Image of Senator Kennedy speaking to a crowd in Burnett Park in Fort Worth

The day before his 1960 Dallas/Fort Worth visit, Senator Kennedy made a major address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association at the Rice Hotel in Houston, Texas (the same hotel he would again visit on November 21, 1963, the day before the assassination). In his televised address on September 12, 1960, Kennedy directly confronted the "religious issue": pointed accusations that he would allow his Catholic faith to influence the execution of his responsibilities as president. His bold confrontation of this question made this one of the most important speeches of the 1960 campaign.

The "Baptist for Kennedy" sign in this photograph certainly references the "religious issue" of the 1960 campaign and likely signifies support for his televised speech from Houston the day before. It is, however, somewhat interesting that the sign uses the singular "Baptist" rather than the plural "Baptists." - Stephen Fagin, Associate Curator