They first met in June 1960. Kennedy, then a senator from
Massachusetts, would soon win the Democratic presidential
nomination. King had become a national figure for leading the
victorious bus boycott in Montgomery, Ala., that ignited the
civil rights movement. As a Democrat, running against Republican
Richard Nixon (at the time, many influential blacks, including
Jackie Robinson, were Republicans), Kennedy faced some difficult
racial calculus. The South, where Jim Crow kept black people in
a second-class status, was ruled by Democrats. To win the
presidency, Kennedy needed white Southern Democrats, and many of
them hated King, whom they saw as a threat to their way of life.
In a speech soon after meeting King, Kennedy spoke of the
"moving examples of moral courage" shown by civil rights
protesters. Their peaceful demonstrations, he said, were not "to
be lamented, but a great sign of responsibility, of good
citizenship, of the American spirit." Referencing the growing
"sit-in" movement, in which black custome