George Lincoln Rockwell
George Lincoln Rockwell | |
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1st Commander of the American Nazi Party | |
In office March 1959 – August 25, 1967 | |
Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by | Matthias Koehl |
1st Leader of the World Union of National Socialists | |
In office 1962 – August 25, 1967 | |
Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by | Matthias Koehl |
Personal details | |
Born | Bloomington, Illinois, U.S. | March 9, 1918
Died | August 25, 1967 Arlington County, Virginia, U.S. | (aged 49)
Manner of death | Assassination by gunshot |
Political party | American Nazi Party |
Spouses |
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Children | 7 |
Military service | |
Allegiance | United States |
Branch/service | United States Navy |
Years of service | 1941–1960 |
Rank | Commander |
Battles/wars | |
Awards |
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Part of a series on |
Antisemitism |
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Category |
George Lincoln Rockwell (March 9, 1918 – August 25, 1967) was an American fascist activist and founder of the
Born in Bloomington, Illinois, Rockwell briefly studied philosophy at Brown University before dropping out to join the Navy. He trained as a pilot and served in World War II and the Korean War in non-combat roles, achieving the rank of Commander. Rockwell's politics grew more radical and vocal in the 1950s, and he was honorably discharged due to his views in 1960.
In politics, he regularly praised
On August 25, 1967, Rockwell was shot and killed in
Biography
Early life
Rockwell was born in
Rockwell attended Atlantic City High School in Atlantic City, and applied to Harvard University when he was 17 years old. However, he was denied admission. One year later, his father enrolled him at Hebron Academy in Hebron, Maine.[6]
In August 1938, Rockwell enrolled at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, as a philosophy major.[5] In his sophomore year, Rockwell dropped out of Brown University and accepted a commission in the United States Navy.[5]
Military service
Rockwell appreciated the order and discipline of the Navy, and attended flight schools in Massachusetts and Florida in 1940. When he completed his training, he served in the
On April 24, 1943, Rockwell married Judith Aultman, whom he had met while attending Brown University.
After the war ended, Rockwell worked as a sign painter out of a small shop on land owned by his father in
In 1950, Rockwell was recalled to duty as a lieutenant commander at the beginning of the Korean War. He moved to San Diego with his wife and three children, where he trained pilots in the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps.[5]
Privately, during his time in San Diego, Rockwell became an advocate of
In November 1952, Rockwell was transferred to
In September 1955 in Washington, D.C., he launched U.S. Lady, a magazine for United States servicemen's wives. The magazine incorporated Rockwell's political causes: his opposition to both racial integration and communism. The publication had financial problems and he sold the magazine. However, he still aspired to pursue a career in publishing.
When I was in the advertising game, we used to use
nude women. Now I use the swastika and storm troopers. You use what brings them in.
—George Lincoln Rockwell[7]
Early political activities
After his move to Washington, D.C., in 1955, he gradually became radicalised until, in the words of his biographer, he was "on the farthest fringe of the right wing."[1] In 1957–1958, Rockwell had a series of dreams that ended with him meeting Hitler.[1]
In 1958, Rockwell met Harold Noel Arrowsmith Jr., a wealthy heir and antisemite who provided Rockwell with a house and printing equipment. They formed the National Committee to Free America from Jewish Domination.[11]
On July 29, 1958, Rockwell demonstrated in front of the White House in an anti-war protest against President
Rockwell gained notoriety after Drew Pearson wrote an article describing how Rockwell and his followers dressed in uniforms, armed themselves with guns, and paraded at his home in Arlington County, Virginia.[14]
American Nazi Party
In March 1959, Rockwell founded the World Union of Free Enterprise National Socialists (WUFENS), a name selected to denote opposition to state ownership of property. In December 1959, the organization was renamed the American Nazi Party (later the National Socialist White People's Party, NSWPP), and its headquarters was relocated to 928 North Randolph Street in Arlington, which also became Rockwell's home.[7]
In 1959, he published an Animal Farm-type parody, the long-form poem and children's book The Fable of the Ducks and the Hens.[15]
In 1960, as a result of his political activities, the Navy discharged Rockwell one year short of retirement because he was regarded as "not deployable" due to his political views. The proceedings to dismiss him were an extremely public affair. Even though he received an
On January 15, 1961, Rockwell and a fellow Nazi Party member attempted to picket the local premiere of the film Exodus at the Saxon Theatre in Downtown Boston on Tremont Street while staying at the Hotel Touraine. After Boston Mayor John F. Collins declined to deny Rockwell the right to picket, members of the local Jewish community organized a counterdemonstration of 2,000 protestors in response on the corner of Tremont and Boylston Streets on the day of the premiere, which forced police to converge on the theater and force Rockwell into a police cruiser that took him to Logan International Airport where Rockwell was then boarded onto a flight to Washington, D.C.[19]
In early 1962, Rockwell planned a rally to celebrate Hitler's birthday on April 20. In the summer, he attended a camp organized by British Neo-Nazi Colin Jordan in Gloucestershire where they organized the World Union of National Socialists. In September, he awarded one of his members a medal for punching Martin Luther King Jr. in the face.[1]
In the 1964 United States presidential election, Rockwell ran as a write-in candidate, receiving 212 votes.[20] He ran as an independent in the 1965 Virginia gubernatorial election, receiving 5,730 votes, or 1.02% of the total, finishing last among the four candidates.[21]
In the summer of 1966, Rockwell led a counter-demonstration against King's attempt to bring an end to de facto segregation in the white Chicago suburb of Cicero, Illinois. He believed that King was a tool for Jewish Communists who wanted to integrate America.[22] Rockwell believed that integration was a Jewish plot to rule the white community.[5] Rockwell led the American Nazi Party in assisting the Ku Klux Klan and similar organizations during the civil rights movement, in attempts to counter the Freedom Riders and the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. But he soon came to believe that the Klan was stuck in the past and ineffective in helping him wage a modern racial struggle.
In 1966, after hearing the slogan "
In the spring of 1966, the party began publication of several pamphlets and books, including National Socialist World edited by William Luther Pierce,[1] writings by Rockwell, the periodical Stormtrooper Magazine (originally National Socialist Bulletin), and a propaganda comic book, Here Comes Whiteman!, where the title superhero character battles enemies modeled after racist stereotypes.
In November 1966, the American Civil Liberties Union once again represented Rockwell, defending his right to stage marches or parades in Jewish neighborhoods during Jewish holidays.[24]
Offices
The two-story farm house Rockwell established as his "Stormtrooper Barracks" was located at 6150 Wilson Boulevard in the Dominion Hills Historic District. It was there that the interview with Alex Haley for Playboy occurred. The house has since been razed, and the property has been incorporated into Upton Hill Regional Park. A small pavilion with picnic tables marks the house's former location.
The site of the party headquarters, 928 North Randolph Street in
Record label
In the 1960s, Rockwell attempted to draw attention to his cause by starting a small record label, named Hatenanny Records. The name was based on the word "hootenanny", a term given to folk music performances. The label released a 45 RPM single by a band called Odis Cochran and the Three Bigots with the songs "Ship Those Niggers Back" and "We Is Non-Violent Niggers", and a second single by a group called the Coon Hunters: "We Don't Want No Niggers For Neighbors" backed with "Who Needs A Nigger?" They were sold mostly through mail order and at party rallies.[30]
Hate bus
When the
Black separatism
Rockwell worked with
Inspired by Black Muslims' use of religion to mobilize people, Rockwell sought collaboration with Christian Identity groups. On June 10, 1964, he met with and formed an alliance with Identity minister Wesley A. Swift. Rockwell used religious imagery, depicting himself as a Christ-like martyr against the Jews. Nazis found a welcome home in Swift's church and church members found a political outlet in the American Nazi Party.[7]
Holocaust denial
Rockwell was a
Death
On August 25, 1967, Rockwell was shot and killed while leaving a
Matthias Koehl, the second in command at NSWPP, moved to establish control over Rockwell's body and the assets of the NSWPP, which at the time had some 500 active members and 3,000 financial supporters. Rockwell's parents wanted a private burial in Maine, but declined to fight with the Nazis. On August 27, an NSWPP spokesman reported that federal officials had approved a military burial at Culpeper National Cemetery, Rockwell being an honorably discharged veteran.[47] The cemetery specified that no Nazi insignia could be displayed, and when the 50 mourners violated these conditions, the entrance to the cemetery was blocked in a five-hour standoff, during which the hearse, which had been stopped on railroad tracks near the cemetery, was nearly struck by an approaching train. The next day, Rockwell's body was secretly cremated.[10]
Legacy
Rockwell was a source of inspiration for David Duke when he was young and openly espousing neo-Nazi sentiments. As a student in high school, when Duke learned of Rockwell's murder, he reportedly said "The greatest American who ever lived has been shot down and killed."[48] Richard B. Spencer is another admirer of Rockwell.[49]
Matthew Heimbach said on Rockwell that he was "one of the most gifted orators of the 20th century", and Rockwell's writings and speeches were "the things that worked to bring me to National Socialism".[50]
Two of Rockwell's associates, Matthias Koehl and William Luther Pierce, formed their own organizations. Koehl, who was Rockwell's successor, renamed the National Socialist White Peoples Party (NSWPP) the New Order in 1983 and relocated it to Wisconsin shortly thereafter. Pierce founded the National Alliance and wrote the racist dystopian novel The Turner Diaries. Several other neo-Nazi groups were formed over the years since Rockwell's death, some by his followers and other by newer generations of white supremacists. Some are now defunct.
In popular culture
In the lyrics to the Bob Dylan song "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues", the narrator parodies Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson as being Communists, and claims that the only "true American" is George Lincoln Rockwell. Quoting the lyrics: "I know for a fact that he hates Commies, 'cause he picketed the movie Exodus."[51]
For their 1972 album Not Insane or Anything You Want To, The Firesign Theatre created a fictional presidential candidate, George Papoon, running on the equally fictional ticket, the Natural Surrealist Light Peoples Party, the name taken as an apparent parody of Rockwell's own group, the National Socialist White Peoples Party.[52]
In the third season of post-World War II alternate history television show The Man in the High Castle, David Furr portrayed Rockwell as the Reichsmarschall of North America. Nazi-ruled New York City's main airport was named Lincoln Rockwell Airport.[54]
In the 2021 British drama series Ridley Road, Rockwell is portrayed by actor Stephen Hogan.[55]
Publications
- How to Get Out or Stay Out of the Insane Asylum (1960)
- In Hoc Signo Vinces (1960)
- Rockwell Report (1961)
- This Time the World (1961)
- White Self-Hate: Master-Stroke of the Enemy (1962)
- White Power (1967)
Albums
- Nazi Rockwell: A Portrait in Sound (1973, posthumous)
- Speech at Brown University, 1966 (1966)
- Speech in the Armory, Lynchburg, Virginia, August 20, 1963 (1963)
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0814731550.
- ^ ISBN 9780143106944.
- ^ "When Malcolm X Met the Nazis". www.vice.com. April 16, 2015. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
- ^ "Killer of American Nazi Chief Paroled". St. Joseph News-Press. August 23, 1975. Retrieved December 3, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Rockwell, George Lincoln (April 1966). "Interview with George Lincoln Rockwell". Playboy (Interview). Interviewed by Alex Haley.
- ^ a b Woodard, Colin (September 3, 2017). "For years, the so-called 'grandfather' of neo-Nazis called Maine his home". Portland Press Herald.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-252-02285-2.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-59364-014-9.
- ^ Berlet, Chip. "Rockwell, George Lincoln (1918–1967)." Culture Wars in America: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices, edited by Roger Chapman, and James Ciment, Routledge, 2nd edition, 2013. Credo Reference, http://ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/sharpecw/rockwell_george_lincoln_1918_1967/0?institutionId=4864. Accessed September 7, 2022.
- ^ a b Miller, Michael E. (August 21, 2017). "The shadow of an assassinated American Nazi commander hangs over Charlottesville". The Washington Post.
- ^ Simonelli American Fuehrer, pp. 26–27.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke Black Sun, p. 11
- ISBN 9780739191057.
- ^ McCabe, Scott (August 24, 2009). "CRIME HISTORY - American Nazi leader killed near Arlington home". Washington Examiner.
- ^ "The Fable of the Ducks and the Hens: A Dramatic Saga of Intrigue, Propaganda and Subversion (1959) - George Lincoln Rockwell". Internet Archive. 1959.
- ISBN 9781610692861.
- ^ Matter of Rockwell v. Morris, 10 721 (New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division June 9, 1961).
- ^ Rockwell, George Lincoln (1960). How to Get Out Or Stay Out of the Insane Asylum. Sons of Liberty.
- ISBN 978-0029138656.
- user-generated source]
- ^ Hunter, Jack R. (Spring 1972). "Linwood Holton's long quest for the governorship of Virginia and its impact on the growth of the Republican Party". University of Richmond.
- ^ Rockwell, George Lincoln. "White Power". Internet Archive.
- Salon.
- ^ "Civil Liberties Union to Represent Rockwell in U.S. District Court". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. November 3, 1966.
- ^ Barrett, H. Michael. "Pierce, Koehl and the National Socialist White People's Party Internal Split of 1970". The Heretical Press.
- ^ Sweet Science Coffee website
- ^ Weingarten, Gene (February 10, 2008). "It's Just Nazi Same Place". The Washington Post.
- ^ Cooper, Rebecca (December 30, 2014). "Java Shack owner to say goodbye after nearly two decades". American City Business Journals.
- ^ Jones, Mark (January 2, 2013). "Nazis in Arlington: George Rockwell and the ANP". WETA.
- ^ "Hatenanny Records Advertisement [American Nazi Party handbill]". Virginia Commonwealth University.
- S2CID 161205862
- ^ "Riding the Hate Bus, 1961". Messynessychic.com. March 25, 2014.
- ISBN 9780199755813.
- ISBN 9781402202131.
- ^ "Rockwell Released on Bond; His Nine Followers Remain in Jail". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. March 20, 2015. Retrieved December 22, 2023.
- ^ "The Monroe News-Star from Monroe, Louisiana". Newspapers.com. June 14, 1961. Retrieved December 22, 2023.
- ^ "Louisiana Court of Appeals Reverses Conviction of Rockwell and Aids". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. March 20, 2015. Retrieved December 22, 2023.
- ^ "When George Lincoln Rockwell, Elijah Muhammad, and Malcolm X Shared the Same Stage".
- ^ a b McPheeters, Sam (April 16, 2015). "When Malcolm X Met the Nazis". Vice.
- ^ Schmaltz, William H. (2013). For Race And Nation: George Lincoln Rockwell and the American Nazi Party. Internet Archive.
- ^ a b "1967: 'American Hitler' shot dead". BBC News. August 25, 1967.
- ^ Clark, Charles S. (December 30, 2010). "Death of an Arlington Nazi". Northern Virginia Magazine.
- ^ a b Graham, Fred P. (August 26, 1967). "Rockwell, U.S. Nazi, Slain; Ex-Aide Is Held as Sniper". The New York Times.
- ^ "Rockwell Aide Charge in Slaying". The Post and Courier. August 26, 1967.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Patler convicted, faces 20 years". The Free Lance–Star. December 16, 1967.
- ^ "Killer of American Nazi Chief Paroled". St. Joseph News-Press. August 23, 1975.
- ^ "Army Cancels Approval for Burial of Rockwell at National Cemetery; 3 Nazis Arrested". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. August 30, 1967.
- ISBN 9780878056842.
- Washington Post
- ^ George Lincoln Rockwell, father of American Nazis, still in vogue for some, 2017, The Guardian
- ^ "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues". Bob Dylan. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
- ^ "FiresignTheatre.com – Join the Papoon Bandwagon!". The Firesign Theatre. Archived from the original on October 21, 2021. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
- ^ Rich, Frank (February 18, 1979). "Television: A Super Sequel to Haley's Comet". Time. Archived from the original on September 5, 2007. Retrieved February 26, 2010.
- ^ Nelson, Samantha (September 27, 2018). "Season 3 of The Man in the High Castle doubles down on science fiction — and stumbles". The Verge. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
- ^ Wrath, Tom (October 23, 2021). "Review: Ridley Road - A Chilling Portrait of Fascism in Post-War Britain". The Courier Online. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
Bibliography
- Simonelli, Frederick J. (1999). American Fuehrer: George Lincoln Rockwell and the American Nazi Party. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0252022852.
- Schmaltz, William H. (2001). Hate: George Lincoln Rockwell and the American Nazi Party. Brasseys. ISBN 978-1-57488-262-9.
- Griffin, Robert S. (2001). The Fame of a Dead Man's Deeds. ISBN 978-0-7596-0933-4.
External links
- Biography of George Lincoln Rockwell at IMDB
- "Nazis In America", a commentary and review of Hate by Myrna Estep, Ph.D.
- "Blast from the Past: George Lincoln Rockwell" by David Maurer in Daily Progress, August 24, 2003
- George Lincoln Rockwell's