Race and the election, 48 years after MLK changed the presidential election
Forty-eight years ago this week, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested for participating in a sit-in at an Atlanta department store. After the other protestors had been released, King was kept behind bars. Almost overnight, civil rights and race became key issues in the 1960 presidential election. Senator John F. Kennedy reached out to Coretta Scott King that week to allay fears that her husband would be lynched. JFK’s civil rights advisor and former U.S. Senator Harris Wofford tells The Takeaway how one phone call influenced the outcome of the 1960 Nixon-Kennedy Presidential election and why the story matters now. Guest: Senator Harris Wofford, former U.S. Senator and former civil rights campaign adviser to President John F. Kennedy.
The story you just read is available to read for free because thousands of listeners and readers like you generously support our nonprofit newsroom. Every day, the reporters and producers at The World are hard at work bringing you human-centered news from across the globe. But we can’t do it without you: We need your support to ensure we can continue this work for another year.
When you make a gift of $10 or more a month, we’ll invite you to a virtual behind-the-scenes tour of our newsroom to thank you for being with The World.