Teaching Fr. Coughlin's Social Justice

Unit 2: National Union for Social Justice

During his Sunday, November 11, 1934 broadcast, Fr. Charles Coughlin stated the need in his view for an entity that would speak on behalf of his listeners' social and economic needs. Providing a list of sixteen principles, Coughlin ended his speech with a dramatic call to "... not become cannon fodder for the greedy system of an outworn capitalism nor factory fodder for the slave whip of communism." With that bold flourish he would embark on a very new path for his burgeoning radio ministry and move rapidly towards a final break with the Roosevelt administration. The National Union, along with his involvement in the 1936 presidential election and anti-Semitism, form the most heavily studied pieces of Coughlin's life and work. At the same time, primary documents from Coughlin remain fragmented and limited in scale, the ability to use Social Justice and other related materials greatly expands the scope of projects possible even on this well-tread ground.

Most commentators on the 1930s note the radical words of Coughlin, but do little to investigate the ideological underpinnings, the degree of social and economic change promoted, or the real success of the National Union. Coughlin did not lack for company during the Depression for those espousing vague forms of radical change, but what made this call different came from the medium and "The Golden Hour of the Little Flower" radio program. That ability to appeal to a potentially broad audience made the effort at organization different than more local and regional efforts, if harder to enumerate with hard numbers.

Though put forward as a non-partisan organization, Coughlin's increasingly hostile statements against the Roosevelt administration revealed the group's ideological orientation very early. Thus, Coughlin had formed a political pressure group designed to advocate for particular federal policies without actually coalescing into a real political party. Historian Alan Brinkley argued that one major objective lay in the unlikely strategy of forming an opposition group against supporters of Roosevelt to regain those same politicians' respect and trust thereby placing Coughlin back into the corridors of federal power. Though a persuasive concept, the ability to gauge whether Coughlin actually desired that outcome is difficult to ascertain. The National Union would continue to grow during 1935 and culminate in the presidential election of November 1936.

For these assignments, students will examine the National Union for Social Justice to determine what purposes Fr. Coughlin established it and then its effectiveness at achieving those goals. The role of the National Union as a political pressure group is a critical one in understanding both the Great Depression and American politics during a time of crisis.

Lesson Plan 2: "The New Deal is Not Christ's Deal": Coughlin's Turn Against FDR and the Formation of the National Union for Social Justice

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Lesson Plan 3: The National Union for Social Justice as a Third-party Movement

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