The rough-and-tumble, bigoted ethnic Catholics of the 19th and 20th centuries weren't created in a vacuum. They were largely the product of the ill treatment they received at the hands of the WASPs who dominated American society at the time. When underclasses perceive they have no place in polite society, they tend to become extra impolite. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The real coming of age for the children of immigrant Catholics was World War II. The time spent playing poker on the transport ships and hunkered down in the foxholes side by side with Baptists from Alabama and Jews from Brooklyn was the closest this country has ever come to a true melting pot. And one can only wonder how much further the state of civil rights in this country would be had the armed forces been fully integrated then.