General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: This anti-Catholic crap is getting to be annoying [View all]struggle4progress
(126,102 posts)against minorities. The Civil War amendments had been there in the Constitution for some time, but they were frequently ignored. All manner of discrimination was legal until the 1950s, and the effort to end it has continued to the present. Kennedy and his supporters had to tailor their 1960 campaign to deal with anti-Catholic prejudice. But by the mid-1960s, it was becoming much less acceptable to be openly bigoted against anyone, and open bigots like the segregationists began to get less favorable press. At present, open prejudice against folk is not very acceptable, but if you listen carefully, you'll find indications that there's still plenty of prejudice of all sorts out there -- and it may not vanish spontaneously: it may require constant effort by people to good will to construct an open society that welcomes real diversity. There are still virulent anti-Catholics in the US, just as there are plenty of other sorts of bigots out there -- it's just not nearly as acceptable as it once was