A Colorado representative said black people and white people were lynched in nearly equal numbers for being Republican in the post-Reconstruction era.Rep. Lori Saine, R-Firestone, made the claim on the Colorado House floor Friday, and posted the video to her Facebook page Monday, saying it was in defense of House District 49 Rep. Perry Buck, R-Windsor, who tried to introduce a resolution honoring Rev. Dr. Martin Martin Luther King Jr.Saine said Buck was told she couldn’t introduce her resolution because King “didn’t represent her heritage.”In a phone interview Monday afternoon, Saine said Buck had introduced similar resolution last year. Buck didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment.Reps. Jovan Melton and Leslie Herod introduced House Joint Resolution 19-1006, commemorating Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. Both representatives are black, but Saine, Buck and many others are listed as sponsors on the joint resolution.In a phone interview Monday afternoon, Rep. Herod, D-Denver, said Melton had carried a similar resolution each of the past six years, saying Saine brought partisanship into a nonpartisan day.Herod said Buck was added as the first co-sponsor of the resolution, and she said Buck spoke very eloquently.

“She handled it very well,” Herod said. “Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for Lori Saine.”Rep. Rochelle Galindo, D-Greeley, had a similar take, saying via text message that it was unfortunate that Saine attempted to divert focus away from a day of harmony at the Legislature.”Moving forward, we must continue to build bridges and reject division,” Galindo said.In a 4-minute speech on the house floor, Saine appears to co-opt King’s Civil Rights push, saying Buck’s inability to introduce the resolution means the “march toward justice is not over.”In her phone interview, Saine said King represents all Americans’ heritage, saying his “I Have a Dream” speech was extremely inclusive.”How could I honor Martin Luther King today without shining a light on injustice myself?” Saine said. “My colleagues, how can you redeem your marginalized voice by marginalizing ours? Our march toward justice is not over when a colleague of ours is barred from introducing a resolution on this floor because of the color of her skin.”[swift-infobox title=”History of lynchings”]In her remarks on the floor of the Colorado House of Representatives on Monday, Rep. Lori Saine, R-Firestone, said white people and black people were lynched in nearly equal numbers. Based on data from the NAACP, that’s a misrepresentation of the history of lynchings in the United States.From 1882-1968, there were 4,743 lynchings in the United States. Of those, 3,446 were black (72.7 percent). Most lynchings took place in the south. Of those that occurred in the west, most were lynchings of white people accused of murder or stealing cattle.– NAACP[/swift-infobox]Saine’s words, particularly those detailing the history of lynching in the United States, stand in contrast to the historic record, which shows nearly 73 percent of lynchings were committed against black people.Saine’s words also caught University of Northern Colorado’s Fritz Fischer off guard. Fischer, the chairman of the UNC History Department, and a history professor specializing in 20th century American history, had a short answer when asked about Saine’s characterization of American lynchings.”No,” he said.”Blacks were lynched for the ‘crime of being black,’ which obviously isn’t a crime – and not even close to equal numbers,” Fischer said. “I suppose there were a certain number of blacks who were lynched who were Republican. But that was coincidental.”Saine acknowledged more black people were lynched than white people, saying white lynchings outpaced black lynchings “in the beginning.” It’s true that from 1882-1885 whites were lynched in greater numbers than black people. For the next 70 years, lynchings of black people far outpaced those of white people, according to data Saine cited from Tuskegee University.https://www.greeleytribune.com/news/colorado-rep-lori-saine-doubles-down-on-lynching-claims-says-media-democrats-focusing-on-wrong-issue/Fischer said in an email that Saine was repeating a myth that has its origins in a book by David Barton called, “Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White.”Fischer said he has written extensively about Barton as a leading writer of misleading “anti-history designed only to support a right wing political agenda rather than deriving from actual historical research.”In a follow-up email, Fischer added that the Republican party of the 21st century bears almost no resemblance to the Republican party of the 19th century.”It is ahistorical for any politician to claim that anything that happened to Republicans in the 19th century has any connection whatsoever to Republicans of the 21st century,” Fischer said.– Tyler Silvy is a content manager for The Greeley Tribune. Reach him at tsilvy@greeleytribune.com. Connect with him at Facebook.com/TylerSilvy or @TylerSilvy on Twitter.