a frontrunner

I'm sort of hesitant to post this up top since it doesn't really meet the subreddit rules but it's a useful piece of data.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/3979/americans-today-much-more-accepting-woman-black-catholic.aspx

from 63 to 69 we see the % "would support a black president" rise from 48% to 66%. And by 1987 that number only went up to 79% before reaching 93% in 1997 (no gallup polls between 87 and 97).

so limiting to 1970s and 1980s the numbers go from 69 to 79%. having to discount a quarter of the populace is a pretty significant. Then again JFK got the nomination when catholics had a 71% answer but on the other other hand without the south you just don't have a viable democratic presidential candidate for president: just look at the electoral maps (especially Carter). But essentially any deep dive into a king frontrunner needs to deal with complex hypothetical and King's drift left as /u/iamnotscottbakula (who spoilers actually is Cpt Archer) details. and for better or worse we really can't say anything about that.

Looking at these numbers and the absence of any presidential talk from what i've seen i would say MLK jr never had legitimate presidential aspirations while alive.