What you said there, it was the father who had supposedly been a Republican prior to 1960. I believe it was a phone call made to the jail by JFK that precipitated the “change.” JFK’s record as Senator of being pro-civil rights was questionable at best. His father leaned on him hard to strongly discourage Sammy Davis, Jr. from marrying the White actress May Britt, lest that cost him White votes. It was Davis who even remembered that JFK couldn’t even look him in the eye when going to meet him, while Nixon, conversely, gave him a very warm and hearty greeting (why it was a no-brainer in 1972 for Sammy to endorse Nixon, and he was literally baffled by how radicalized the Black community had become and enslaved to the Dems, which MLK Jr. had been a part of making happen).
In any event, if King Jr. or Sr. had felt that warmly and strongly towards Nixon, a single instance of sympathy on behalf of JFK (which was a political move urged by RFK) would, while appreciated, would not have seen the family go all in for JFK. Nixon still received (in 1960) between 1/4th and 1/3rd of the Black vote, the last time any GOP Presidential candidate ever got more than about 10% or so (even his 1972 landslide saw him barely get that figure).
MLK Sr., after his son’s death, was so wedded to the Democrat Party, that he was present at the 1976 Dem Convention to coronate Jimmy Carter, who was barely removed from his race-baiting campaign for Governor in 1970 (where he attacked ex-Gov. Carl Sanders for having the “audacity” to shake hands with Black basketball players).
In any event, I think there was more than a bit of subterfuge on MLK Jr’s part and his strong associations with leftists and Communists (you don’t go to the Highlander Folk School unless you’re big into Marx & Co.). While his messages sounded good, he was NOT a Conservative as some have claimed. He savagely attacked Goldwater (who had a record of being pro-civil rights) as being a tool of Southern racists all because the Senator saw the 1964 CRA as a dramatic overreach of the federal government. That played a substantial role in radicalizing the Black community and pushing the remaining bloc of voting Black Republicans nearly entirely into the Democrat party and the Socialist/Welfare State primrose path of destruction.
Yeah, well, I suggest you take it up with Conservapedia regarding that.
And quite frankly, I’m pretty sure if MLK was truly a far-leftist, he would not have even met Nixon, let alone be friends with him, especially considering most far-leftists would have hated Nixon’s guts for his role in the McCarthy hearings as well as especially his exposure of Alger Hiss. And besides, why would he write that speech stating that Christianity and Communism were incompatible if he was a Communist. That would be a good way to net the Communists as an enemy since there’s no benefit to be gained for them. Even Vladimir Putin tried to claim that Christianity and Communism could be easily reconcilable, as did Pope Francis, and those guys actually MIGHT qualify as secret Communists.
As far as Barry Goldwater, eh, I really wouldn’t call that guy a conservative, especially not when he promoted gay marriage later in life, not to mention abortion and all of that stuff (and bear in mind, even Nixon was not fond of the promotion of homosexuality). He’s at most a libertarian. I will give him respect for being hawkish on defense, though.