iirc

rev martin luther king senior was a republican, of the old school from before fdr that remembered that it was lincoln’s republican party that was founded on banning slavery

the story is that when the candidate jfk got his son the rev doctor martin luther king junior out of jail, the father called up jfk and told him that he was a republican, but “he had a big old bag of votes” which would now go to jfk - and that he would overlook the fact that jfk was a catholic

jfk got off the phone and remarked - “who knew that mlk’s father would be an anti catholic bigot?”

but then he reflected, thinking of his own father, and added “well, i guess everybody has a father…”