Ron Paul (Getty)

During last night's Republican presidential debate, Ron Paul said the firestorm over the controversial racial statements in his early 1990's newsletters distracts from the real issues around race in this country.

He also invoked Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks while arguing he's really the best candidate for African Americans.

"Concentrating on something that was written twenty years ago that I didn't write, you know, is diverting the attention from most of the important issues," Mr. Paul said. "More importantly, you ought to ask me what my relationship is for racial relationships, and one of my heroes is Martin Luther King, because he practiced the libertarian principle of peaceful resistance and peaceful civil disobedience, as did Rosa Parks did. But also, I'm the only one up here and the only one in the Democratic party that understands true racism in this country's in the juficial system."

Mr. Paul said the true racial problems in this country involve drug law enforcement and military recruitment:

"It has to do with enforcing the drug laws. Look at the percentages. The percentage of people who use drugs are about the same with blacks and whites, and yet, the blacks are arrested way disproportionately, they're prosecuted, imprisoned way disproportionately, they get they get the death penalty way disproportionately. How many times have you seen a white rich person get the electric chair or get, you know, execution? But poor minorities have an injustice and they have an injustice in war as well, because minorities suffer more even with a draft--with a draft they suffer definitely more and without a draft they're suffering disproportionately. If we truly want to be concerned about racism, you ought to look at a few of those issues and look at the drug laws which are being so unfairly enforced."

Mr. Paul's newsletters featured many controversial racial statements including warnings of a "coming race war," that 95% of blacks in Washington, D.C. "are semi-criminal or entirely criminal" and a claim that basketball games and music can "set off black rage," among others. The newsletters were well-received among the white supremacist community at the time of their release.

Don Black (Photo: Stormfront.org)

Ron Paul was a hot topic this week on the talk radio show hosted by prominent white supremacist Don Black and his son Derek. Mr. Black said he received Mr. Paul's controversial newsletters when they were first published about two decades ago and described how the publications were perceived by members of the white supremacist movement. Former KKK Grand Wizard and Louisiana Congressman David Duke also phoned in to explain why he's voting for Mr. Paul.

"Everybody, all of us back in the 80's and 90's, felt Ron Paul was, you know, unusual in that he had actually been a Congressman, that he was one of us and now, of course, that he has this broad demographic--broad base of support," Mr. Black said on his broadcast yesterday.

Mr. Black is a former Klansman and member of the American Nazi Party who founded the "white nationalist" website Stormfront in 1995. He donated to Mr. Paul in 2007 and has been photographed with the candidate. Mr. Paul has vocal supporters in Stormfront's online forum. Mr. Black has repeatedly said he doesn't currently think Mr. Paul is a "white nationalist."

Mr. Paul's newsletters contained threats of a "coming race war," worries about America's "disappearing white majority and warning against “the federal-homosexual cover-up on AIDS.” He has since denied writing the newsletters, which appeared under his own name.

“I didn’t write them, I disavow them, that’s it,” Mr. Paul said in a tense CNN interview.

On Monday, Mr. Black said he originally believed the newsletters were written by Mr. Paul.

"They went out under his name in the first person and most people receiving these newsletters, including me, thought he really did write them," Mr. Black said.

Mr. Black said he understood why Mr. Paul would want to distance himself from the newsletters.

"It was written in the first person frequently and, you know, a normal person would have thought that Ron Paul must have written this, or at least whoever wrote it must have did so with the approval of Ron Paul, but things change," Mr. Black said. "So, now that he has this new base of support of course, he's having--frantically trying to disavow himself from the newsletters, and I agree the newsletters were a little over the top."

Mr. Duke, who was something of a mentor to Mr. Black during their days in the Klan, called in to discuss Mr. Paul. Though he said he wasn't ready to make an official endorsement, Mr. Duke explained why he'll be voting for Mr. Paul.

"Again, I go back to that, you know, traditional topic that I always talk about, you know, the powers of international Zionism--a power in banking, a power in media, a power in government influence, in campaign finance--a power that's, you know, hurting the values of this country on behalf of Israel," Mr. Duke said. "So, I would vote for Ron Paul at this moment because he's one of the few candidates who have policies in this regard and this realm that I wholeheartedly support, and that's why I'd vote for him."

Mr. Paul's anti-Federal Reserve, small government platform appeals to many on the far right. In the wake of the controversy over the newsletters, he's increasingly faced questions about his white supremacist supporters, but he has declined to disavow their backing.

"If they want to endorse me, they’re endorsing what I do or say — it has nothing to do with endorsing what they say," Mr. Paul told the New York Times on Sunday.

Congressman Ron Paul (Getty)

A quote from a letter promoting one of Ron Paul's early 1990's politics and investing newsletters has come back to haunt him. In the eight page missive, which was mailed in 1993, Congressman Paul warns of a "coming race war in our big cities," "the federal-homosexual cover-up on AIDS" and a government scheme to track people with "New Money" that ends with armed IRS agents on your doorstep. 

"I uncovered the New Money plans during my last term in the U.S. Congress, and I held the ugly new bills in my hands," wrote Congressman Paul. "These totalitarian bills were tinted pink and blue and brown, and blighted with holograms, diffraction gratings, metal and plastic threads and chemical alarms. It wasn't money for a free people. It was a portable inquisition."

Congressman Paul, who served in the House of Representatives from 1979 to 1989 prior to his latest stint said he learned of many secret government plots during his time in office. In one interestingly punctuated graph, he described many of these schemes:

"I've been told not to talk but these stooges don't scare me. Threats or no threats, I've laid bare the coming race war in our big cities. The federal-homosexual cover-up on AIDS, (my training as a physician helps me see through this one) The Bohemian Grove--perverted, pagan playground of the powerful. Skull & Bones: the demonic fraternity that includes George Bush and leftist Senator John Kerry, Congress; Mr. New Money. The Israel lobby, which plays Congress like a cheap harmonica. And the Soviet-style 'smartcard' the Justice Department has in mind for you."

Congressman Paul has already faced controversies over the content of his newsletters and disavowed their contents. Over the weekend he walked out of a CNN interview after being questioned about the newsletters.

"I didn’t write them, I disavow them, that’s it," Congressman Paul said.

Despite his disavowal of the newsletters, Congressman Paul hasn't yet denied writing promotional materials for the newsletters. This latest correspondence, which was uncovered by Reuters and The New Republic contributing editor James Kirchik, bears Mr. Paul's signature.