John F. Kennedy Calls Coretta Scott King About Husband’s Imprisonment in Georgia
Rev. Martin Luther King had been arrested and jailed in Georgia for participating in a sit-in. When he was transferred to the state prison in Reidsville at night his wife and others were seriously worried that he might be lynched while in custody. Word of this reached John Kennedy’s presidential election campaign team, and they decided that Kennedy should call Coretta Scott King. Kennedy did, on this day, and expressed his sympathy about her husband’s situation.
Kennedy did not promise to take any action, but his brother, Robert Kennedy called both the governor of Georgia and the judge in the case, and that is believed to have had some effect. King was promptly released the next day, on October 27, 1960.
Word about Kennedy’s call circulated widely in the African-American community. Some political commentators believed the publicity gained Kennedy enough African-American votes to give him victory in the November presidential election, but others dispute this interpretation.
Read the new book about this dramatic episode: Stephen Kendrick and Paul Kendrick, Nine Days: The Race to Save Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Life and Win the 1960 Election (2021)
Read Kennedy’s statement about the phone call: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/print.php?pid=74226
Learn more about the phone call: Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–1963 (1988)
Visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture here