"Martin Luther King for President" Hoax Write-In Campaign Handbill
Committee for Negroes in Government, Louisville, Kentucky, 1964
5½ x 8½ inches
 
A scarce handbill issued on the eve of the 1964 presidential election as part of a coordinated effort to divert African American votes away from President Lyndon B. Johnson. Printed in the format of a Western Union telegram, the leaflet urges Black voters to cast a write-in vote for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. rather than support Johnson, falsely claiming the campaign originated with the fictitious "Committee for Negroes in Government."
 
More than 1.5 million examples were reportedly produced under the direction of Clay Claiborne, then serving as assistant to the chairman of the Republican National Committee's Negro Affairs Division. The fraudulent campaign was quickly denounced by Dr. King before Election Day, exposing the handbill as a deliberate attempt to suppress and divide the Black vote during one of the most consequential presidential elections of the Civil Rights era. As a surviving example of political disinformation directed at African American voters, it stands as a compelling and increasingly scarce artifact of the turbulent 1964 election.
 
Condition: Near Mint. File copy condition, clean and exceptionally well-preserved.