Allan Adler <ara@nestle.csail.mit.edu> wrote:

>... He says that in the past (say during and before the 1950's)
>the KKK was not really anti-Catholic, merely anti-immigrant...

Anti-Catholic sentiment was common in the U.S.,
but especially virulent in the South (except
Louisiana, for obvious reasons).

This was very much true in, for instance, the 1920s.

A quick survey at the Presidential election returns
in that decade shows that in 1928, when the Democrats
nominated Catholic Al Smith, a huge crack appeared in the
"Solid South".

The Republican vote in Florida, Georgia, Texas and
Alabama tripled. Texas and Florida went Republican for the
only time between Reconstruction and 1952; Alabama
almost swung.

Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, which
had been competitive, all went Republican by fat
margins.

Even in the ultra 'yellow dog' states of Mississippi
and South Carolina, there was a spike in the Republican
vote (from minuscule to small).

The Klan was the expression of (chiefly) Southern
prejudices, including anti-Catholicism.
--
| He had a shorter, more scraggly, and even less |
| flattering beard than Yassir Arafat, and Escalante |
| never conceived that such a thing was possible. |
| -- William Goldman, _Heat_ |

Rich Rostrom <rrostrom.21stcentury@rcn.com> writes:

> The Klan was the expression of (chiefly) Southern
> prejudices, including anti-Catholicism.

http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-history-hs725a,0,7485380.story

Here's a nice Newsday piece on the 1920s KKK on Long Island.

--
Hugh Lawson
hlawson@triad.rr.com