old timey villain
cope1989
Jr. Member
Posts: 1,741
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« on: July 16, 2013, 01:46:25 PM » |
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Yes, the Catholic prejudice was common in the south back then and still exists in some areas today. Of course Maryland was much more southern back then outside of immigrant gateways like Baltimore.
Interesting story: My grandmother moved to Atlanta in the 1940s and since her parents were lapsed Catholics, she took it upon herself to join a church. She went with a friend to a Baptist church and became a member of the denomination. When she was older she met my grandfather, who was Catholic. She asked her pastor to marry them and he refused, saying a Catholic/Protestant marriage would never work. So she left the Baptist church and converted to Catholicism. She told me that attitude was still very prevalent in the south in the 1950s.
Thankfully things have changed but it's not hard to see why Smith would have a hard time winning support even among loyal southern Democrats. If I recall Kennedy faced much of the same prejudice when he was running in 1960.
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