{{Short description|Fascist paramilitary group (1933–1941)}} {{Use American English|date=May 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2026}} {{Infobox political party | name = Silver Legion of America | colorcode = #C0C0C0 | logo = 150px | lang1 = Other | name_lang1 = Silver Shirts | leader1_title = Leader | leader1_name = William Dudley Pelley<ref name="Life">{{cite book| title = William Dudley Pelley: A Life in Right-Wing Extremism and the Occult | last=Beekman |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=LDQRUDaivdAC&pg=PA81 | pages= 2–3, 80–81, 87, 94, 162, 174, 206|language = en |first = Scott |publisher = Syracuse University Press|isbn=978-0-8156-0819-6| date=2005-10-17 }}</ref> | foundation = {{Start date|1933|1|31}}<ref>Elliston, J. (2019, July 15). Asheville's Fascist. Retrieved from https://wncmagazine.com/feature/asheville’s_fascist </ref> | dissolved = {{End date|1941}} | headquarters = {{ubl| | Asheville, North Carolina<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/THR-SS1.PDF |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200721161821/http://www.ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/THR-SS1.PDF |access-date=July 21, 2020 |archive-date=July 21, 2020 |title=The Silver Shirts: Their History, Founder, and Activities |date=August 24, 1933 |url-status=dead }}</ref> | Murphy Ranch, California<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura/2014/02/27/murphy_ranch_in_rustic_canyon_los_angeles_is_an_abandoned_nazi_compound.html | title=The Would-Be Nazi Stronghold Hidden in the Hills of L.A. | date=27 February 2014 }}</ref> }} | affiliation1_title = Active regions | affiliation1 = Midwest and the PNW<ref>Lipset & Raab, pp. 162–64</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first1=Eckard V. Jr. |last1= Toy|journal=The Pacific Northwest Quarterly|volume= 80|issue= 4|date= 1989|pages= 139–146|title=Silver Shirts in the Northwest: Politics, Prophecies, and Personalities in the 1930s|jstor=40491076}}</ref> | ideology = {{ubl| | Esoteric fascism<ref name="academic.oup.com">{{cite journal | url=https://academic.oup.com/jah/article-abstract/93/2/572/831304 | doi=10.2307/4486338 | jstor=4486338 | title=William Dudley Pelley: A Life in Right-Wing Extremism and the Occult | journal=Journal of American History | date=September 2006 | volume=93 | issue=2 | pages=572–573 | last1=Toy | first1=Eckard V. | url-access=subscription }}</ref> | White supremacy<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lemmon |first1=Sarah McCulloh |date=December 1951 |title=The Ideology of the 'Dixiecrat' Movement |journal=Social Forces |volume=30 |issue=2 |pages=162–71 |doi=10.2307/2571628 |jstor=2571628}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web| title=From Nativism to White Power: Mid-Twentieth-Century White Supremacist Movements in Oregon | url=https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1162&context=geog_fac | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200507122404/https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1162&context=geog_fac | archive-date=2020-05-07}}</ref> | White nationalism<ref>{{cite journal|issn=1099-2731|last1=Lobb|first1=David|journal=Journal of Millennial Studies|url=http://www.mille.org/publications/winter2000/lobb.PDF|title=Fascist apocalypse: William Pelley and millennial extremism|date=1999|volume=2|issue=2|access-date=May 8, 2015|archive-date=May 15, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110515064508/http://www.mille.org/publications/winter2000/lobb.PDF|url-status=dead}}</ref> | Non-interventionism<ref name="americainwwii.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.americainwwii.com/articles/americans-for-hitler/|title=Americans for Hitler|last=Van Ells|first=Mark D.|date=August 2007|publisher=americainwwii.com|access-date=18 November 2012}}</ref> }} | position = Radical right<ref>David Brion Davis, ed. ''The Fear of Conspiracy: Images of Un-American Subversion from the Revolution to the present'' (1971) pp. xviii–xix</ref><ref name="Diamond, pp. 5-6">Diamond, pp. 5–6</ref> | colors = {{nowrap|{{color box|#C0C0C0|border=darkgray}} Silver {{color box|#CC0000|border=darkgray}} Scarlet {{color box|#0070B8|border=darkgray}} Blue}} | flag = border|200px | religion = Liberation Doctrine{{refn|Pelley's religious system was a mixture of theosophy, spiritualism, Rosicrucianism, and pyramidism. He considered it to be a perfected form of Christianity, in which "Dark Souls" (Jews, Communists and Papists) represented the forces of evil.<ref name="academic.oup.com">{{cite journal | url=https://academic.oup.com/jah/article-abstract/93/2/572/831304 | doi=10.2307/4486338 | jstor=4486338 | title=William Dudley Pelley: A Life in Right-Wing Extremism and the Occult | journal=Journal of American History | date=September 2006 | volume=93 | issue=2 | pages=572–573 | last1=Toy | first1=Eckard V. | url-access=subscription }}</ref>}} | slogan = "Loyalty, Liberation, and Legion" | anthem = "Battle Hymn of the Republic"<br />[{{Audio|Battle Hymn of the Republic, Frank C. Stanley, Elise Stevenson.ogg|1908 recording}}] | wing1_title = Publications | wing1 = Several magazines and newspapers{{refn|''Liberation'', ''Pelley's Silvershirt Weekly'', ''The Galilean,'' ''Silver Legion Ranger'', and ''The New Liberator''.}} | wing2_title = Political wing | wing2 = Christian Party<ref>{{Cite book | publisher = UNC Press Books | isbn = 978-0807846384 | last = Barkun | first = Michael | title = Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement | year = 1997 | page = 91 }}</ref> | membership = {{approx}} 15,000 ({{circa}} 1934)<ref name="Silver Shirts">{{Cite web|url=http://holocaustonline.org/silver-shirts/|title=Silver Shirts|website=Holocaust Online|access-date=14 November 2017 |url-status=usurped|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20171115083449/http://holocaustonline.org/silver-shirts/ |archivedate=15 November 2017}}</ref><ref name="Bernstein">{{Cite web|url=http://www.thehistoryreader.com/modern-history/6-things-may-known-nazis-america/|title=6 Things You May Not Have Known About Nazis in America|last=Bernstein|first=Arnie|date=October 7, 2013|website=The History Reader|access-date=November 14, 2017}}</ref> | country = the United States }}
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.<ref>[http://www.ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/THR-SS1.PDF "The Silver Shirts: Their History, Founder, and Activities"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130216224322/http://www.ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/THR-SS1.PDF |date=2013-02-16 }}. August 24, 1933</ref>
==History== Pelley was a former journalist, novelist and screenwriter turned spiritualist who began to promote antisemitic views by 1931, including the belief that Jews were possessed by demons.<ref name=atwood/> He formed the Silver Legion with the goal of bringing about a "spiritual and political renewal", inspired by the success of Adolf Hitler's Nazi movement in Germany.<ref name=atwood/>
A nationalist, fascist group,<ref name="americainwwii.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.americainwwii.com/articles/americans-for-hitler/|title=Americans for Hitler|last=Van Ells|first=Mark D.|date=August 2007|publisher=americainwwii.com|access-date=18 November 2012}}</ref> the paramilitary Silver Legion wore a uniform modeled after the Nazis' brown shirts (SA),<ref name=atwood/> consisting of a silver shirt with a blue tie, along with a campaign hat and blue corduroy trousers with leggings. The uniform shirts bore a scarlet letter ''L'' over the heart, which according to Pelley was "standing for Love, Loyalty, and Liberation."<ref name=atwood/> The organizational flag was a plain silver field with a red ''L'' in the canton on the upper left hand corner. By 1934, the Legion claimed that it had 15,000 members.<ref name="Silver Shirts"/>
Legion leader Pelley called for the establishment of a "Christian Commonwealth" in America, a government that would combine the principles of fascism, theocracy, and socialism, along with the exclusion of Jews and non-whites.<ref name="Silver Shirts" /> 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 up as the dictator of the United States. He would be called "the Chief", a title which would be analogous to the titles used by other fascist leaders, such as "Der Führer" for Adolf Hitler and "Il Duce" for Benito Mussolini.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/clarke/1934/01/pelley.htm|title=Pelley's Silver Shirts|access-date=November 14, 2017}}</ref> However, the Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt was re-elected, and Pelley failed to appear in the top four. By around 1937, the Silver Legion's membership had declined to about 5,000.<ref name="Bernstein">{{Cite web|url=http://www.thehistoryreader.com/modern-history/6-things-may-known-nazis-america/|title=6 Things You May Not Have Known About Nazis in America|last=Bernstein|first=Arnie|date=October 7, 2013|website=The History Reader|access-date=November 14, 2017}}</ref> In 1936, a small Silver Shirt office was established in downtown Spokane.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.historylink.org/File/8641|title=Melee breaks out during a speech by the leader of the fascist Silver Shirts organization in downtown Spokane on July 18, 1938.|access-date=June 1, 2023}}</ref> About 200 members participated before the group's end.
When the Silver Shirts tried to hold a rally at the Elks Club in Minneapolis, the meeting was interrupted by senior local Jewish-American organized crime figure David Berman.<ref>Neil Karlen (2013), ''Augie's Secrets: The Minneapolis Mob and the King of the Hennepin Strip'', ''Minnesota Historical Society Press'', pp. 97–98.</ref>
Pelley disbanded the organization soon after the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.<ref name=atwood>{{cite journal|last1=Atwood|first1=Sarah|title='This List Not Complete': Minnesota's Jewish Resistance to the Silver Legion of America, 1936–1940|url=https://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/66/v66i04p142-155.pdf|date=Winter 2018–2019|journal=Minnesota History|volume=66|issue=4|pages=142–155|access-date=2022-01-12|archive-date=2023-04-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230421094201/https://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/66/v66i04p142-155.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>
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.<ref>Associated Press, "Pelley of Silver Shirts Must Serve Prison Term," The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Wednesday 21 January 1942, Volume 48, page 1.</ref> For claiming that the devastation of the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor was worse than the government claimed, Pelley was arrested by federal authorities and sentenced to 15 years in prison for sedition and conspiracy to commit sedition, including for making seditious statements, obstructing military recruiting, and fomenting insurrection within the military.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Imperial Valley Press 6 August 1942 — California Digital Newspaper Collection |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=IVP19420806.2.32&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-------- |access-date=2023-10-16 |website=cdnc.ucr.edu}}</ref>
==See also== * Christian Party (United States, 1930s) * German American Bund * Political uniform * Ulrich Fleischhauer
==References== '''Notes''' {{reflist}}
'''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. * {{cite journal|last1=Atwood|first1=Sarah|title='This List Not Complete': Minnesota's Jewish Resistance to the Silver Legion of America, 1936–1940|url=https://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/66/v66i04p142-155.pdf|date=Winter 2018–2019|journal=Minnesota History|volume=66|issue=4|pages=142–155|access-date=2022-01-12|archive-date=2023-04-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230421094201/https://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/66/v66i04p142-155.pdf|url-status=dead}} * 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== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20110928181512/http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/392/silverlegionpg63.png Photo of a Silver Legion of America meeting in the 1930s] * The Holocaust Chronicle: [http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/StaticPages/89.html Prologue: Roots of the Holocaust, p. 89] * [https://ajcarchives.org/Portal/Default/en-US/RecordView/Index/350 The American Jewish Committees' archive on the Silver Shirts] * [http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/murphy-ranch ''Atlas Obscura'' article on Rustic Canyon's Murphy Ranch]
{{Fascism}} {{Authority control}}
Category:1933 establishments in the United States Category:1941 disestablishments in the United States Category:Antisemitism in the United States Category:Anti-black racism in the United States Category:American collaborators with Nazi Germany Category:Asheville, North Carolina Category:Christian fascism Category:Christian nationalism in the United States Category:Clothing in politics Category:Collaboration with Nazi Germany Category:Fascist organizations in the United States Category:Organizations established in 1933 Category:Organizations disestablished in 1941 Category:Political parties established in 1933 Category:Right-wing militia organizations in the United States Category:Social history of the United States Category:White supremacist groups in the United States