In 1960, John F. Kennedy
asked Harris Wofford
to join his presidential campaign and work on winning over the "Negro
vote".
When Martin Luther
King, Jr. was sentenced to hard labor in a Georgia prison for a
minor traffic violation shortly before the election, Wofford persuaded Kennedy
to call King's wife, Coretta Scott
King, who was in an advanced stage of pregnancy; as well as, get his
brother, Robert Kennedy, to assist with Martin's release.
This prompted Martin
Luther King, Sr. (Daddy King) to publicly switch his endorsement from Richard Nixon
to Kennedy.
JFK's team actually
opposed this move for fear of alienating the Southern populist leaders Kennedy
was also courting support from.
That Kennedy had called
King's wife was subsequently leaked and shifted the African American vote in
Kennedy's favor nationally, to which many attribute his slim victory over
Nixon.
