2 chapters across the catalog
During the 1960 presidential campaign, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested on a trumped-up charge in Georgia. While Richard Nixon declined to intervene to avoid "grandstanding," John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy worked to secure King's release. This act of political maneuvering caused King's father, a lifelong Republican, to switch his support to Kennedy, significantly impacting the Black vote and the election outcome.
The FBI under J. Edgar Hoover conducted extensive surveillance on Dr. King, capturing recordings of his extramarital affairs, including one with singer Joan Baez. The FBI reportedly sent these tapes to Coretta Scott King and mailed an anonymous letter to Dr. King encouraging him to commit suicide to avoid public exposure. The hosts note that these documents were recently released as part of the National Archives' JFK files.
