During the Second World War, America was flooded with "hate literature." A "systematic avalanche of falsehoods" besieged the nation, in the words of one commentator. Native fascist groups and agents of Nazi Germany circulated pamphlets and periodicals with titles like America Preferred, The Cross and the Flag, The Defender, Patriotic Research Bulletin, and X-Ray. "Vicious literature … assailing minority groups on racial and religious grounds" was being spread in large quantity in major cities. Crude leaflets containing racist, antisemitic, and anti-Catholic invective were being distributed in war factories and at Army and Navy camps. The purpose of this "hate literature" was to undermine the morale and unity that was needed for the war effort by fomenting violence between races and religions.
This "hate propaganda" seemed to be having its intended effects. "Hate propaganda" was said to be responsible for major riots in munitions plants in Boston, Los Angeles, and Harlem that resulted in deaths and property damage running into the millions. A June 1943 race riot that killed thirty-four in the war production center of Detroit was tied to material distributed by Nazi sympathizers. In New York, attacks on Jews had been provoked by Father Coughlin's Social Justice magazine. Antisemitic gangs confronted people on the streets, demanded to know if they were Jewish, and beat them if they said they were. Gangs desecrated nearly every synagogue in Washington Heights.
