Silver Legion of America

Silver Legion of America
Other nameSilver Shirts
LeaderWilliam Dudley Pelley[1]
FoundedJanuary 31, 1933 (1933-01-31)[2]
Dissolved1941
HeadquartersAsheville, North Carolina[3]
Publications • Liberation
 • Pelley's Silvershirt Weekly
 • The Galilean
 • The New Liberator
Political wingChristian Party[4][5]
Membership15,000 (c. 1934)[6][7]
100,000 (claimed)[8]
IdeologyChristian fascism
Clerical fascism[9]
Racial segregation[10]
White nationalism[11]
Non-interventionism[12]
Political positionRadical right[13][14]
Far-right
ReligionChristianity
Active regionsSmall communities in the Midwest and small communities in the Pacific Northwest[15][16] Murphy Ranch, California (rumored)[17]
Colors  Silver,   scarlet and   blue
Slogan"Loyalty, Liberation, and Legion"
Anthem"Battle Hymn of the Republic"
Party flag
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The Silver Legion of America, commonly known as the Silver Shirts, was an American fascist and pro-Nazi organization which was founded by William Dudley Pelley and headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina.[18]

  1. ^ Beekman, Scott (2005-10-17). William Dudley Pelley: A Life in Right-Wing Extremism and the Occult. Syracuse University Press. pp. 2–3, 80–81, 87, 94, 162, 174, 206. ISBN 978-0-8156-0819-6.
  2. ^ Elliston, J. (2019, July 15). Asheville's Fascist. Retrieved from https://wncmagazine.com/feature/asheville’s_fascist
  3. ^ "The Silver Shirts: Their History, Founder, and Activities" (PDF). August 24, 1933. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 21, 2020. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  4. ^ Schultz, Will (2020). William Dudley Pelley (1885–1965). North Carolina History Project.
  5. ^ Barkun, Michael (1997). Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement. UNC Press Books. p. 91. ISBN 978-0807846384.
  6. ^ "Silver Shirts". Holocaust Online. Archived from the original on 15 November 2017. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  7. ^ Bernstein, Arnie (October 7, 2013). "6 Things You May Not Have Known About Nazis in America". The History Reader. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
  8. ^ Schultz, Will (7 March 2016). "William Dudley Pelley (1885–1965)". North Carolina History Project. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
  9. ^ Schultz, Will (7 March 2016). "William Dudley Pelley (1885–1965)". North Carolina History Project. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
  10. ^ Lemmon, Sarah McCulloh (December 1951). "The Ideology of the 'Dixiecrat' Movement". Social Forces. 30 (2): 162–71. doi:10.2307/2571628. JSTOR 2571628.
  11. ^ Lobb, David (1999). "Fascist apocalypse: William Pelley and millennial extremism" (PDF). Journal of Millennial Studies. 2 (2). ISSN 1099-2731. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 15, 2011. Retrieved May 8, 2015.
  12. ^ Van Ells, Mark D. (August 2007). "Americans for Hitler". americainwwii.com. Retrieved 18 November 2012.
  13. ^ David Brion Davis, ed. The Fear of Conspiracy: Images of Un-American Subversion from the Revolution to the present (1971) pp. xviii–xix
  14. ^ Diamond, pp. 5–6
  15. ^ Lipset & Raab, pp. 162–64
  16. ^ Toy, Eckard V. Jr. (1989). "Silver Shirts in the Northwest: Politics, Prophecies, and Personalities in the 1930s". The Pacific Northwest Quarterly. 80 (4): 139–146. JSTOR 40491076.
  17. ^ "The Would-Be Nazi Stronghold Hidden in the Hills of L.A." 27 February 2014.
  18. ^ "The Silver Shirts: Their History, Founder, and Activities" Archived 2020-07-21 at the Wayback Machine. August 24, 1933