Sam Francis (writer)

Sam Francis
Born
Samuel Todd Francis

(1947-04-29)April 29, 1947
Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S.
DiedFebruary 15, 2005(2005-02-15) (aged 57)
Cheverly, Maryland, U.S.
Resting placeForest Hills Cemetery, Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S.
Alma materJohns Hopkins University (BA in History)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (PhD in Modern History)
Occupations
  • Columnist
  • writer

Samuel Todd Francis (April 29, 1947 – February 15, 2005), known as Sam Francis, was an American white supremacist writer.[1][2][3][4][5] He was a columnist and editor for the conservative Washington Times until he was dismissed after making racist remarks at the 1995 American Renaissance conference.[6] Francis would later become a "dominant force" on the Council of Conservative Citizens, a white supremacist organization identified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.[6][7] Francis was chief editor of the council's newsletter, Citizens Informer, until his death in 2005.[7] White supremacist Jared Taylor called Francis "the premier philosopher of white racial consciousness of our time."[8]

Political scientist and writer George Michael, an expert on extremism, identified Francis as one of "the far right's higher-caliber intellectuals."[9] The Southern Poverty Law Center described Francis as an important white nationalist writer known for his "ubiquitous presence of his columns in racist forums and his influence over the general direction of right-wing extremism" in the United States.[7] Analyst Leonard Zeskind called Francis the "philosopher king" of the radical right,[7] writing that, "By any measure, Francis's white nationalism was as subtle as an eight-pound hammer pounding on a twelve inch I beam."[2] Scholar Chip Berlet described Francis as an ultraconservative ideologue akin to Pat Buchanan,[10] whom Francis advised.[11] Anarcho-capitalist political theorist Hans-Hermann Hoppe called Francis "one of the leading theoreticians and strategists of the Buchananite movement."[12]

  1. ^ "Sam Francis, Voice of the Radical Right, Dies Unexpectedly". Southern Poverty Law Center. April 28, 2005. Retrieved February 22, 2024. Sam Francis, a white supremacist writer and veteran of such publications as The Washington Times, the CCC's Citizens Informer, and The Occidental Quarterly, died in February 2005 at the age of 57.
  2. ^ a b Leonard Zeskind, Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement from the Margins to the Mainstream (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Balleck, Barry J. (2019). Hate Groups and Extremist Organizations in America: An Encyclopedia. United States: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9798216094685.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b Heidi Berich and Kevin Hicks, "White Nationalism in America" in Hate Crimes (ed. Barbara Perr: Praeger, 2009), pp. 112–13.
  7. ^ a b c d Extremist Files: Individuals: Sam Francis, Southern Poverty Law Center (last accessed May 5, 2017).
  8. ^ Taylor, J. (2005). Personal Recollections of Sam Francis. The Occidental Quarterly, 5(2), p. 55.
  9. ^ George Michael, Confronting Right Wing Extremism and Terrorism in the USA (Routledge, 2003), p. 51.
  10. ^ Chip Berlet, "Who Is Mediating the Storm?" in Media, Culture, and the Religious Right (eds. Linda Kintz & Julia Lesage: University of Minnesota Press, 1998), p. 251.
  11. ^ Michael Brendan Dougherty, How an obscure adviser to Pat Buchanan predicted the wild Trump campaign in 1996, The Week (January 19, 2016).
  12. ^ Hans-Hermann Hoppe, "The Intellectual Incoherence of Conservatism, Mises Daily, March 4, 2005.