the campaign must have known the women’s story would eventually be debunked — few people’s every daily movement has been as closely tracked and documented as King’s. As I write this, I am looking at an article from page E8 of the June 30, 1963 Chicago Tribune, which discusses both events (among other civil-rights actions of the previous day), clearly placing the two men hundreds of miles apart. I also have here the June 30, 1963 San Antonio News, which carries a photo and article about Romney at the Grosse Pointe march; and an AP story about King’s speech in New Jersey.

A King researcher editing his letters from that time has stated definitively that the two men never marched together; Michigan and Grosse Pointe historians have stated definitively that King was not at the 1963 Grosse Pointe march; Michigan civil-rights participants of the time have concurred; so have those who worked for George Romney at the time.

All of this evidence is important to present to the general public, but it is unnecessary for the Romney campaign — it has been clear for some time that they know perfectly well that the two men never marched together.
Bear in mind that the Romney team has a substantial research team (and vast resources for outsourcing more). Bear in mind that the campaign has compiled vast documentation about the candidate’s father, particularly his civil-rights activities, long before the Phoenix posed the question earlier this week. Bear in mind that the campaign has direct access to George Romney’s materials and documents, his family members, his friends, his former staff, etc.

Believe me, they know the two men never marched together. This is an attempt to rewrite history. And even if it is a small rewriting, it is offensive…. Changing that history by mistake — which is quite possibly how this began — is unfortunate. Changing that history intentionally — which is what the campaign is doing now — is offensive.

Not true. There are charges and inferrences that because the Mormon church did not allow black pastors until the late 60’s that Mormons (and Mitt) are bigots (cousins of the Devil, anti-Christian, poligamists, you name it).

This is the reason Romney support for MLK (very real as you say) was brought up to begin with, arm in arm or not.

As unreliable as 44 year-old accounts are, I should think that so is the memory of a young lad who did remember the only important thing - Romneys are not bigots.

This seems more like a dumb mistake than a fraud. His father did march for the very same rights that King was marching for. Seems more like eggagerated family lore that Romney repeated without the wisdom of fact checking.

The King papers show the father didn’t march with king. Two eyewitnesses said he did. Not too difficult to understand why people don’t believe the eyewitnesses.

I grew up about a mile from the Romney home and remember well the support for MLK and the open housing intitiative, then the cutting edge in Civil Rights matters.

I remember too that not many Republicans were marching with MLK in those days and this was almost Lincolnesque.

The Romneys have always been an all-American family given to accomplishment, and who have been maligned by cheap shots from brainwashing to the Mormon thing and now this.

Note how far back the research teams have to go to get someting on Mitt. Even at that, the essential truth is that George and Mitt supported MLK, and they are not bigots, to answer the previous cheap shot.

Here’s the link:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1207/7524.html

I also found another eye witness who bloged yesterday with his story:

David Thompson Says:
December 20th, 2007 at 11:36 am
As a young man I was at the march in Grosse Pointe, Michigan and saw both George Romney and Martin Luther King get out of their cars and join arms to begin the march. As they passed by me they invited me into the march. I joined and it changed my life.

It was not a large gathering, unlike the one held in Detroit, Michigan the day before (which I also participated in as a representative of the 14th district Young Democrats

http://www.bloggernews.net/112537

I called my parents who lived in Chicago at the time, my uncle lived in Detroit and they remember it being on the news. How many more witnesses do you need or books that document the event?

Does the media really think the American people are foolish enough to fall for this?

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.”