Proof George Romney Never Marched with King

In the the did so/did not of whether former Michigan governor George Romney ever marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Politico has now reported that on account of an alleged eye-witness statement, King and Romney were seen marching hand-in-hand in the streets of Grosse Pointe, Michigan, in the summer of 1963.  The problem is that it never happened--at least not as the alleged eye-witness, Shirley Bashore, claims.  The Politico reports:

Shirley Basore, 72, says she was sitting in the hairdresser’s chair in wealthy Grosse Pointe, Mich., back in 1963 when a rumpus started and she discovered that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and her governor, George Romney, were marching for civil rights — right past the window.

With the cape still around her neck, Basore went outside and joined the parade.

"They were hand in hand," recalled Basore, a former high-school English teacher. "They led the march. We all swung our hands, and they held their hands up above everybody else’s."

The Politico article continues:

She remembered the late governor as "extremely handsome."

Until this week, that was just a vivid memory for a sweet retiree who now lives in Pompano Beach, Fla.

But Basore’s memory became important this week when news accounts questioned the recollections of the late Michigan governor’s son, Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor.

The problem is that while Ms. Bashore may well have seen Gov. Romney march in Grosse Pointe on June 29, she did not see Dr. King.  A next-edition article from the Grosse Pointe News, the local paper, of July 4, 1963, ["Whites and Negroes Join in Demonstration Against Housing Discrimination"], does in fact mention Romney's surprise appearance and march in the Grosse Pointe demostration of June 29, 1963.  From the article:

Governor George Romney, an uninvited but warmly-welcomed guest, joined more than 600 NAACP demonstrators and white sympathizers in a march held in the Pointe Saturday afternoon, June 29[, 1963].

 

Speakers at the rally included Detroit NAACP president Edward Turner; Detroit NAACP executive secretary, Arthur L. Johnson; and Rev. Philip Stahl, president of the Grosse Pointe Ministers Association, but not Rev. King. A Grosse Pointe News archive of the July 4, 1963, edition [pdf] gives a detailed description of the march, the demonstration, and Romney's surprise appearance.

Important to this flap is the fact that the article, which continues to page 2 of the paper, never once mentions Martin Luthur King, Jr., as having attended either the march or the rally.

Additionally, the Detroit News photo archive of King's Detroit visit of June 23, 1963, where King did march six days prior to his alleged appearance in Grosse Pointe, the one Ms. Bashore cound not have seen, demonstrates that the closest King got to meeting the governor of Michigan was his meeting with former governor, John B. Swainson:

 

See also photos 11 and 12, which show the Detroit march of June 23, 1963, and you will see that Romney was not in fact present:

(Click to enlarge.)

The answer to all this confusion is that there were, in fact, two marches: one in Detroit on June 23, 1963, in which Dr. King marched, and one in Grosse Pointe, on June 29, 1963, in which Governor Romney marched, but neither of them attended the other event.

Ahhh, the vagaries of memory over time.