As you well know, the reason for JFK’s November ‘63 trip to the DFW Metroplex was political damage control. LBJ was going to be dumped from the ticket in ‘64 and replaced with MO Sen. Stuart Symington (JFK’s real preference in 1960) and Goldwater was competitive with JFK in the polls (there wasn’t going to be any Texas-sized LBJ coordinated vote fraud that year — nothing in it for him). There was a good chance that JFK was going to lose reelection (as it was, there wasn’t going to be a single Southern state he would carry in ‘64 had he lived).
I have to wonder what Goldwater would’ve done starting in 1965 with the remaining Civil Rights legislation. Probably a more modest, go-slow approach. He’d have similarly been imperiled. If he did something bold, he’d have pissed off the South as well, too tentative, and pissed off liberals and moderates. It was going to be tough no matter whom was President. You couldn’t go in any direction without precipitating a visceral reaction from one group or another.
I’d still think ole Je$$e and Al would be doing their thing today regardless. They were the “bad guys” that the brilliant Booker T. Washington warned of well over a century ago. A little interesting observation. I’m on a website top-heavy with lib Dems, and they don’t hold those two in high esteem, either. They’re recognized as con men and troublemaking hucksters/charlatans, but the Dems are reluctant to voice that opinion publicly, for obvious reasons.
Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have no interest in actual religious work. They would be used car salesman.