Also, by that year, over
a million Afro-Americans had become eligible to vote in the
Southern states. John F. Kennedy, the Democratic candidate,
easily out-maneuvered his Republican opponent, Richard M. Nixon,
in the search for Afro-American votes. Kennedy had projected an
image of aggressive idealism which captured the imagination of
white liberals and of Afro-Americans.
The move which guaranteed the support of most Afro-Americans for
Kennedy came in October, a mere three weeks before the election.
Martin Luther King, Jr., and several other Negroes had been
arrested in Atlanta, Georgia, for staging a sit-in at a
department store restaurant. While the others were released, King
was sentenced to four months at hard labor. Kennedy immediately
telephoned his sympathy to Mrs. King. Meanwhile, his brother and
campaign manager, Robert Kennedy, telephoned the judge who had
sentenced him and pleaded for his release. The next day, King was
freed. The news was carefully and systematically spread
throughout the entire Afro-American community. When Kennedy
defeated Nixon in November, Afro-Americans believed that their
vote had been the deciding factor in the close victory.
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