Bishop John Samuel Foley
From 1888 until 1918, Bishop John Samuel Foley headed the Catholic diocese of Detroit. As Detroit’s first American bishop, his 30 years of leadership remains the longest for the Archdiocese of Detroit. Immigration to Detroit during this period was very heavy, not only from Europe, but also from the American South, to meet the labor needs of the rapidly expanding automotive industry.
Bishop Foley established the first black Catholic parish, St. Peter Claver, in 1911, although chapels and missions for black Catholics had existed since the late 1870s.
