1. Kennedy Challenges Nixon for the Presidency

2. Information 1: Beginnings
The sly and capable Nixon Vice President Nixon won the 1960 Republican presidential nomination.
Meanwhile, fresh young John F. Kennedy wins the Democratic ticket against Texas Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson.
Kennedy calls for American sacrifice to reach the American dream, while Nixon runs on the platform that American is already superior in world prestige.

3. Information 2: Bigotry
Anti-Catholic bigotry arose against Kennedy’s faith during his campaign.
Southern Democrats, overwhelmingly Protestant, proved averse to a Catholic leading the country-- “the Pope controls all Catholics”, etc.
Kennedy responds by referencing his Congressional career, his allegiance to America, and asks if all Catholics are second-class citizens by virtue of their birth

4. Information 3: Results
Although he suffered in the South due to anti-Catholicism, Kennedy’s vitality and liberal platform of improving America from the inside out to oppose the USSR proved attractive.
He won 303 to 219 electoral votes against Nixon with a close popular margin. Catholics, industrial workers-- and even African Americans supported him in mass after he courted Martin Luther King, Jr.

8. Questions
Develop an argument for why Kennedy was able to win the presidency-- was he simply garnering votes or did he truly believe in Civil Rights?
Evaluate the anti-Catholic attitude among the U.S. population in the election-- to what extent did this affect Kennedy’s campaign?