NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — As the nation remembers Martin Luther King Jr., a rediscovered audiotape of an interview with the civil rights leader sheds new light on a famous phone call John F. Kennedy made to King's wife in 1960.
Many historians say Kennedy's phone call to Coretta Scott King expressing concern over her husband's arrest in October 1960 — and Robert Kennedy's work behind the scenes to get King released — helped JFK win the White House.
King was appreciative, but didn't credit the Kennedys alone with freeing him, according to a previously unreleased portion of the interview with the civil rights leader days after Kennedy's election.
A copy of the recording will be played for visitors at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis for a "King Day" event Monday.