Father Coughlin and America First Movement: Scarce WELCOME greeter badge

Badge worn by a greeter of Father Charles Coughlin, c. 1935. Celluloid button with silk ribbon attached.

Coughlin, a Roman Catholic priest, attracted one of the first mass audiences in radio broadcast history. He delivered politically charged sermons, attacking graft, greed and evil wherever he saw it. Initially a supporter of Franklin Roosevelt, his views became increasingly anti New Deal. Coughlin founded the National Union for Social Justice, and its publication, Social Justice, carried shrill attacks on Communism, Wall Street and Jews. As war loomed, Coughlin became one of the leaders of the America First movement, and Social Justice was banned from the mails, ceasing publication in 1942. Coughlin was ordered to stop broadcasting by the Catholic heirarchy, and retired to obscurity. Scarce souvenir of a speaking engagement by Coughlin.