Jackie Robinson switched political party affiliations in the 1960s
For control of what the right-wing referred to as "the white man's party" in 1964, Arizona's U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater competed against Rockefeller and other more liberal Republicans. He was nominated for president by the party which is one of the most interesting facts about Jackie Robinson.
Despite being politically independent, Robinson had strong conservative opinions toward the Vietnam War. Robinson backed Richard Nixon over John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential race, despite the fact that Robinson later came to respect Kennedy's position on racial rights. Later, after being disappointed with Republicans for opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he switched party affiliation to become a Democrat.
Despite the fact that Goldwater narrowly lost the presidency to Lyndon Baines Johnson, a Democrat, he was able to win over pro-segregation Democrats, mostly Southern politicians, and their supporters who had left the Democratic Party after it supported legislation in the late 1950s and early 1960s to advance Black civil rights and voting rights.
Robinson had had it with the GOP by 1968. When Nixon again ran for president in 1968, he declined to lend his support. He also got increasingly involved in the civil rights struggle and frequently appeared alongside King.
