Politics / Law
Charles Bowles
1884–1957 · lawyer, judge, mayor of Detroit
Klan-backed candidate who nearly won the 1924 mayoral race as a write-in, later became mayor in 1930 and was recalled within six months amid charges of tolerating crime.
- Born
Yale, Michigan- Died
aged 73- Birth name
- Charles E. Bowles
- Also known as
- Charles E. Bowles
- Detroit years
- 1909–1957
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Charles Bowles came from the Thumb town of Yale, studied at Ferris Institute and the University of Michigan law school, and began practicing in Detroit in 1909. He burst out of obscurity in the 1924 special election for mayor with the open support of the Ku Klux Klan, then at its peak in Detroit. Eliminated in the primary, he ran as a write-in and nearly won, losing only after some 15,000 ballots were disqualified; he lost again in 1925. He then became a judge of the Recorder's Court, resigned in 1929 to run for mayor and this time won, beating John C. Lodge and John W. Smith. Promising a crackdown on crime, he instead fired Police Commissioner Harold Emmons after a series of raids and was accused of tolerating lawlessness. Voters recalled him in July 1930; on recall night radio commentator Jerry Buckley, a leading critic, was shot dead. Bowles lost the next election to Frank Murphy and never regained office.
Highlights
- Mayor of Detroit, January–September 1930
- First Detroit mayor removed by recall (1930)
- Nearly won the 1924 mayoral race as a Klan-backed write-in
- Judge of Detroit's Recorder's Court in the late 1920s
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
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.
Buried here · 1957
Evergreen Cemetery
Detroit cemetery where he is buried.