Arthur W. Terminiello Papers

Fonds

Identifier: TRM

Staff Only

Scope and Content

Audio recordings and transcripts of Terminiello's memoirs, dictated in 1962, with exhibits prepared by Terminiello to illustrate them, including letters, sermons, clippings, pamphlets, photographs, and copies of Terminiello's newspapers, Saint Teresa's Village News (1940-1941) and The Crusader (1941);concerning social justice, Terminiello's anti-communist Union of Christian Crusaders, Gerald L. K. Smith and the America First Party, charges of fascism, racism, antisemitism, and rabble-rousing against Smith and Terminiello, the 1949 Supreme Court case involving Terminiello and freedom of speech, and Terminiello's pastoral activities.

Dates

Creation: 1939-1962.

Creator

Terminiello, A. W. (Arthur W.) (Person)

Language of Materials

English.

Background

Catholic priest known as the Father Coughlin of the South. He ministered to tenant farmers in Alabama and Florida, started innovative programs involving mobile trailer chapels, conducted radio and television programs (The Pastor's Fireside), founded an experimental community called Saint Teresa's Village, and for a time toured and lectured with Gerald L. K. Smith.

In 1946 a Chicago court found him guilty of "making an improper noise, riot, disturbance, breach of the peace or diversion tending to a breach of the peace" because of remarks he made at a Gerald L. K. Smith rally; the Supreme Court heard his appeal in 1949 and the justices wrote four separate opinions.