One great symbol of the change was that Jackie Robinson-who as we all know was the first African-American to play in modern Major League Baseball-had been a lifelong Republican up to 1964, glad to support Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956 and one of the country's best-known supporters of Richard Nixon in 1960- Quit the Republican party for good in 1964 over its endorsement of Goldwater and his pledge to fight for repeal of the Civil Rights Act- an action which, if successful, would have reimposed legal Jim Crow, possibly for good-and campaigned for the Democratic ticiet in every presidential election that occurred from 1964 until his early death in 1972.