Reverend Charles Edward Coughlin, radio orator, publisher of the magazine Social Justice, and head of the political organization the National Union for Social Justice was one of the most influential media personalities in America during the 1930s. His speeches and writings were often antisemitic, anti-communist, anti-socialist, and anti-capitalist, and his ability to engage the American people gained him popularity and influence. However, a change in public opinion in WWII-era America forced the end of his media career.

Coughlin was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, on October 25, 1891. Coughlin attended St. Michael’s College in 1911 before studying for the priesthood at St. Basil’s Seminary. During his preparation, Coughlin was introduced to the Pope Leo XIII encyclical, On the Condition of the Working Class (1891), which advocated for social justice rooted in Catholic thought, and for the eradication of socialism and the excesses of capitalism. These ideas became the foundation for Coughlin’s later arguments against socialist and capitalist practices. Upon ordination in 1916, Coughlin taught at Assumption College in Windsor, Ontario, until 1922. Then, he was assigned to a small parish in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and was later placed at the Shrine of the Little Flower Church in Royal Oaks, Michigan, in 1926. He would serve this parish until his retirement in 1966.

The radio program that brought Fr. Coughlin to the national public stage began as a response to a Ku Klux Klan cross burning at the Little Flower Church. Coughlin believed that if he could explain Christian teachings to the local community, he could eliminate these types of incidents. His show first aired on October 3, 1926, and was designed to teach the Catholic faith to children. However, it soon attracted a broader audience, and CBS network broadcasted the program nationally in 1930. During the Great Depression, Coughlin shifted the focus of his radio sermons to political and economic topics. Show content centered on the evils of socialism and communism, the greed of capitalism, and the need for equalizing reforms. Appealing to the sentiments of the public, Coughlin’s fame spread. The House of Representatives came to recognize him as an expert on communism and invited Coughlin to address the Committee to Investigate Communist Activities.

In 1931, Coughlin began to criticize the Hoover Administration for its failure to address the economic crisis, and CBS refused to renew his contract due to his inflammatory tone. Unhindered, Coughlin organized his own network that eventually grew to 47 stations, with an estimated audience of 3.5 million per week. Coughlin's radio sermons initially supported Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal, and he advocated for nationalizing the gold standard, seizing federal control over the banking system, restructuring the Federal Reserve, and adopting a form of corporatism analogous to the system found in fascist Italy. By 1934, Coughlin had a strong following of supporters, which he organized into the political group the National Union of Social Justice (later called the Christian Front).

From 1936 until 1941, Coughlin’s popularity grew. His weekly radio sermons promoted an isolationist foreign policy and Coughlin came to endorse the group America First. Coughlin’s speeches directly appealed to the tenets of the time and played on the fears and concerns of the American people. Many of his supporters were among those who decried the Asylum Laws, which permitted Jewish refugees to enter America.

His program became increasingly anti-Semitic; Coughlin blamed Jewish bankers for the Russian Revolution, Marxist atheism, the Great Depression, and for trying to bring America into a European war. In 1936, Coughlin began to publish the magazine Social Justice, which frequently contained anti-Semitic rhetoric. (The title, Social Justice, refers to a concept originating with Pope Leo XIII that by implementing social justice based on Christian principles, communism and capitalism can be eradicated.) In addition, he voiced sympathy for Hitler and Mussolini, who he viewed as bulwarks against the Soviet Union’s spread of communism. At first, Coughlin’s stance drew in substantial public approval, but the changing international climate eventually hampered his influence.

Starting in 1934, the Roosevelt Administration and prominent Catholic figures tried to restrict Coughlin on the radio, but even with new regulations to restrict the First Amendment’s protection of free speech, Coughlin was able to circumvent many of these stipulations. However, after incendiary anti-Semitic speeches, many radio stations refused to broadcast his programs, while other networks mandated Coughlin follow pre-approved scripts. In 1939, the Code Committee of the National Association of Broadcasting responded to the invasion of Poland by limiting radio shows that centered on controversial public issues. This regulation severely restricted the content of Coughlin’s shows.

Coughlin continued to publish Social Justice throughout the 1930s and into the early 1940s. However, due to its content coming to be identified as “pro-Axis propaganda” during World War II, the magazine was investigated by Attorney General Francis Biddle in April of 1942. Under the Espionage Act, the magazine was suspended of its second-class mailing privilege by the United States Post Office, effectively halting its distribution to subscribers.

The final blow to Coughlin’s influence came in 1942. Archbishop of Detroit Edward Francis Mooney ordered Coughlin to abandon the airwaves, stop production of Social Justice, and return to his parish duties. Although Coughlin was forced to comply, he continued to write a number of pamphlets during the 1950s and 1960s in which he condemned communism. Coughlin remained pastor of the Shrine of the Little Flower until his retirement in 1966. Father Charles E. Coughlin passed away in Bloomfield, Michigan, on October 27, 1979.