The Mayor of Shantytown ― The Life of Father James Renshaw Cox

Father James R. Cox was the voice of Pittsburgh’s poor and jobless during the worst years of the Great Depression. Long lines of needy people showed up daily at St. Patrick’s Church in the city’s historic Strip District but Cox turned no one away. He served more than two million meals to the hungry and was the “mayor” of a shantytown of homeless men. Cox led one of the first mass marches on Washington, D.C., in 1932, confronting President Herbert Hoover in a face-to-face White House meeting. He later ran for president himself on the Jobless Party ticket—a quixotic campaign that ended in the deserts of New Mexico. Cox’s reputation as a humanitarian was ruined after he barely escaped a mail fraud conviction for running a rigged fundraising contest.

Richard Gazarik has been a journalist in western Pennsylvania for more than 40 years. He lives near Pittsburgh.