Pittsburgh’s “Pastor of the Poor”

Today also marks the death of Father James Renshaw Cox (1886-1951), the first and only Catholic priest to run for President. The son of a Pittsburgh mill worker, he worked his way through Duquesne University as a cab driver and steelworker. Ordained in 1911, during World War I he served as an army chaplain in Europe. During the Depression he organized food-relief programs for Pittsburgh’s unemployed and founded shelters for homeless. In January 1932, he led 20,000 on a march to Washington, D.C., in the hopes of getting Congress to start a public works program. Although he was unsuccessful (President Franklin D. Roosevelt did start such programs), the march sparked the formation of the Jobless Party in Pittsburgh. The party supported government public works and labor unions and spread to other major cities. In 1932, Father Cox became the Jobless Party’s first presidential candidate, but he pulled out and gave his support to Roosevelt, an action that led to the demise of the party. Throughout the thirties, Father Cox continued to advocate for the poor. He was appointed a member of the Pennsylvania Commission for the Unemployed, and President Roosevelt appointed him to the state recovery board of the National Recovery Administration.