Press & broadcasting / Religion / Politics
Charles Coughlin
1891–1979 · Catholic priest, radio broadcaster, political agitator
The Royal Oak 'Radio Priest' whose 1930s broadcasts from the Shrine of the Little Flower reached tens of millions before turning to antisemitism and support for fascism.
- Born
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada- Died
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
aged 88- Birth name
- Charles Edward Coughlin
- Also known as
- Father Coughlin · The Radio Priest
- Detroit years
- 1923–1979
- Field
- Press & broadcasting, Religion, Politics
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Born in Ontario, Coughlin transferred to the Archdiocese of Detroit in 1923 and in 1926 became founding pastor of the tiny Shrine of the Little Flower parish in Royal Oak, then a young suburb where the Ku Klux Klan had burned a cross on the church grounds. That year he began broadcasting sermons on Detroit's WJR, soon moving to a national network. By the early 1930s an estimated 30 million Americans tuned in to his Golden Hour. He built the parish's stone Charity Crucifixion Tower and a new church, founded the National Union for Social Justice in 1934, and turned from backing Franklin Roosevelt to attacking him. In the late 1930s his broadcasts and his magazine Social Justice spread antisemitic conspiracy theories and praise for fascist regimes; in 1942 church authorities silenced him. He remained pastor in Royal Oak until 1966 and died in Bloomfield Hills.
Highlights
- Founding pastor of the National Shrine of the Little Flower, Royal Oak (1926–1966)
- Began radio sermons on Detroit's WJR in 1926
- Peak audience estimated at 30 million listeners in the 1930s
- Founded the National Union for Social Justice (1934)
- Silenced by the church in 1942 after years of antisemitic broadcasts
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Founded · 1926–1966
National Shrine of the Little Flower Basilica
The parish he founded and led for forty years; his broadcasts came from here, and the Art Deco Charity Crucifixion Tower (1931) and church (1936) were built under him. Pope Benedict XVI made it a minor basilica in 2015.
Buried here · 1979
Holy Sepulchre Cemetery
The large Catholic cemetery in Southfield where he was buried in 1979.