Early Political Career:


After World War II, Kennedy entered politics, partly to fill the void of his popular brother, Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., on whom his family had pinned many of their hopes but who was killed in the war. In 1946, Representative James Michael Curley vacated his seat in an overwhelmingly Democratic district to become mayor of Boston, and Kennedy ran for that seat, beating his Republican opponent by a large margin. He was a congressman for six years but had a mixed voting record, often diverging from President Harry S. Truman and the rest of the Democratic Party. In 1952, he defeated incumbent Republican Henry Cabot Lodge for the U.S. Senate. Kennedy married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier on September 12, 1953. He underwent several spinal operations in the two following years, nearly dying (receiving the Catholic faith's "last rites" four times during his life), and was often absent from the Senate. During this period, he published Profiles in Courage, highlighting eight instances in which U.S. Senators risked their careers by standing by their personal beliefs. The book was awarded the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.

John F. Kennedy voted for final passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, after having earlier voted for the "Jury Trial Amendment", which effectively rendered the Act toothless, because convictions for violations could not be obtained. Staunch segregationists such as James Eastland, John McClellan, and Mississippi Governor James Coleman were early supporters in Kennedy's presidential campaign. [T Reeves, "A Question of Character', p 140]

Sen. Joseph McCarthy was a friend of the Kennedy family. Robert Kennedy worked on the staff of McCarthy's committee, & McCarthy dated Patricia Kennedy. In 1954, when the Senate was poised to condemn McCarthy, Senator Kennedy faced a dilemma. "How could I demand that Joe McCarthy be censured for things he did when my own brother was on his staff?" asked Kennedy. John Kennedy had a speech drafted calling for the censure of McCarthy but he never delivered it. When the Senate rendered its highly publicized decision to censure McCarthy on December 2, 1954, Senator Kennedy was in hospital and never indicated then or later how he would have voted. The episode seriously hurt Kennedy in the liberal community, especially with Eleanor Roosevelt, as late as the 1960 election. [T Reeves, & Collier & Horowitz]

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