Even by 1963, most Americans would not vote for a qualified black presidential candidate.

Evidence

As late as 1963, fewer than half of Americans agreed that they would vote for a black presidential candidate of their political party even if he were qualified. Most importantly for this paper, in 1944 and again in 1946, fewer than half of white Americans agreed that “Negroes should have as good a chance as white people to get any kind of job.” — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2031

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to broader social-science literature on racial attitude change, e.g. Schuman et al. 1997 and work by Kinder & Sears.