In the hours and days following her controversial speech on the floor of the Colorado House, Rep. Lori Saine, R-Firestone, doubled down on her claim that whites and blacks in the post-reconstruction era “were in nearly equal numbers lynched for the crime of being Republican,” and blamed Democrats and the media for focusing on the wrong part of the story.Saine’s lynching remarks came Friday on the Colorado House floor during discussion of a joint resolution honoring Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.In her 4-minute speech, Saine appears to co-opt King’s Civil Rights push, saying efforts to block Republican colleague Perry Buck from introducing the resolution honoring King meant “the march toward justice is not over.”Following media reports from across the state and beyond which focused largely on Saine’s lynching comments, Saine argued with constituents on Facebook and Tuesday morning appeared on right-wing radio host Jimmy Lakey’s show.Lakey introduced the topic by saying reaction to Saine’s comments represent revisionist history, that kids were being taught about Martin Luther King Jr. by “union hacks” and that Colorado is now a segregated state. Lakey also referred, multiple times, to Gov. Jared Polis as “our gay, Jewish governor.”

Lakey and Saine spent little time on Saine’s lynching claims, with Lakey hammering news outlets across the state for focusing on it.”The story is segregation,” Lakey said, referring to the allegation that Buck was not allowed to introduce the resolution because she’s white.”That’s correct,” Saine said. “They want to divert attention away from that. We all know deep down that’s wrong. That wasn’t Dr. King’s dream at all.”It’s unclear what, exactly was said to Buck, as she hasn’t returned multiple phone messages, as well as a text message, seeking comment. Saine, likewise, didn’t return multiple calls to her office seeking comment on her radio appearance. Her voicemail was full on her cell phone, and she didn’t return a call to that number either.In a statement provided to 9NEWS on Tuesday, Saine reiterated that the story is that Buck was “denied the opportunity to introduce a resolution honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.””My statement on the floor of the Colorado House recognized that black and white people were maimed, tortured and lynched in alarming numbers defending the freedoms won in the Civil War, especially during the reconstruction era,” Saine’s statement read, in part.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 co-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.[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.Source: NAACP[/swift-infobox]”She handled it very well,” Herod said. “Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for Lori Saine.”As for the allegations regarding comments made to Buck, Herod in a follow-up interview Tuesday afternoon said she didn’t have a conversation with Buck and neither did Melton.”The speaker and majority leader assured me it wasn’t them,” Herod said. “I’m not sure who she had the conversation with.”In her radio interview Tuesday morning, Saine acknowledged receiving a lot of negative feedback, but that didn’t change her thinking.Lakey then got at the heart of Saine’s argument involving King.”There were people of both races that made sacrifices? They don’t have a corner on this market?” Lakey said.”That’s correct,” Saine said.She added that she’s not being hanged or killed, but she has received negative emails.”I know MLK would not want us to go backward into more segregation,” Saine said. “He got on the mountaintop for all of us – children of all races. I think this is going to ricochet further than Dems realize.”In defending her colleague, Saine sought to tie Republicans of today to those of the past, whom she says were targeted because of their political party.

For Fritz Fischer, chairman of the History Department at the University of Northern Colorado, none of the arguments – that blacks and whites were killed for being Republican, that they were killed in equal numbers or that King fought for all races – have merit.Fischer, a history professor specializing in 20th century American History, wrote about historical takes like Saine’s in his book “The Memory Hole: The US History Curriculum Under Siege.””The problem illustrated here and with (an oft-cited author’s) work is they begin with the answer,” Fischer said via email. “That Republicans in the past must have been heroes and victims because they believe themselves to be heroes and victims. Then they search for any shred of evidence to prove their predetermined answer.”Further, Fischer said, 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.To support her view both on radio and in Facebook arguments with constituents, Saine brought up former U.S. Congressman John Roy Lynch’s book on Reconstruction, pointing to a quote that blacks were targeted because they went against the Democratic party. Fischer said the problem with Saine’s view of history is an ignorance of context.”Cherry picking a quote here and there is not historical proof,” Fischer said. “Yes, John Roy Lynch wrote that. That is one source from the time. Evidence overwhelmingly shows that blacks were lynched in order for the white power structure in the south to keep them in their perceived place. This is the context of Reconstruction.”

In a phone interview Monday, 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.For Fischer, the whole brouhaha serves only to unnecessarily shift focus.”We should not lose sight of where the historical focus needs to have been on Monday – on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” Fischer said. “He understood lynching to be about the terrorizing of blacks. He lived through the murder of Emmet Till. That was the context of his time.”– 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.