[Boston Blackie]

It's pretty hard for me to accept anti-Catholic bias existed in Massachusetts given the huge Irish and Italian populations.

You have to be kidding....there was a hatred for Catholics and especially Irish Catholics in Massachusetts to the point where jobs ads were posted with "no Irish need apply" in newspapers and at the hiring companies.

Research the "No Nothings." They amended the Massachusetts constitution...and their anti Catholic poison is still there.

[CholeraJoe]

I'll concede that there was anti-Catholic bias in the mid-1800s during the time of the Know Nothings. I fail to connect how that might have impacted a privileged rich kid like Jack Kennedy growing up in the 20's and 30's.

No one ever denied him admission to a private prep school or Harvard because he was an Irish Catholic. No one ever denied him a job because he was an Irish Catholic. No one ever threw rocks at him or called him a "fish-eating mick."

[wintertime]

Research the “No Nothings.” They amended the Massachusetts constitution...and their anti Catholic poison is still there.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The establishment of government schools and the hatefully anti-Catholic Blaine Amendments to many state constitutions are entire due to anti-Catholic bigotry.

[GovernmentIsTheProblem]

“You have to be kidding....there was a hatred for Catholics and especially Irish Catholics in Massachusetts to the point where jobs ads were posted with “no Irish need apply” in newspapers and at the hiring companies.”

Urban myth.

http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2005/03/ano_irish_need.php

[higgmeister]

It's pretty hard for me to accept anti-Catholic bias existed in Massachusetts given the huge Irish and Italian populations.

You have to be kidding....there was a hatred for Catholics and especially Irish Catholics in Massachusetts to the point where jobs ads were posted with "no Irish need apply" in newspapers and at the hiring companies.

Research the "No Nothings." They amended the Massachusetts constitution...and their anti Catholic poison is still there.

Don't forget the Catholic Portuguese that settled en masse on the coast of Massachusetts. They were treated like flotsam and jetsam that came in on the waves until people like "Emeril Lagasse" and "Meredith Vieira" rehabilitated Northeastern Portuguese prestige.