The Silver Legion of America, commonly known as the Silver Shirts, was an underground American fascist and

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

sympathizer organization founded by

William Dudley Pelley William Dudley Pelley (March 12, 1890 – June 30, 1965) was an American fascist leader, occultist, spiritualist and writer. Pelley came to prominence as a writer, winning two O. Henry Awards and penning screenplays for Hollywood films. His ...

and headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina.

History

Pelley was a former journalist, novelist and screenwriter turned spiritualist who, by 1931, had begun to promote antisemitic views, asserting that Jews were possessed by demons. He formed the Silver Legion with the goal to bring about "spiritual and political renewal", inspired by the success of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

's Nazi movement in Germany. A

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

, fascist group, the paramilitary Silver Legion wore a uniform modeled after the Nazi's

brown shirts The (; SA; literally "Storm Detachment") was the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. It played a significant role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s. Its primary purposes were providing protection for Nazi ralli ...

(SA), consisting of a

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

shirt with a blue tie, along with a

campaign hat A campaign hat, sometimes called campaign cover, is a broad-brimmed felt or straw hat, with a high crown, pinched symmetrically at the four corners. The campaign hat is occasionally referred to as a Stetson, derived from its origin in the company ...

and blue

corduroy Corduroy is a textile with a distinctively raised "cord" or wale texture. Modern corduroy is most commonly composed of tufted cords, sometimes exhibiting a channel (bare to the base fabric) between them. Both velvet and corduroy derive from fu ...

trousers with

leggings Leggings are several types of leg attire that have varied through the years. Modern usage from the 1960s onwards has come to refer to elastic close-fitting high-rise garments worn over the legs typically by women, such as leg warmers or tights ...

. The uniform shirts bore a scarlet letter ''L'' over the heart, which according to Pelley was "standing for Love, Loyalty, and Liberation." The blocky

slab serif In typography, a slab serif (also called ''mechanistic'', ''square serif'', ''antique'' or ''Egyptian'') typeface is a type of serif typeface characterized by thick, block-like serifs. Serif terminals may be either blunt and angular ( Rockwell), ...

''L''-emblem was in a

typeface A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font. There are thousands o ...

similar to the present-day Rockwell Extra Bold. The organizational flag was a plain silver field with such a red ''L'' in the canton at the upper left. By 1934, the Legion claimed 15,000 members. Legion leader Pelley called for a "Christian Commonwealth" in America that would combine the principles of nationalism and theocracy, while excluding Jews and non-whites. He claimed he would save America from Jewish communists just as "Mussolini and his Black Shirts saved Italy and as Hitler and his Brown Shirts saved Germany." Pelley ran in the 1936 presidential election on a third-party ticket under the Christian Party banner. Pelley hoped to seize power in a "silver revolution" and set himself as dictator of the United States. He would be called "the Chief" just like other fascist world leaders who had similar titles such "Der

Führer ( ; , spelled or ''Fuhrer'' when the umlaut is not available) is a German word meaning "leader" or " guide". As a political title, it is strongly associated with the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. Nazi Germany cultivated the ("leader princip ...

" for

and "II Duce" for Benito Mussolini. However, the Democratic President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

handily won the reelection, and Pelley failed to figure among the top four. By around 1937, the Silver Legion's membership had declined to about 5,000. Pelley disbanded the organization after the December 1941

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...

. On January 20, 1942, Pelley was sentenced to serve two to three years in prison by Superior Court Judge F. Don Phillips, in Asheville, North Carolina, for violating terms of probation of a 1935 conviction for violating North Carolina security laws. The same sentence had been suspended pending good behavior, but the court found that during that period Pelley had published false and libelous statements, published inaccurate reports and advertising, and supported a secret military organization.

In popular culture

Sinclair Lewis Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was ...

's novel ''

It Can't Happen Here ''It Can't Happen Here'' is a 1935 dystopian political novel by American author Sinclair Lewis. It describes the rise of a United States dictator similar to how Adolf Hitler gained power. The novel was adapted into a play by Lewis and John C. Mo ...

'' depicts a fascist takeover of the United States by an anti-Roosevelt demagogue who claims inspiration from the Silver Legion of America. *The grand strategy game ''

Hearts of Iron IV ''Hearts of Iron IV'', also known as HOI4, is a grand strategy computer wargame developed by Paradox Development Studio and published by Paradox Interactive. It was released worldwide on 6 June 2016. It is the sequel to 2009's '' Hearts of Iron ...

'' depicts the Silver Legion as its fascist archetype of the United States, as the Free American Empire.

References

Notes Further reading * Allen, Joe "'It Can't Happen Here?': Confronting the Fascist Threat in the US in the Late 1930s," ''International Socialist Review,'' Part One: whole no. 85 (Sept.-Oct. 2012), pp. 26–35; Part Two: whole no. 87 (Jan.-Feb. 2013), pp. 19–28. * * Ribuffo, Leo Paul ''The Old Christian Right: The Protestant Far Right from the Great Depression to the Cold War.'' Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1983. * Spivak, John L. ''Secret Armies: The New Technique of Nazi Warfare.'' New York: Modern Age Books, 1939. * Werly, John ''The Millenarian Right: William Dudley Pelley and the Silver Legion of America.'' PhD dissertation. Syracuse University, 1972. * Yeadon, Glen. ''The Nazi Hydra in America.'' Joshua Tree, CA: Progressive Press, 2008.

External links

Photo of a Silver Legion of America meeting in the 1930s:
* The Holocaust Chronicle

The American Jewish Committees' archive on the Silver Shirts:

''Atlas Obscura'' article on Rustic Canyon's Murphy Ranch
{{Authority control 1933 establishments in the United States 1941 disestablishments in the United States American fascist movements Antisemitism in the United States Asheville, North Carolina Clothing in politics Organizations established in 1933 Organizations disestablished in 1941 Paramilitary organizations based in the United States Political parties established in 1933 Social history of the United States White supremacist groups in the United States

History

In popular culture

See also

References

External links