JFK (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963) The 35th president john Fitzgerald Kennedy By late 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy and his campaign team were eager to find a way to pull ahead in the final days of the presidential race. On October 19, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., along with students, was protesting local segregation ordinances in Georgia and was sent to jail for trespassing. King was sentenced to six months of hard labor for violating his probation on a previous misdemeanor. After hearing of King’s sentence, Senator Kennedy and his brother, Robert, called Georgia governor, Ernest Vandiver, and petitioned King’s release. Senator Kennedy called Coretta Scott King, MLK’s wife, to offer his help. Meanwhile, Robert Kennedy called the judge and was able to convince him to release King. The Kennedys’ role in King’s release quickly spread in the Black community. Senator John F. Kennedy won seventy percent of the Black vote in November. The Black vote was key in Kennedy’s victory.