Just days before the 1956 Democratic National Convention, then-Sen. John F. Kennedy (D-MA) had a problem. Adlai Stevenson was the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, and, while rumors were spreading that the young, charismatic politician from Massachusetts could be his running mate, Sen. Kennedy was faced with a serious issue: No one thought a Catholic could be elected vice president.

Undaunted, the Kennedy team produced an eight-page memo titled “The Catholic Vote in 1952 and 1956” and quietly distributed it to various publications. It argued that not only was there such thing as a “Catholic vote” but also that Democrats could win the powerful bloc—and thereby defeat Republican presidential nominee Dwight Eisenhower—by making Sen. Kennedy the vice presidential nominee.