TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Descriptive Summary

Biographical Note

Scope and Contents

Arrangement

Restrictions

Administrative Information

Related Material

Index Terms

Bibliography

Detailed Description of the Collection

Series 1: Correspondence, 1930s-2004,

Series 2: Subject Files, 1914-2004

Series 3: Publications, 1940s-2000s

Series 4: Writings and Speeches, 1930-2004

Series 5: Photographs, 1936-2004

John C. Cort

An inventory of the John C. Cort Papers at The American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives

Mailing Address: The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. 20064

Telephone: 202-319-5065

Email: archives@mail.lib.cua.edu

URL: http://libraries.cua.edu/achrcua/index.html

Biographical Note

John C. Cort was born in 1913 to parents Ambrose and Lydia Cort. After being raised as an Episcopalian he became interested in Catholicism while attending Harvard, judiciously delaying his conversion until after graduation after his father threatened to withdraw him from the University.

Cort made his way to New York after graduating in 1935 where he was introduced to Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in the Catholic Worker Movement. He became quite involved with the cause, living in Catholic Worker's New York City Hospitality House for the homeless, and writing articles for the Catholic Worker publication. Cort went on to become more active with the labor movement in the late 1930s and 1940s, helping create and working for the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists (ACTU), and as a business agent for the Boston local of the Newspaper Guild Union, all while suffering from recurring episodes of life threatening tuberculosis he contracted while living at the Catholic Worker house=2E These intermittent bouts of tuberculosis left him bedridden for five and a half of the next twelve years, but didn't prevent him from staying active in the movement. During this time he was reading, writing, and working with The Labor Leader, The International Ladies Garment Union, Commonweal, the Tablet, and the ACTU. While volunteering for the ACTU in 1943 he met a fellow volunteer, Helen Haye, whom he began dating. She would stick with him throughout his illness and they married in 1946. He continued to work for the Newspaper Guild Union and was active with the ACTU for much of the 1950s.

In 1961, he administered a Peace Corps program in the Philippines, moving there for three and a half years with his wife Helen and their nine children Barbara, Nicholas, Rebecca, Paul, Lydia, Mary Elizabeth, Alice, David, and Susan. Julia, their tenth and final child, was born overseas. After returning to the United States in the mid 1960s he began to put his efforts into administering volunteer programs domestically. Cort was appointed the first ever director of an experimental state sponsored Service Corps nicknamed the "Baby Peace Corps". During this time period he also administered a number of Great Society social programs in Massachusetts, including the Lynn Model Cities Program. He moved his family into a house in Roxbury, a rough section of Boston, during this time period out of solidarity with the poor and disenfranchised blacks in the area. He felt that in order to avoid hypocrisy, and fully devout himself to the cause, he needed to be a member of the community. Needless to say, this caused some strain on the family. He left the Model Cities program in 1973 to focus more on writing and public speaking. Eventually Cort's family moved away from Roxbury, and for a time he visited them on weekends.

Cort became a committed socialist in the early 1970s and was active in the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) for over thirty years, particularly in its Religion and Socialism Commission. He also played an important role as the DSA's liaison to The International League of Religious Socialists (ILRS), travelling to Europe several times and meeting with prominent members of the movement. He is well known for editing the DSA's newsletter, Religious Socialism, for much of its 27 year existence. In addition to writing scores of articles for catholic magazines and journals, he authored Christian Socialism in 1988, a book compiling a history of the philosophy, and an autobiography, Dreadful Conversions, in 2003. When he passed away in 2006 he had just finished an anthology about justice and the right to work entitled "Tigers of Wrath". He is remembered as one of the more notable and prolific laymen in U.S. Catholic history.

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Scope and Contents

The John C. Cort papers, 1913-2004, contain correspondence, subject files, clippings, publications, photographs, and articles written by Cort. These 18 linear feet document his adult life as a Catholic social activist and Catholic socialist. The material from the 1930s through the 1950s, when he was active with the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists (ACTU) and the Boston Newspaper Guild is somewhat sparse. The material from the 1960s to the present takes up the majority of the collection. A large percentage of the collection covers his time with the Peace Corps in the Philippines during the 1960s and his work in the Great Society programs in the 1960s and 1970s.

The first series contains his correspondence with other Catholic activists, clergy, intellectuals, and colleagues from the numerous organizations he was involved with. Some of the more prominent names that appear in the correspondence series are: clergy, such as the labor priest George Higgins, Father Ed Boyle, and Richard Cardinal Cushing; intellectuals like William F. Buckley and theologians Harvey Cox and Michael Novak; political figures such as, John F. Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, Father Robert F. Drinan, and Michael Harrington; and other Catholic activists, such as Dorothy Day.

In one of the more notable and funny letters in the collection, Dorothy Day alludes to the raucous behavior of Norman Mailer and Edmund Wilson at a house in Cape Cod one summer. Another interesting letter in the collection has former governor of New York Governor Mario Cuomo almost gushing in response to the flattery he received from Cort in response to the suggestion he make a run at the presidency. There is a sizable file of correspondence between Cort and John F. Kennedy, mostly from his time as Senator of Massachusetts, that consists of a handwritten letter from the future president and several other typed letters pertaining to labor legislation. There is one letter sent from Kennedy during his time in the White House in 1961, in which the President echoes Cort's opinion on how to move ahead economically and socially in Latin America, and specifically Cuba, in handling the threat of communism.

A letter from Edward (Ted) Kennedy, sent during the Clinton administration, stands out from their sizable amount of correspondence due to Kennedy's lengthy defense of the North American Trade Agreement in response to a critical letter sent by Cort. One of the more fascinating folders in the series, due to its friendly yet adversarial tone, contains extensive correspondence between John Cort and Catholic philosopher Michael Novak. The relationship that emerges from this folder is of a complexity produced by two people balancing their different points of view with a mutual respect for one another.

There is also a good deal of correspondence related to his work with numerous organizations such as the Democratic Socialists of America, the Catholic Worker publication, Commonweal magazine, the Service Corps of Massachusetts, and the International League of Religious Socialists to name a few. There is some correspondence with the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists, but the amount doesn't accurately portray the depth of his involvement with the organization. There is also much correspondence about articles he authored, and letters dealing with the books he was getting published. Finally, there is a large portion of family and personal material included in the collection, including many letters to his children, which strongly illuminates the strength of his convictions.

The most important and useful materials in the second series, the subject files, document Cort's role in the Democratic Socialists of America from the 1970s to the present. Highlighted in this series is his involvement in the Religion and Socialism Commission Section, and his editorship of its newsletter Religious Socialism in the 1980s and 1990s. Other large portions of the collection reflect the work he did with the Boston Newspaper Guild in the 1950s, and his positions in the Peace Corps and in the anti-poverty programs in Massachusetts in the 1960's and early 1970s. The subject files also contain topically arranged material that relates to the Industrial Council Plan, Economic Security, The National Catholic Social Action conference, the Jobs for all Coalition, and Christian Socialism. There is only a small amount of material relating to his early activities in the Catholic Worker movement of the 1930s and in the Association of the Catholic Trade Unionists in the 1940s and 1950s.

The third series consists of two boxes of publications he collected throughout his life. The first half of the series is brochures, pamphlets, and miscellaneous ephemera representing myriad political, educational, economic, and religious subjects. There are also many newsletters and bulletins posted by various groups. The most important piece of this series is a nearly complete run of Religious Socialism, the newsletter put out by the Religion and Socialism Commission which Cort edited, beginning in 1977.

A big strength of this collection lies in the writings and speeches series, which fully encompasses the nuances of Cort's character and the foundations of his philosophies as a religious socialist in his own words. This series begins with an alphabetical subject listing of numerous essays, speeches, and talks he gave throughout his life on an assortment of topics. Many of these are drafts of articles he wrote for publications from The Catholic Worker and Commonweal , to editorials written in the Boston Globe. This series also includes an alternate draft of his autobiography Dreadful Conversions, which is an earlier version with more details than the published version. Also included are drafts of Christian Socialism and pieces of an unpublished anthology entitled "Tigers of Wrath". There is also material related to other publications, including articles, speeches, and reference materials.

The last series is the photo series, which consists of numerous pictures of Cort throughout his life. There are also pictures of family graves, and an old sepia photograph of his grandfather Cyrus Cort mounted on card stock. There are group pictures of the Democratic Socialists of America at a sweatshop protest, and the International League of Religious Socialists at an unnamed function. There are a large number of publicity shots of John Cort to be used in promotion of Dreadful Conversions, and numerous photographs of him with unidentified individuals. The most notable photographs in the collection are three excellent black and white photographs of him interviewing John F. Kennedy during his time as Senator of Massachusetts, and an 8x10 photo of John, Helen, and nine of the ten children taken in the early 1960s.

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Arrangement

The John C. Cort papers consists of 5 series:

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Restrictions

Restrictions on Access

There are no restrictions on this collection

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Administrative Information

Acquisition Information

John Cort and his wife Helen donated his papers to the American Catholic History Research Center in 2004, 2005, and 2007

Processing Information

Initial processing by Joe Turrini in 2004. Processing completed, including EAD Markup, in 2009 by Eben Dennis.

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Related Material

The American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives also contains:

George G. Higgins Papers

Papers of the National Catholic Welfare Conference

At Marquette University Archives:

Day, Dorothy- Catholic Worker Collection

at The Archives for the University of Notre Dame:

Commonweal Records

In The Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University :

Association of Catholic Trade Unionists of Detroit Records

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Index Terms

This record series is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms.

Persons:

Organizations:

Places:

Subjects:

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Bibliography

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Detailed Description of the Collection