MLK Was a Republican?

What is the point of this? A conservative black republican organization is running radio ads "accusing Democrats of starting the Ku Klux Klan and saying the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican." This is apparantly enough of a story to warrant civil rights researchers debunking it, and Think Progress highlighting it.

I don't know if the claim is true or not, nor do I care. Neither claim seems all that implausible. Let's face it, it was Democratic legislatures and Democratic governors who signed the Jim Crow laws. Southern whites were predominantly Democrats, accounting for Democratic control of the south for nearly a century after the Civil War. If the Democratic party didn't actually start the KKK, it should be expected that most members were Democrats.

Similarly, black America was predominantly Republican until the 1960's, particularly in the south where the white Democrats were oppressing them. MLK, a southern black man born and raised well before the civil rights movement of the 1960's, could therefore be presumed to have been a Republican, just as today we would presume a southern black man with similar background would be a Democrat. (That doesn't mean he was, just that it could be presumed and should come as no surprise.)

So what? Does the fact that a century ago the Democratic party was the party of racist oppression have any relevance to today? Does the fact that a century ago, black Americans voted Republican have any relevance to today? What point does this group think it's making by claiming MLK was a Republican? Why is this point so important that other groups feel the need to deny it? So what?

Update To continue the theme, two of the most prominent figures against civil rights--Arkansas governor Orval Faubus, whose opposition to desegreation of Little Rock schools led to the Army being sent in to force the issue, and Alabama governor George Wallace--were both, you guessed it, Democrats. But, again, does that have any relevance to today's Democratic Party? I don't think so.