Frank Collin | |
|---|---|
.jpeg) Collins giving a press conference in 1978 | |
| 1st President of the National Socialist Party of America | |
| In office 1970–1977 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Harold Covington |
| Personal details | |
| Born | November 3, 1944 Chicago, Illinois |
| Political party | National Socialist Party of America (1970–1977) |
| Other political affiliations | American Nazi (c. 1960s) |
| Profession | Political activist, New Age author |
| Part of a series on |
| Neo-fascism |
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Francis Joseph Collin (born November 3, 1944) is an American former political activist and Midwest coordinator with the American Nazi Party, later known as the National Socialist White People's Party. After being ousted for being partly Jewish (which he denied), in 1970, Collin founded the National Socialist Party of America. (N.S.P.A.)[1] In the late 1970s, his planned march in the predominantly Jewish suburb of Skokie, Illinois was challenged; however, the American Civil Liberties Union defended Collin's group's freedom of speech and assembly in a case that reached the United States Supreme Court to correct procedural deficiencies. Specifically, the necessity of immediate appellate review of orders restraining the exercise of First Amendment rights was strongly emphasized in National Socialist Party v. Village of Skokie, 432 U.S. 43 (1977). Afterward, the Illinois Supreme Court held that the party had a right to march and to display swastikas, despite local opposition, based on the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Collin then offered a compromise, offering to march in Chicago's Marquette Park (where Martin Luther King had been attacked in 1966) instead of Skokie.[2][3] After Collin was convicted and sentenced in 1979 for child molestation, he lost his position in the party.[4][5]
After being released early on parole from prison, Collin created a new career as a writer, publishing numerous books under the pen name Frank Joseph. He wrote New Age and hyperdiffusionist works supporting the pseudoarchaeological idea that Old World peoples had migrated to North America in ancient times and created its complex societies of indigenous peoples. This thesis is rejected by mainstream scholars.
- ^ Wheaton, Elizabeth (1988). Codename GREENKILL: The 1979 Greensboro Killings. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press. pp. 3–4. ISBN 978-0820309354.
- ^ Grossman, Ron (10 March 2017). "'Swastika war': When the neo-Nazis fought in court to march in Skokie". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
- ^ Berlet, Chip (2001). Dobratz, Betty A.; Walder, Lisa K.; Buzzell, Timothy (eds.). "Hate Groups, Racial Tension and Ethnoviolence in an Integrating Chicago Neighborhood 1976–1988". Research in Political Sociology. 9. Bingley, West Yorkshire, England: Emerald Group Publishing: 117–163. doi:10.1016/S0895-9935(01)80010-3. ISBN 9780762307562.
- ^ Kaplan, Jeffrey (2000). Encyclopedia of White Power: A Sourcebook on the Radical Racist Right. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 62. ISBN 9780742503403. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
- ^ Steiger, Brad; Steiger, Sherry (2012). Conspiracies and Secret Societies: The Complete Dossier (2nd ed.). Detroit, Michigan: Visible Ink Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-1578593682.
In 1979 Collin's ambition to lead a new Nazi America was thwarted when he was arrested, convicted, and sent to prison on child molestation charges.