October 26, 1960: The Kennedys Save Dr. King -- and Their Own Election

October 26, 1960: There are 13 days left before the Presidential election. Martin Luther King Jr. is arrested for protesting at a whites-only snack bar in his hometown of Atlanta.

Terrified that he might be beaten, or even killed, while in a Southern jail, his wife, Coretta Scott King, calls the campaign of the Republican nominee for President, Vice President Richard Nixon, for help. She gets none.

So she calls the campaign of the Democratic nominee for President, Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts. Whoever she reached got word to JFK. He calls his brother and campaign manager, Robert F. Kennedy, and asks him to see what he can do. RFK calls Governor Ernest Vandiver of Georgia. Together, they work on Oscar Mitchell, the judge who had ordered MLK's arrest. He is released.

Prior to this, the King family (not to be confused with the soon-to-be-popular white singing family of the same name) were Republicans, because the Republican Party was the party of Abraham Lincoln; while, being Southern blacks, they knew the Democratic Party not as the party of Franklin D. Roosevelt, but as the party of slavery and segregation.

After this, MLK's father, Dr. Martin Luther King Sr., told people, "If I had a million votes, I would give them to Jack Kennedy."

For all we know, the Kennedy brothers' action to free MLK may just have swayed 1 million black votes to JFK, who had not previously been seen as noticeably friendly to civil rights. On Election Day, November 8, JFK won New Jersey (with Newark) by 22,000 votes, Missouri (with St. Louis and Kansas City) by 10,000, and Illinois (with Chicago) by 9,000.

Had Nixon won those States, Nixon would have won the Electoral Vote, even if he had still lost the popular vote, and would have won the election. So if you're a Republican, and are looking for a reason why Nixon lost, don't look at Mayor Richard J. Daley and any shenanigans he might have pulled in Chicago: Look at Nixon himself. He could have saved Dr. King, and, in so doing, saved his campaign. He chose not to. JFK chose to help himself by helping Dr. King.

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October 26, 1960 was a Wednesday. Baseball season ended 13 days earlier, with Bill Mazeroski's home run in the bottom of the 9th inning of Game 7 giving the Pittsburgh Pirates the World Series over the New York Yankees. Football was in midweek.

There was 1 game played in the NBA: The Detroit Pistons beat the Cincinnati Royals, 131-117 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit. For the Pistons, Gene Shue (later to coach the Washington Bullets to the 1978 NBA Championship) scored 30 points, and Bailey Howell scored 23. For the Royals, Jack Twyman scored 33, and Oscar Robertson scored 25.

And there was 1 game in the NHL: The New York Rangers beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-3 at the old Madison Square Garden. Andy Hebenton scored 2 goals for the Broadway Blueshirts.