Story highlights Herman Cain said that black voters were "brainwashed" to support Democrats

Roland Martin says Cain is ignoring ample historical reason for that support

Republicans had substantial black support but adopted a strategy that spurns them, he says

Martin: If GOP wants black support, it has to make its case to black voters

You would think that a black man born and raised in Georgia, who was a teenager during the civil rights movement, would understand the transition of African-Americans from voting overwhelmingly Republican to strongly supporting the Democratic Party.

But the GOP presidential candidate clearly didn't have the common sense that he often speaks of having when he went on CNN's "The Situation Room" and accused many African-Americans of being brainwashed to vote Democratic.

"Many African-Americans have been brainwashed into not being open-minded, not even considering a conservative point of view," Cain said. "I have received some of that same vitriol simply because I am running for the Republican nomination as a conservative.

"So it's just brainwashing and people not being open-minded, pure and simple."

Cain's off-base and historically ignorant comments have received widespread coverage. In some quarters, they have been criticized, while MSNBC's Pat Buchanan, who has a long history of racially offensive comments, didn't surprise many by coming to Cain's defense.

It's not the first time I've heard someone question the reasons for blacks' allegiance to the Democratic Party, but history has to be taken into account.

JUST WATCHED Cain: Blacks 'brainwashed' against GOP Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Cain: Blacks 'brainwashed' against GOP 01:30

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According to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a think tank focused on African-American issues, in the aftermath of the Emancipation Proclamation, black folks who could vote in the United States quickly joined the Republican Party out of affection for President Abraham Lincoln. Check the political party affiliation of blacks elected during the period of Reconstruction and you will see a lot of R's after their names.

The policies of Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman, who desegregated the military, led more African-Americans to vote for the Democrats. Still, Dwight Eisenhower got 39 percent of the black vote when he ran for re-election in 1956; and Vice President Richard Nixon received 31 percent against the eventual winner, Sen. John F. Kennedy.

The shift became more noticeable in 1964, when the Republican Party nominated Sen. Barry Goldwater as its presidential nominee. It was Goldwater's ardent stance against the Civil Rights Act that led President Lyndon Johnson to garner 94 percent of the black vote.

What's interesting to note is the greatest threat to passage of the bill came from white Southern Democrats, known as Dixiecrats. Moderate Republicans played a crucial role in getting the Civil Rights Act passed, yet as the GOP began to go against civil rights, the national Democratic Party saw a chance to solidify the black vote.

In 1968, Nixon returned to the national stage with his Southern Strategy, a detailed plan of racial politics that ignored, denigrated and dismissed black voters while playing up racial issues as a way to gain support from white voters.

All of this was an outgrowth of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which led President Johnson to say his signing of the law would deliver the South to the GOP for the next generation.

The Southern Strategy became the go-to play for Republicans over the next 40 years, as they virtually ignored the interests of black voters and catered to a largely white party.

So on one hand you have a party that totally ignores black voters -- the GOP -- and then you have Democrats who see a chance to capture those same voters.

If Republicans today are angry about a high level of animosity coming from black voters, they need to blame their white forefathers who wanted to see the racial divide continue over their refusal to allow African-Americans to be full citizens of the United States.

The problem is that the GOP has done little to change the game since then, virtually ignoring African-Americans and advocating policies that blacks believe go against their interests.

What is so shameful and asinine about Cain's "brainwashing " comment is that he assumes that African-Americans aren't smart and sophisticated enough to make their own choices. Just like whites, Asians, Hispanics, women, Catholics, Jews, Baptists, Wall Street bankers, or any other voting group, they look at the candidates, determine how they line up with their views, and make a selection.

So when someone says that blacks don't vote with their brains, that's utterly false.

Now, for all of the trolls who usually populate web sites comments sections saying I'm playing the race card, answer this: If I said that Southern whites were a bunch of brainwashed, dead heads who give the GOP their vote, how would you respond?

U.S. Census Bureau statistics show that of the 10 poorest states in America, nine are mostly red states. The lowest when it comes to education? Mostly red states. The most obese? Worst health care? Mostly red states.

So if the talking points suggest the Democrats advance poverty programs more than the GOP; push for more funding for education; and want a strong health care program, then why are these white voters in these mostly red states voting for the GOP? Have they been brainwashed by virtue of the Southern Strategy to keep voting straight ticket?

The GOP has no real plan to even talk to black voters. They are afraid of them. Yes, afraid. If you want to put a Republican in the most uncomfortable position, then see them try to give a speech in front of a room of black folks. There is mistrust on both sides rather than straight talk on the issues.

For years I have lamented the GOP's refusal to engage African-Americans. We care about housing, economic development, education, any host of issues. But in the minds of a lot of Republicans, it's all about welfare or affirmative action.

African-Americans are largely social conservatives, but the GOP can't even figure out how to reach us even with God!

I'm the host of Washington Watch, a weekly Sunday morning news show on TV One Cable Network, a lifestyles and entertainment network targeting African-Americans, and the GOP flat out refuses to even accept our invitations.

For two years we've had an open invite for any House or Senate Republican to come on our show, no matter the week. Out of 80-plus shows, Rep. Tom Price of Georgia (twice) and Rep. Allen West of Florida (once) have accepted our invitations.

West sat in my studio and told his press secretary to send an e-mail to every GOP press secretary in the House to tell them that my show was a great forum for them to talk to Black America. None followed his admonition.

When Michael Steele was chairman of the Republican National Committee, he did my show several times. Steele told me he went to the GOP House and Senate leadership to tell them they should accept my invites, but none did.

Now if the GOP is scared to even come on a TV show that targets blacks, do you actually think they'll show up in a black community?

If the GOP wants black folks to consider voting for them, they their candidates will have to make an effort to reach out. The distrust is wide and great, but it can be overcome. But doing nothing will get you nowhere, other than guarantee that a strong voting bloc will do all it can to make sure you are defeated at the polls.