re: #602 ~Fianna
Martin Luther King Jr. considered endorsing Nixon in 1960, and the Kennedy White House supported the civil rights movement very carefully to avoid offending southern Democrats. Northern Republicans, led by Everett Dirksen, helped LBJ pass the civil rights act in 1964. IIRC, every southern Democrat in the Senate voted agains it.
The 1964 presidential election was when African Americans went overwhelmingly Democrat.
Thank you Barry Goldwater.