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

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