Father Charles Edward Coughlin
Father Charles Edward Coughlin was a Roman Catholic priest and influential radio broadcaster in the early 20th century. Ordained in 1916, he became well-known for his weekly radio program, which he began in 1926 to raise funds for his parish in Royal Oaks, Michigan. Coughlin's broadcasts gained immense popularity, with an estimated thirty million listeners at its peak, particularly during the Great Depression. Initially an advocate for regulated capitalism to combat the economic crisis, his views became increasingly political and controversial over time.
Coughlin was known for his vehement opposition to communism and later adopted anti-Semitic rhetoric, claiming that Jewish financiers were responsible for various societal issues, including the Depression and the onset of World War II. His flirtation with fascism and accusations against prominent figures, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt, led to a decline in his influence. By 1942, under pressure from both the Roosevelt Administration and the Catholic Church, Coughlin was ordered to cease his nonreligious broadcasts, ultimately returning to a more conventional role as a parish priest. His complex legacy reflects the intersection of religion, media, and political thought in America during a tumultuous period.
Subject Terms
Father Charles Edward Coughlin
Identification: Roman Catholic priest and radio broadcaster during the 1930’s
Significance: Coughlin’s outspoken expression of his political views and his anti-Semitic views led to his losing his radio programs on both network and independent stations
Ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1916, Father Coughlin was assigned to Saint Theresa Parish in Royal Oaks, Michigan, in 1926. After he arrived at his new parish, the local Ku Klux Klan burnt a cross in his lawn as a hate warning. As a countermeasure, Coughlin arranged for baseball great Babe Ruth to speak at his church. Encouraged by the publicity that he received at this event, and needing to raise money for his church, Coughlin started a weekly program on radio station WJR in Detroit. By 1929 stations in Chicago and Cincinnati had added his Sunday program.
The advent of the Great Depression resulted in Coughlin’s adopting stronger political perspectives on the air. Adamantly anticommunist, he believed that the best way to fight godless communism was for capitalism to provide decent standards of living for all workers. In 1930 the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) began broadcasting Coughlin’s Sunday afternoon program, “Golden Hour of the Little Flower,” across the nation. As many as thirty million Americans were estimated to listen to his program.
Coughlin supported capitalism, but believed that it needed to be regulated by government for the betterment of all. He was particularly vocal about the evils of international bankers as the cause of the Depression. In January, 1931, he planned to charge that the Treaty of Versailles would lead Europe into another war. CBS vice president Edward Klauber asked Coughlin to tone down his broadcasts, especially on his upcoming Sunday topic. Coughlin assured CBS that he would have an entirely different topic that next Sunday. On January 4, 1931, Coughlin devoted his entire hour on national radio exposing CBS’s attempt to censor him. Over a million people wrote letters of protest to embarrassed CBS stations nationwide. Outraged by Coughlin’s actions, CBS refused to renew his contract the following spring. Coughlin attempted to buy time on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) but was also turned down. Despite his later attempts to get on a national network, neither NBC nor CBS would ever agree to broadcast his radio programs again.
Using money sent in by his listeners, Coughlin built his own network of forty-three independent radio stations in the late 1930’s. He then became increasingly anti-Semitic, viewing the international communist movement as Jewish-financed and inspired. He flirted with fascism by saying that the Nazis were effectively stopping communism, and he began to charge that President Franklin D. Roosevelt was a communist sympathizer. Coughlin’s message of hate eventually took its toll on listeners, and gradually his popularity declined. After the start of World War II, Coughlin continued to extol the theory that international Jewish bankers were the cause of the war. The Roosevelt Administration put pressure on the Catholic church to censor his broadcasts. On May 1, 1942, Archbishop Edward Mooney ordered Coughlin to terminate all nonreligious activities. Coughlin spent the remainder of his life as a parish priest in Royal Oaks, Michigan.