The Christian Front on the Force: Catholic Fascism in the NYPD through the eyes of the Yiddish and African American Press, 1939-1954

This presentation focuses on Yiddish and Black press coverage of white Christian fascism in the NYPD at the outbreak of World War Two. The Christian Front was a nominally ecumenical, but mostly Catholic, political formation inspired by celebrity right-wing “radio priest” Father Coughlin. This presentation returns to the history of Christian Front influence within the NYPD in the ‘40s and ‘50s in order to argue that 1) Yiddish and African American media sources offer more perceptive analyses of Christianity and politics in this period than the white-dominanted English language press, and 2) Catholic fascism endures both through and beyond the Christian Front, facilitated by multifaceted ties between the police and the Church. The white Christian nationalist paramilitaries of the mid-century may have ceased to exist as specific organizations, but the alignments they reinforced between police, far-right politics, and white Christianity have been far more durable than any individual group.