None taken. I was more referring to the turn of the century, but it's an oversight on my part if my post made it seem like I was drawing parallels between the Irish American experience in the 60's and the African American one.
Still, the fact that a Catholic and someone of Irish heritage was President was pretty unthinkable back then and a lot of people weren't happy about it.
It was probably the first climbing the ladder presidency, and last, until Obama got in.
Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the U.S, was the son of Irish immigrants. There were several more American presidents of Irish descent before Kennedy so it wasn't as unthinkable as you may want to believe. The Irish experienced some discrimination for a short while in the United States but trying to compare it to the history of Black people in America is a gross minimalization of the systematic racism that this country was built around, and the lasting effects that still exist today. It's really not in the same ballpark no matter which way you slice it.
