National Affairs: Alabama Debate

Will the South support a Catholic nominee? On the heels of Alabama Governor John Patterson’s recent endorsement of Jack Kennedy for 1960 came the first dark imprints, looming ominously for any Catholic candidate. The Alabama Baptist, noting that Patterson did not speak for a majority of Alabamans, pronounced Kennedy hopelessly dominated by the Catholic hierarchy. And the Methodist Christian Advocate, official mouthpiece of Alabama’s Methodists, denounced Patterson, conceded that Kennedy was a good man but that “the people of Alabama … do not intend to jeopardize their democratic liberties by opening the doors of the White House to the political machinations of a determined, power-hungry Romanist hierarchy.”