George Lincoln Rockwell
Encyclopedia
George Lincoln Rockwell (March 9, 1918 – August 25, 1967) was the founder of the American Nazi Party
. Rockwell was a major figure in the neo-Nazi
movement in the United States, and his beliefs and writings have continued to be influential among white nationalists
and neo-Nazis.
, the first of three children of George Lovejoy "Doc" Rockwell and Claire (Schade) Rockwell. His father was born in Providence, Rhode Island
, and was of English
and Scottish
ancestry. His mother was the daughter of Augustus Schade, a German
immigrant, and Corrine Boudreau, who was of Acadian
French
ancestry. Both parents were vaudeville
comedian
s and actor
s, and his father's acquaintances included Fred Allen
, Benny Goodman
, Walter Winchell
, Jack Benny
, and Groucho Marx
. His parents divorced when Rockwell was six years old, and he divided his youth with his mother in Atlantic City, New Jersey
, and with his father in Boothbay Harbor, Maine
.
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
. He became an avid reader of Western philosophy
and socially significant novels, leading him to re-examine the topic of religion. He had initially perceived himself as a devout Protestant, but after reading the Bible
numerous times, he perceived religion as a necessary pillar to civilization. He contemplated the possibility of a "total intelligence" existing in the universe, and identified himself as an agnostic
. Despite this, he promoted the Christian Identity
sect
in the 1960s.
In August 1938, Rockwell enrolled at Brown University
in Providence, Rhode Island
as a philosophy major. In his sociology
courses, he rejected equality and the idea that man was made by his environment and all human beings had the same potential in life. He debated with fellow students over topics such as social themes in popular novels.
. He appreciated the order and discipline of the Navy, and attended flight schools in Massachusetts
and Florida
in 1940.
On April 24, 1943, Rockwell married Judy Aultman, whom he had met while attending Brown University. Aultman was a student at Pembroke College
, which was the female section of the university. At the time, Rockwell was studying at the Navy's aerial photography
school in South Florida. When he completed his training, he served in the Pacific Theatre of World War II.
Rockwell was recalled to duty as a Lieutenant Commander
at the beginning of the Korean War
. He relocated to San Diego, California
with his wife and two children, where he trained Navy and United States Marine Corps
pilots.
In 1952, Rockwell was ordered to report to Norfolk, Virginia
, where he was notified by a superior officer that he would be transferred to Iceland
. Since families were not permitted to be with American service personnel stationed there, his wife and children stayed with her mother in Barrington, Rhode Island
. Due to the separation, his wife filed for divorce the following year. Several months after his return to Iceland, Rockwell attended a diplomatic party in the capital city of Reykjavík
. He met Þóra Hallgrímsdóttir there, and they were married on October 3, 1953 in the Icelandic National Cathedral by Þóra's uncle, the Bishop of Iceland
. They spent their honeymoon
in Berchtesgaden
, Germany
, where Hitler once owned the Berghof
mountain retreat in the Bavarian Alps.
Rockwell told Þóra about his political beliefs, and she replied he would either be a "bum or a great man". She finally divorced him on October 15, 1961.
in Brooklyn, New York. He and his wife moved to New York City
so he could study at Pratt. Rockwell was introduced to the post modern art concept, something he considered to be a corporate form of trendy Communist chic
mixed with Madison Avenue marketing. He viewed Jewish New Yorkers as the main promoters of this simplified yet marketable movement, and felt even more contempt towards Jews.
In 1948, Rockwell won the $1,000 first prize for an advertisement he did for the American Cancer Society
. The contest was sponsored by the National Society of Illustrators in New York. He left Pratt before finishing his final year, and founded his own advertising agency in Maine.
Rockwell saw a business opportunity in publishing a magazine for United States servicemen's wives. In September 1955, he launched the U.S. Lady. After presenting the idea to the generals and admirals who headed public relations departments of the military services, Rockwell began publishing in Washington, D.C.
The new enterprise also incorporated Rockwell's political causes: his opposition to both racial integration
and communism
. He financed the operation through stock sales and subscriptions. With a staff of thirty workers, Rockwell could only promise to pay his employees before the launch of the first issue. The publication continued to have financial problems, and he sold his interest in the magazine. However, he still aspired to pursue a career in publishing.
. He was influenced by Senator Joseph McCarthy
's stance against communism. Rockwell supported General Douglas MacArthur
's candidacy for President of the United States
. He adopted the corncob pipe, following MacArthur's example. Rockwell attended a Gerald L.K. Smith rally in Los Angeles
, and read Conde McGinley
's Common Sense, a political newspaper that introduced him to anti-Semitism
. He then read the National Socialist manifesto
Mein Kampf
by Adolf Hitler
and the fraudulent Russian propaganda pamphlet Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Privately, he adopted their beliefs. He published an Animal Farm
-type parody, The Fable of the Ducks and the Hens. This was Rockwell's interpretation of Jewish power in the United States in the 20th century. In 1952, Rockwell began working with anti-Semitic and anti-communist
groups. That year, he attended the American Nationalist Conference, which was organized by Conde McGinley’s Christian Educational Association.
In July 1958, Rockwell demonstrated in front of the White House
in an anti-war protest against President Dwight D. Eisenhower
's decision to send peace-keeping troops to the Middle East
. One day he received a large package from a supporters; it contained an 18-foot-long Swastika
flag. He placed the flag on the wall of his home and made a shrine with Hitler's photo in the center, three lighted candles in front. In his autobiography, Rockwell claimed to have had a religious experience and swore allegiance to his leader, saluting "Heil Hitler!" Rockwell and a few supporters had uniforms. They armed themselves with rifle
s and revolvers, and paraded about his home in Arlington, Virginia. The window to his home was left open, so that others could see the huge Swastika flag. Drew Pearson
wrote a news column about Rockwell, giving him his first publicity. In the presidential election of 1964
, Rockwell ran as a write-in candidate
, receiving 212 votes. He ran unsuccessfully for governor of Virginia
in 1965 as an independent, this time polling 5,730 votes, or 1.02 percent of the total, to finishing last among the four candidates.
of property. In December, the name was changed to the American Nazi Party
, and the headquarters relocated to 928 North Randolph Street in Arlington, Virginia.
In order to attract media attention, Rockwell held a rally April 3, 1960, on the National Mall
of Washington, D.C.
, where Rockwell addressed the crowd with a two-hour long speech. The second rally was held at Union Square
in New York City
. Mayor Robert Wagner refused to grant him a permit to speak, and he appealed that decision to the New York Supreme Court
. Jewish war veterans and Holocaust survivors gathered to oppose his appeal and, during a court recess, when Rockwell emerged into the court Rotunda he was surrounded by a crowd of television reporters. One of the reporters asked Rockwell how he would treat Jews if he came to power in the United States. Rockwell replied he would treat Jews just as he treated any other American citizens. If they were loyal Americans, everything would be fine, if they were traitors, they would be executed. When the reporter asked what percentage of Jews Rockwell perceived were traitors, Rockwell replied, "Eighty percent." The Jewish war veterans and Holocaust survivors rioted and began beating Rockwell and the reporter with their umbrellas, and Rockwell was escorted out of the Courthouse Rotunda in the midst of a police convoy. Rockwell, with the aid of the ACLU, eventually won his permit, but it was long after the date of the planned event.
The third rally was set for July 4, 1960, again held on the Mall. Rockwell and his men were confronted by a mob and a riot ensued. The police arrested Rockwell and eight party members. Rockwell demanded a trial, however was instead committed to a psychiatric hospital for thirty days. In less than two weeks, he was released and found capable of standing trial. He published a pamphlet on this experience titled How to Get Out or Stay Out of the Insane Asylum.
In summer 1966, Rockwell led a counter-demonstration to Martin Luther King's attempt to bring an end to de-facto segregation in the white Chicago
suburb of Cicero, Illinois
. He believed King was a tool for Jewish Communists to integrate America.
Rockwell led the American Nazi Party in assisting the Ku Klux Klan
and similar groups during the Civil Rights Movement
, in attempts to counter the Freedom Ride
rs and the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
. But he soon came to believe the Klan was stuck in the past and ineffective for helping him wage a modern race struggle. After hearing the slogan "Black Power
" during a debate in 1966 with Black Panther
Stokely Carmichael
, Rockwell altered the phrase and started a call for "White Power". White Power later became the name of the party's newspaper and the title of a book authored by Rockwell.
Rockwell's principal message was racial separation. He attempted to form friendly associations with the Nation of Islam
. He praised Elijah Muhammad
as the "Black people's Hitler," and for doing the best job in promoting integrity and pride among his people. Rockwell also admired Malcolm X
, seeing him as the next true leader for Black America. In 1965 Malcolm X sent Rockwell a telegram while Rockwell was on his "Hate Bus" tour of the South, threatening Rockwell with "maximum physical retaliation from those of us who are not hand-cuffed by the disarming philosophy of nonviolence" should Martin Luther King, Jr. or "any other black Americans who are only attempting to enjoy their rights as free human beings" be harmed.
Rockwell was a Holocaust denier
. In an April 1966 interview with Playboy
journalist Alex Haley
, Rockwell stated, "I don't believe for one minute that any 6,000,000 Jews were exterminated by Hitler. It never happened."
Haley would later author the 1976 novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family
. The interview was dramatized in the TV miniseries Roots: The Next Generations
, with Marlon Brando
portraying Rockwell in an Emmy Award
-winning performance and James Earl Jones
portraying Haley.
The two-story farm house Rockwell established as his "Stormtrooper Barracks" was located at 6150 Wilson Boulevard, in the Dominion Hills district of Arlington. It was there that the interview with Alex Haley occurred. Situated on the tallest hill in Arlington County, the house has long since been razed and the property incorporated into the Upton Hill Regional Park. A small picnic table pavilion marks the house's former location. The site of the party headquarters, 928 North Randolph Street in the Ballston area of Arlington is now a massive hotel and office building complex. Rockwell's successor, Matt Koehl, relocated the headquarters after Rockwell's death to 2507 North Franklin Road in the Clarendon area. It would become the last physical address of the party before Koehl moved it to New Berlin, Wisconsin in the mid-1980s. The small red brick building, often misidentified today as Rockwell's former headquarters, is now a coffee shop called "The Java Shack."
through Ireland
. In the Cotswolds
, he co-founded the World Union of National Socialists
with Colin Jordan
's British organization the National Socialist Movement
, before being deported back to the States. In 1966, the international group published National Socialist World, edited by former physics professor William Luther Pierce
.
On June 9 to the 11th, the party held its national conference in Arlington, aimed at reorganizing its leadership and “charting a new course of professionalism.” In July 1963, the party's publication The Stormtrooper magazine was replaced with the newspaper White Power bearing the swastika in the center of the paper. Some within the NSWPP opposed this new ideological direction.
, named Hatenanny Records (the name was based on the word "hootenanny
", a term given to folk music
performances). The label released several 45 RPM singles
, including recordings by a group credited as Odis Cochran and the Three Bigots http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f211/staropramen64/odis10001.jpghttp://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f211/staropramen64/Rockwellrecords.jpg, and were sold mostly through mail order
. A truncated version of one of the band's recordings, "Ship Those Nigger
s Back" appears in the documentary The California Reich
. When the Freedom Riders drove their campaign to desegregate
bus stations in the deep South
, Rockwell secured a Volkswagen
van and decorated it with swastika
s and white supremacist
slogans, dubbing it the "Hate Bus" and personally driving it to speaking engagements and party rallies. According to an FBI report on the American Nazi Party, the van was repossessed after a loan default.
On August 25, 1967, Rockwell was killed by gunshots while leaving the Econowash laundromat at the Dominion Hills Shopping Center in the 6000 block of Wilson Boulevard in Arlington, Virginia. Two bullets crashed through his 1958 Chevrolet’s windshield, and it slowly rolled backwards to a stop. Rockwell staggered out of the front passenger side door of the car, pointed towards the shopping center roof, and then collapsed face up on the pavement.
The gunman ran along the shopping center roof and jumped to the ground in the rear. A shop owner and a customer briefly gave chase, but were unable to get a clear look at the fleeing figure. Other customers called the Arlington County police and checked Rockwell for a pulse. He had none; the one bullet that struck him had ripped through several major arteries just above his heart. The internal bleeding was so heavy that Rockwell died in two minutes.
A half hour later, at a bus stop about a half-mile away, John Patler
, a former member of Rockwell’s group, was arrested as the suspected murderer by a passing patrolman familiar with the Arlington Nazis. Later that day, after hearing of his son’s death, Rockwell’s 78-year-old father commented laconically, “I am not surprised at all. I’ve expected it for quite some time.”
Matt Koehl
, the number two man in the NSWPP, moved to establish legal control over Rockwell’s body and all NSWPP assets. At the time of his death, the NSWPP had approximately 300 active members nationwide, and perhaps 3,000 financial supporters. Although Rockwell’s parents wanted a private burial in Maine, they did not feel up to a public fight with the Nazis for his body. On August 27, an NSWPP spokesman reported that Federal officials had given verbal approval to a planned military burial of Rockwell at Culpeper National Cemetery, as an honorably discharged veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces.
On August 29, several dozen NSWPP troopers and about 100 party supporters formed a procession and drove the 65 miles from Arlington to Culpeper. At the cemetery gates they were met by General Carl C. Turner and 60 MPs who had been rushed in from Vint Hill to enforce the U.S. Army’s burial protocol. They were backed by dozens of police from various jurisdictions. No mourners bearing Nazi insignia would be allowed into the cemetery. The NSWPP troopers refused to remove their uniforms, which led to a day-long standoff. They unsuccessfully tried to force their way into the cemetery three separate times. Several arrests resulted. With daylight fading, General Turner declared that Rockwell could not be buried until the NSWPP made a new request to the Pentagon and agreed to follow protocol.
The Nazis returned to Arlington with Rockwell’s body. Plans were made to bury Rockwell in Spotsylvania County, but they fell apart when local Jewish organizations protested. Fearing that Arlington County officials might seize the body, the ANP had Rockwell cremated the next morning, and a memorial service was held that afternoon at party headquarters. On February 8, 1968, the NSWPP filed suit to obtain a Nazi burial for Rockwell’s remains at any National Cemetery. On March 15, 1969, a Federal district judge upheld the Army Secretary’s ruling that Rockwell was ineligible for a burial with full military honors in a national cemetery. Today Rockwell's ashes reside next to those of Savitri Devi in the memorial room of New Order
headquarters in New Berlin, Wisconsin
.
Following psychiatric evaluation, John Patler was judged competent to stand trial. He pleaded not guilty at his preliminary hearing to the charge of first degree homicide. His trial began on November 27 amid tight security at the Arlington County Courthouse. On December 15, Patler was found guilty and released on bond to await sentencing. On February 23, 1968, Patler was sentenced to 20 years in prison, at that time the least amount possible for a first degree murder conviction. The Virginia Circuit Court postponed imprisonment pending his appeal.
On November 30, 1970, the Virginia Supreme Court upheld Patler’s conviction and 20-year sentence for slaying Rockwell, and ordered him to begin serving his sentence. On May 16, 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected Patler’s appeal based on claims of witness contamination. In August 1975, Patler was paroled from the Pulaski correctional unit after serving less than four years of his sentence. Judge Charles S. Russell, who had presided over Patler’s murder trial, wrote a lengthy letter to the parole board supporting Patler’s release, the only time he did so in his career. The following year Patler violated the terms of his parole and was returned to prison for an additional six years. On December 30, 1977 Patler petitioned the Henry County Circuit Court to change his surname back to its original form, Patsalos. After serving out the remainder of his sentence, John Patsalos returned to the New York City area.
The exact reason for Rockwell's murder is still a matter of debate. Patler's nasty feud with Rockwell and a family history of violence weighed against him at the trial. Despite being convicted of the crime, Patler has always maintained his innocence. The case against him was largely circumstantial and key evidence against him (e.g., whether he possessed the murder weapon at the time of the killing) was disputed by defense witnesses.
The small strip mall where Rockwell was killed is still called the Dominion Hills Shopping Center, although it has since been refurbished and the laundromat replaced by a dry cleaners. After his death, admirers of Rockwell painted a white swastika on the blacktop surface of the parking lot, marking the exact spot where he died. Several attempts by the property owners were made to obliterate the emblem with a square patch of black paint, but the white swastika would always surreptitiously reappear, usually on or near the anniversary of Rockwell's death. It remained visible, off and on, well into the 1980s, until the NSWPP renamed itself New Order
and moved their headquarters to Wisconsin. Since then the parking lot has been resurfaced and the swastika never replaced, however the spot where his body lay can be approximated today by using a crime scene photograph that appears on page 323 of William H. Schmaltz's biography of Rockwell. On August 27, 2007, the 40th anniversary of the assassination, a group of unidentified, non-uniformed Rockwell admirers appeared at the Dominion Hills Shopping Center to conduct a brief ceremony and lay a wreath. They carried a plain white banner with black and red lettering that bore the symbolic slogan "Lincoln Rockwell Lives!".
. As a student in high school, when Duke learned of Rockwell's assassination, he reportedly said "The greatest American who ever lived has been shot down and killed". In the mid-1960s, Rockwell had a strategy to develop his Nazi political philosophy within the Christian Identity
religious movement. Previously, Christian Identity had antisemitic and racist views, but not a Third Reich orientation. The Christian Identity group Aryan Nations
started to use various Nazi flags in its services, and its security personnel started wearing uniforms similar to those worn by Rockwell's stormtrooper
s. Two of Rockwell's associates, Matt Koehl
and William Luther Pierce
, formed their own organizations. Koehl, who was Rockwell's successor, renamed the NSWPP to New Order
in 1983 and relocated it to Wisconsin
shortly thereafter. Pierce founded the National Alliance.
George Lincoln Rockwell was also mentioned in the lyrics to the Bob Dylan
song "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues
". In the lyrics to the song, the narrator accuses Abraham Lincoln
and Thomas Jefferson
of 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."
In an episode of The Twilight Zone
entitled "He's Alive
", Dennis Hopper portrays the leader of a small Neo-Nazi group; a character apparently inspired by Rockwell.
, he was a naval aviator and served a follow-on tour during the Korean War
. He would transfer to the naval reserve. In his nineteen years of service, he had reached to the rank of Commander
and had commanded officer of several aviation reserve units. In 1960, as a result of his political and racist activities, the United States Navy discharged Rockwell one year short of retirement, since he was regarded as "not deployable" in due to his political views. The proceedings to dismiss him were an extremely public affair, and Rockwell widely advertised the results, staying he "had basically been thrown out of the Navy"
Service dates
Dates of rank
Awards
American Nazi Party
The American Nazi Party was an American political party founded by discharged U.S. Navy Commander George Lincoln Rockwell. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, Rockwell initially called it the World Union of Free Enterprise National Socialists , but later renamed it the American Nazi Party in...
. Rockwell was a major figure in the neo-Nazi
Neo-Nazism
Neo-Nazism consists of post-World War II social or political movements seeking to revive Nazism or some variant thereof.The term neo-Nazism can also refer to the ideology of these movements....
movement in the United States, and his beliefs and writings have continued to be influential among white nationalists
White nationalism
White nationalism is a political ideology which advocates a racial definition of national identity for white people. White separatism and white supremacism are subgroups within white nationalism. The former seek a separate white nation state, while the latter add ideas from social Darwinism and...
and neo-Nazis.
Early life
Rockwell was born in Bloomington, IllinoisBloomington, Illinois
Bloomington is a city in McLean County, Illinois, United States and the county seat. It is adjacent to Normal, Illinois, and is the more populous of the two principal municipalities of the Bloomington-Normal metropolitan area...
, the first of three children of George Lovejoy "Doc" Rockwell and Claire (Schade) Rockwell. His father was born in Providence, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
, and was of English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
ancestry. His mother was the daughter of Augustus Schade, a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
immigrant, and Corrine Boudreau, who was of Acadian
Acadian
The Acadians are the descendants of the 17th-century French colonists who settled in Acadia . Acadia was a colony of New France...
French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
ancestry. Both parents were vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
s and actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
s, and his father's acquaintances included Fred Allen
Fred Allen
Fred Allen was an American comedian whose absurdist, topically pointed radio show made him one of the most popular and forward-looking humorists in the so-called classic era of American radio.His best-remembered gag was his long-running mock feud with friend and fellow comedian Jack Benny, but it...
, Benny Goodman
Benny Goodman
Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...
, Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell was an American newspaper and radio gossip commentator.-Professional career:Born Walter Weinschel in New York City, he left school in the sixth grade and started performing in a vaudeville troupe known as Gus Edwards' "Newsboys Sextet."His career in journalism was begun by posting...
, Jack Benny
Jack Benny
Jack Benny was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film...
, and Groucho Marx
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...
. His parents divorced when Rockwell was six years old, and he divided his youth with his mother in Atlantic City, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, and with his father in Boothbay Harbor, Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
.
Rockwell attended Atlantic City High School
Atlantic City High School
Atlantic City High School is a four-year public high school located in Atlantic City, in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Atlantic City School District. The current school building opened in 1994 and holds approximately 2,500 students...
in Atlantic City, and applied to Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
when he was 17 years old. However, he was denied admission. One year later, his father enrolled him at Hebron Academy
Hebron Academy
Hebron Academy, founded in 1804, is a small, independent, college preparatory boarding and day school for boys and girls in grades six through postgraduate.-History:...
in Hebron, Maine
Hebron, Maine
Hebron is a town in Oxford County, Maine, United States. Hebron is included in the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England city and town area. The town's history has always been interconnected with Hebron Academy, a co-ed college preparatory boarding school which is located in the town's...
. He became an avid reader of Western philosophy
Western philosophy
Western philosophy is the philosophical thought and work of the Western or Occidental world, as distinct from Eastern or Oriental philosophies and the varieties of indigenous philosophies....
and socially significant novels, leading him to re-examine the topic of religion. He had initially perceived himself as a devout Protestant, but after reading the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
numerous times, he perceived religion as a necessary pillar to civilization. He contemplated the possibility of a "total intelligence" existing in the universe, and identified himself as an agnostic
Agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable....
. Despite this, he promoted the Christian Identity
Christian Identity
Christian Identity is a label applied to a wide variety of loosely affiliated believers and churches with a racialized theology. Many promote a Eurocentric interpretation of Christianity.According to Chester L...
sect
Sect
A sect is a group with distinctive religious, political or philosophical beliefs. Although in past it was mostly used to refer to religious groups, it has since expanded and in modern culture can refer to any organization that breaks away from a larger one to follow a different set of rules and...
in the 1960s.
In August 1938, Rockwell enrolled at Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
in Providence, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
as a philosophy major. In his sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
courses, he rejected equality and the idea that man was made by his environment and all human beings had the same potential in life. He debated with fellow students over topics such as social themes in popular novels.
Military service and marriages
In his sophomore year, Rockwell dropped out of Brown University and accepted a commission in the United States NavyUnited States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
. He appreciated the order and discipline of the Navy, and attended flight schools in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
and Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
in 1940.
On April 24, 1943, Rockwell married Judy Aultman, whom he had met while attending Brown University. Aultman was a student at Pembroke College
Pembroke College (Brown University)
Pembroke College in Brown University was the coordinate women's college for Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1891 and closed in 1971.-Founding and early history:...
, which was the female section of the university. At the time, Rockwell was studying at the Navy's aerial photography
Aerial photography
Aerial photography is the taking of photographs of the ground from an elevated position. The term usually refers to images in which the camera is not supported by a ground-based structure. Cameras may be hand held or mounted, and photographs may be taken by a photographer, triggered remotely or...
school in South Florida. When he completed his training, he served in the Pacific Theatre of World War II.
Rockwell was recalled to duty as a Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant Commander is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander...
at the beginning of the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
. He relocated to San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
with his wife and two children, where he trained Navy and United States Marine Corps
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
pilots.
In 1952, Rockwell was ordered to report to Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
, where he was notified by a superior officer that he would be transferred to Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
. Since families were not permitted to be with American service personnel stationed there, his wife and children stayed with her mother in Barrington, Rhode Island
Barrington, Rhode Island
Barrington is a town in Bristol County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 16,310 at the 2010 census.In July 2005, CNN/Money and Money magazine ranked Barrington sixth on its list of the 100 best places to live in the United States.-History:...
. Due to the separation, his wife filed for divorce the following year. Several months after his return to Iceland, Rockwell attended a diplomatic party in the capital city of Reykjavík
Reykjavík
Reykjavík is the capital and largest city in Iceland.Its latitude at 64°08' N makes it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói Bay...
. He met Þóra Hallgrímsdóttir there, and they were married on October 3, 1953 in the Icelandic National Cathedral by Þóra's uncle, the Bishop of Iceland
Bishop of Iceland
List of the Lutheran bishops of Iceland:* 1801-1823: Geir Vídalín* 1824-1845: Steingrímur Jónsson* 1846-1866: Helgi G. Thordersen* 1866-1889: Pétur Pétursson* 1889-1908: Hallgrímur Sveinsson* 1908-1916: Þórhallur Bjarnason* 1917-1939: Jón Helgason...
. They spent their honeymoon
Honeymoon
-History:One early reference to a honeymoon is in Deuteronomy 24:5 “When a man is newly wed, he need not go out on a military expedition, nor shall any public duty be imposed on him...
in Berchtesgaden
Berchtesgaden
Berchtesgaden is a municipality in the German Bavarian Alps. It is located in the south district of Berchtesgadener Land in Bavaria, near the border with Austria, some 30 km south of Salzburg and 180 km southeast of Munich...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, where Hitler once owned the Berghof
Berghof (Hitler)
The Berghof was Adolf Hitler's home in the Obersalzberg of the Bavarian Alps near Berchtesgaden, Bavaria, Germany. Other than the Wolfsschanze in East Prussia, Hitler spent more time at the Berghof than anywhere else during World War II. It was also one of the most widely known of Hitler's...
mountain retreat in the Bavarian Alps.
Rockwell told Þóra about his political beliefs, and she replied he would either be a "bum or a great man". She finally divorced him on October 15, 1961.
Civilian career
When the Korean War ended, Rockwell decided to become a graphic designer. He was accepted in to the art program at the prestigious Pratt InstitutePratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private art college in New York City located in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica. Pratt is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States and offers programs in Architecture, Graphic Design, History of Art and Design,...
in Brooklyn, New York. He and his wife moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
so he could study at Pratt. Rockwell was introduced to the post modern art concept, something he considered to be a corporate form of trendy Communist chic
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
mixed with Madison Avenue marketing. He viewed Jewish New Yorkers as the main promoters of this simplified yet marketable movement, and felt even more contempt towards Jews.
In 1948, Rockwell won the $1,000 first prize for an advertisement he did for the American Cancer Society
American Cancer Society
The American Cancer Society is the "nationwide community-based voluntary health organization" dedicated, in their own words, "to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives, and diminishing suffering from cancer, through research, education, advocacy, and...
. The contest was sponsored by the National Society of Illustrators in New York. He left Pratt before finishing his final year, and founded his own advertising agency in Maine.
Rockwell saw a business opportunity in publishing a magazine for United States servicemen's wives. In September 1955, he launched the U.S. Lady. After presenting the idea to the generals and admirals who headed public relations departments of the military services, Rockwell began publishing in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
The new enterprise also incorporated Rockwell's political causes: his opposition to both racial integration
Racial integration
Racial integration, or simply integration includes desegregation . In addition to desegregation, integration includes goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of race, and the development of a culture that draws on diverse traditions, rather than merely...
and communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
. He financed the operation through stock sales and subscriptions. With a staff of thirty workers, Rockwell could only promise to pay his employees before the launch of the first issue. The publication continued to have financial problems, and he sold his interest in the magazine. However, he still aspired to pursue a career in publishing.
Political activism
During his time in San Diego, Rockwell began moving towards the political far rightFar right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
. He was influenced by Senator Joseph McCarthy
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
's stance against communism. Rockwell supported General Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the...
's candidacy for President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
. He adopted the corncob pipe, following MacArthur's example. Rockwell attended a Gerald L.K. Smith rally in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, and read Conde McGinley
Conde McGinley
Michael Conde McGinley editor of a semi-monthly paper called Common Sense, brought briefly to the nation's attention by his involvement against the nomination of Anna M...
's Common Sense, a political newspaper that introduced him to anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
. He then read the National Socialist manifesto
Manifesto
A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature. Manifestos relating to religious belief are generally referred to as creeds. Manifestos may also be life stance-related.-Etymology:...
Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf is a book written by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. It combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitler's political ideology. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and Volume 2 in 1926...
by Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
and the fraudulent Russian propaganda pamphlet Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Privately, he adopted their beliefs. He published an Animal Farm
Animal Farm
Animal Farm is an allegorical novella by George Orwell published in England on 17 August 1945. According to Orwell, the book reflects events leading up to and during the Stalin era before World War II...
-type parody, The Fable of the Ducks and the Hens. This was Rockwell's interpretation of Jewish power in the United States in the 20th century. In 1952, Rockwell began working with anti-Semitic and anti-communist
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
groups. That year, he attended the American Nationalist Conference, which was organized by Conde McGinley’s Christian Educational Association.
In July 1958, Rockwell demonstrated in front of the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
in an anti-war protest against President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
's decision to send peace-keeping troops to the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. One day he received a large package from a supporters; it contained an 18-foot-long Swastika
Swastika
The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...
flag. He placed the flag on the wall of his home and made a shrine with Hitler's photo in the center, three lighted candles in front. In his autobiography, Rockwell claimed to have had a religious experience and swore allegiance to his leader, saluting "Heil Hitler!" Rockwell and a few supporters had uniforms. They armed themselves with rifle
Rifle
A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...
s and revolvers, and paraded about his home in Arlington, Virginia. The window to his home was left open, so that others could see the huge Swastika flag. Drew Pearson
Drew Pearson (journalist)
Andrew Russell Pearson , known professionally as Drew Pearson, was one of the best-known American columnists of his day, noted for his muckraking syndicated newspaper column "Washington Merry-Go-Round," in which he attacked various public persons, sometimes with little or no objective proof for his...
wrote a news column about Rockwell, giving him his first publicity. In the presidential election of 1964
United States presidential election, 1964
The United States presidential election of 1964 was held on November 3, 1964. Incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson had come to office less than a year earlier following the assassination of his predecessor, John F. Kennedy. Johnson, who had successfully associated himself with Kennedy's...
, Rockwell ran as a write-in candidate
Write-in candidate
A write-in candidate is a candidate in an election whose name does not appear on the ballot, but for whom voters may vote nonetheless by writing in the person's name. Some states and local jurisdictions allow a voter to affix a sticker with a write-in candidate's name on it to the ballot in lieu...
, receiving 212 votes. He ran unsuccessfully for governor of Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
in 1965 as an independent, this time polling 5,730 votes, or 1.02 percent of the total, to finishing last among the four candidates.
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 ownershipState ownership
State ownership, also called public ownership, government ownership or state property, are property interests that are vested in the state, rather than an individual or communities....
of property. In December, the name was changed to the American Nazi Party
American Nazi Party
The American Nazi Party was an American political party founded by discharged U.S. Navy Commander George Lincoln Rockwell. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, Rockwell initially called it the World Union of Free Enterprise National Socialists , but later renamed it the American Nazi Party in...
, and the headquarters relocated to 928 North Randolph Street in Arlington, Virginia.
In order to attract media attention, Rockwell held a rally April 3, 1960, on the National Mall
National Mall
The National Mall is an open-area national park in downtown Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. The National Mall is a unit of the National Park Service , and is administered by the National Mall and Memorial Parks unit...
of Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, where Rockwell addressed the crowd with a two-hour long speech. The second rally was held at Union Square
Union Square (New York City)
Union Square is a public square in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York.It is an important and historic intersection, located where Broadway and the former Bowery Road – now Fourth Avenue – came together in the early 19th century; its name celebrates neither the...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Mayor Robert Wagner refused to grant him a permit to speak, and he appealed that decision to the New York Supreme Court
New York Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in thestate court system of New York, United States. There is a supreme court in each of New York State's 62 counties, although some smaller counties share judges with neighboring counties...
. Jewish war veterans and Holocaust survivors gathered to oppose his appeal and, during a court recess, when Rockwell emerged into the court Rotunda he was surrounded by a crowd of television reporters. One of the reporters asked Rockwell how he would treat Jews if he came to power in the United States. Rockwell replied he would treat Jews just as he treated any other American citizens. If they were loyal Americans, everything would be fine, if they were traitors, they would be executed. When the reporter asked what percentage of Jews Rockwell perceived were traitors, Rockwell replied, "Eighty percent." The Jewish war veterans and Holocaust survivors rioted and began beating Rockwell and the reporter with their umbrellas, and Rockwell was escorted out of the Courthouse Rotunda in the midst of a police convoy. Rockwell, with the aid of the ACLU, eventually won his permit, but it was long after the date of the planned event.
The third rally was set for July 4, 1960, again held on the Mall. Rockwell and his men were confronted by a mob and a riot ensued. The police arrested Rockwell and eight party members. Rockwell demanded a trial, however was instead committed to a psychiatric hospital for thirty days. In less than two weeks, he was released and found capable of standing trial. He published a pamphlet on this experience titled How to Get Out or Stay Out of the Insane Asylum.
In summer 1966, Rockwell led a counter-demonstration to Martin Luther King's attempt to bring an end to de-facto segregation in the white Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
suburb of Cicero, Illinois
Cicero, Illinois
Cicero is an incorporated town in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 83,891 at the 2010 census. Cicero is named for the town of Cicero, New York, which in turn was named for Marcus Tullius Cicero, the Roman statesman and orator....
. He believed King was a tool for Jewish Communists to integrate America.
Rockwell led the American Nazi Party in assisting the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
and similar groups during the Civil Rights Movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
, in attempts to counter the Freedom Ride
Freedom ride
Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States to test the United States Supreme Court decisions Boynton v. Virginia and Morgan v. Virginia...
rs and the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was the largest political rally for human rights in United States history and called for civil and economic rights for African Americans. It took place in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, August 28, 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr...
. But he soon came to believe the Klan was stuck in the past and ineffective for helping him wage a modern race struggle. After hearing the slogan "Black Power
Black Power
Black Power is a political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies. It is used in the movement among people of Black African descent throughout the world, though primarily by African Americans in the United States...
" during a debate in 1966 with Black Panther
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party wasan African-American revolutionary leftist organization. It was active in the United States from 1966 until 1982....
Stokely Carmichael
Stokely Carmichael
Kwame Ture , also known as Stokely Carmichael, was a Trinidadian-American black activist active in the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement. He rose to prominence first as a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and later as the "Honorary Prime Minister" of the Black Panther Party...
, Rockwell altered the phrase and started a call for "White Power". White Power later became the name of the party's newspaper and the title of a book authored by Rockwell.
Rockwell's principal message was racial separation. He attempted to form friendly associations with the Nation of Islam
Nation of Islam
The Nation of Islam is a mainly African-American new religious movement founded in Detroit, Michigan by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad in July 1930 to improve the spiritual, mental, social, and economic condition of African-Americans in the United States of America. The movement teaches black pride and...
. He praised Elijah Muhammad
Elijah Muhammad
Elijah Muhammad was an African American religious leader, and led the Nation of Islam from 1934 until his death in 1975...
as the "Black people's Hitler," and for doing the best job in promoting integrity and pride among his people. Rockwell also admired Malcolm X
Malcolm X
Malcolm X , born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its...
, seeing him as the next true leader for Black America. In 1965 Malcolm X sent Rockwell a telegram while Rockwell was on his "Hate Bus" tour of the South, threatening Rockwell with "maximum physical retaliation from those of us who are not hand-cuffed by the disarming philosophy of nonviolence" should Martin Luther King, Jr. or "any other black Americans who are only attempting to enjoy their rights as free human beings" be harmed.
Rockwell was a Holocaust denier
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
. In an April 1966 interview with Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
journalist Alex Haley
Alex Haley
Alexander Murray Palmer Haley was an African-American writer. He is best known as the author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family and the coauthor of The Autobiography of Malcolm X.-Early life:...
, Rockwell stated, "I don't believe for one minute that any 6,000,000 Jews were exterminated by Hitler. It never happened."
Haley would later author the 1976 novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family
Roots: The Saga of an American Family
Roots: The Saga of an American Family is a novel written by Alex Haley and first published in 1976. It tells the story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century African, captured as an adolescent and sold into slavery in the United States, and follows his life and the lives of his descendants in the U.S....
. The interview was dramatized in the TV miniseries Roots: The Next Generations
Roots: The Next Generations
Roots: The Next Generations is a 1979 television miniseries that continues the story of the family of Alex Haley from the 1880s, and their life in Henning, Tennessee, to the 1960s, with Haley researching his family history and his travels to Africa to learn of his ancestor, Kunta Kinte...
, with Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
portraying Rockwell in an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
-winning performance and James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones is an American actor. He is well-known for his distinctive bass voice and for his portrayal of characters of substance, gravitas and leadership...
portraying Haley.
The two-story farm house Rockwell established as his "Stormtrooper Barracks" was located at 6150 Wilson Boulevard, in the Dominion Hills district of Arlington. It was there that the interview with Alex Haley occurred. Situated on the tallest hill in Arlington County, the house has long since been razed and the property incorporated into the Upton Hill Regional Park. A small picnic table pavilion marks the house's former location. The site of the party headquarters, 928 North Randolph Street in the Ballston area of Arlington is now a massive hotel and office building complex. Rockwell's successor, Matt Koehl, relocated the headquarters after Rockwell's death to 2507 North Franklin Road in the Clarendon area. It would become the last physical address of the party before Koehl moved it to New Berlin, Wisconsin in the mid-1980s. The small red brick building, often misidentified today as Rockwell's former headquarters, is now a coffee shop called "The Java Shack."
World Union of National Socialists
In August 1962 Rockwell travelled secretly to EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
through Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. In the Cotswolds
Cotswolds
The Cotswolds are a range of hills in west-central England, sometimes called the Heart of England, an area across and long. The area has been designated as the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...
, he co-founded the World Union of National Socialists
World Union of National Socialists
The World Union of National Socialists is an organisation founded in 1962 as an umbrella group for neo-Nazi organisations across the globe.-Formation:...
with Colin Jordan
Colin Jordan
John Colin Campbell Jordan was a leading figure in postwar Neo-Nazism in Britain. In the far-right nationalist circles of the 1960s, Jordan represented the most explicitly 'Nazi' inclination in his open use of the styles and symbols of the Third Reich.Through organisations such as the National...
's British organization the National Socialist Movement
National Socialist Movement (1960s)
The National Socialist Movement was a British Neo-Nazi group formed on 20 April 1962, Adolf Hitler's birthday, by Colin Jordan, with John Tyndall as his deputy as a splinter group from the original British National Party of the 1960s.-Formation:...
, before being deported back to the States. In 1966, the international group published National Socialist World, edited by former physics professor William Luther Pierce
William Luther Pierce
William Luther Pierce III was the leader of the white separatist National Alliance organization, and one of the most important ideologists of the white nationalist movement. Pierce originally worked as an assistant professor of physics at Oregon State University, before he became involved in...
.
National Socialist White People's Party
On January 1, 1967, Rockwell announced the party's next stage of development. He officially changed the name of the American Nazi Party to the National Socialist White People's Party (NSWPP). Its new slogan would be “White Power” replacing the inflammatory “Sieg Heil.” The new strategy would be to capitalize on growing support in the wake of the Chicago rallies and to focus the organization’s commitment to a universal white nationalism. An internal party newsletter, the “National Socialist Bulletin”, was started to help direct these new efforts.On June 9 to the 11th, the party held its national conference in Arlington, aimed at reorganizing its leadership and “charting a new course of professionalism.” In July 1963, the party's publication The Stormtrooper magazine was replaced with the newspaper White Power bearing the swastika in the center of the paper. Some within the NSWPP opposed this new ideological direction.
Hatenanny Records and the Hate Bus
In the 1960s, Rockwell attempted to draw attention to his cause by starting a small record labelRecord label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
, named Hatenanny Records (the name was based on the word "hootenanny
Hootenanny
Hootenanny is an Appalachian colloquialism that was used in early twentieth century America to refer to things whose names were forgotten or unknown. In this usage it was synonymous with thingamajig or whatchamacallit, as in "hand me that hootenanny." Hootenanny was also an old country word for...
", a term given to folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
performances). The label released several 45 RPM singles
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
, including recordings by a group credited as Odis Cochran and the Three Bigots http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f211/staropramen64/odis10001.jpghttp://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f211/staropramen64/Rockwellrecords.jpg, and were sold mostly through mail order
Mail order
Mail order is a term which describes the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote method such as through a telephone call or web site. Then, the products are delivered to the customer...
. A truncated version of one of the band's recordings, "Ship Those Nigger
Nigger
Nigger is a noun in the English language, most notable for its usage in a pejorative context to refer to black people , and also as an informal slang term, among other contexts. It is a common ethnic slur...
s Back" appears in the documentary The California Reich
The California Reich
The California Reich is a 1975 documentary on a group of Neo-Nazis in San Francisco, California and Tracy, California, USA. They are members of the National Socialist White People's Party a US Nazi party started by George Rockwell. The film received a nomination in 1976 by the Academy Awards for...
. When the Freedom Riders drove their campaign to desegregate
Desegregation
Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in...
bus stations in the deep South
Deep South
The Deep South is a descriptive category of the cultural and geographic subregions in the American South. Historically, it is differentiated from the "Upper South" as being the states which were most dependent on plantation type agriculture during the pre-Civil War period...
, Rockwell secured a Volkswagen
Volkswagen
Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
van and decorated it with swastika
Swastika
The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...
s and white supremacist
White supremacy
White supremacy is the belief, and promotion of the belief, that white people are superior to people of other racial backgrounds. The term is sometimes used specifically to describe a political ideology that advocates the social and political dominance by whites.White supremacy, as with racial...
slogans, dubbing it the "Hate Bus" and personally driving it to speaking engagements and party rallies. According to an FBI report on the American Nazi Party, the van was repossessed after a loan default.
Assassination
On June 28, 1967, the first attempt was made on Rockwell’s life. Returning from shopping, he drove into the party barracks’ driveway on Wilson Boulevard and found it blocked by a felled tree and brush. Rockwell assumed that it was another prank by local teens. As a young boy cleared the obstruction, two shots were fired at Rockwell from behind one of the swastika-embossed brick driveway pillars. One of the shots ricocheted off the car, right next to his head. Leaping from the car, Rockwell pursued the would-be assassin. On June 30, Rockwell petitioned the Arlington County Circuit Court for a gun permit. No action was ever taken on his request.On August 25, 1967, Rockwell was killed by gunshots while leaving the Econowash laundromat at the Dominion Hills Shopping Center in the 6000 block of Wilson Boulevard in Arlington, Virginia. Two bullets crashed through his 1958 Chevrolet’s windshield, and it slowly rolled backwards to a stop. Rockwell staggered out of the front passenger side door of the car, pointed towards the shopping center roof, and then collapsed face up on the pavement.
The gunman ran along the shopping center roof and jumped to the ground in the rear. A shop owner and a customer briefly gave chase, but were unable to get a clear look at the fleeing figure. Other customers called the Arlington County police and checked Rockwell for a pulse. He had none; the one bullet that struck him had ripped through several major arteries just above his heart. The internal bleeding was so heavy that Rockwell died in two minutes.
A half hour later, at a bus stop about a half-mile away, John Patler
John Patler
John Patler is an American neo-Nazi who assassinated American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell on August 25, 1967....
, a former member of Rockwell’s group, was arrested as the suspected murderer by a passing patrolman familiar with the Arlington Nazis. Later that day, after hearing of his son’s death, Rockwell’s 78-year-old father commented laconically, “I am not surprised at all. I’ve expected it for quite some time.”
Matt Koehl
Matt Koehl
Matt Koehl is the leader of a self-defined religious organization called the New Order. As deputy commander, in August 1967 Koehl succeeded the assassinated George Lincoln Rockwell as 'Commander' of the National Socialist White People's Party...
, the number two man in the NSWPP, moved to establish legal control over Rockwell’s body and all NSWPP assets. At the time of his death, the NSWPP had approximately 300 active members nationwide, and perhaps 3,000 financial supporters. Although Rockwell’s parents wanted a private burial in Maine, they did not feel up to a public fight with the Nazis for his body. On August 27, an NSWPP spokesman reported that Federal officials had given verbal approval to a planned military burial of Rockwell at Culpeper National Cemetery, as an honorably discharged veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces.
On August 29, several dozen NSWPP troopers and about 100 party supporters formed a procession and drove the 65 miles from Arlington to Culpeper. At the cemetery gates they were met by General Carl C. Turner and 60 MPs who had been rushed in from Vint Hill to enforce the U.S. Army’s burial protocol. They were backed by dozens of police from various jurisdictions. No mourners bearing Nazi insignia would be allowed into the cemetery. The NSWPP troopers refused to remove their uniforms, which led to a day-long standoff. They unsuccessfully tried to force their way into the cemetery three separate times. Several arrests resulted. With daylight fading, General Turner declared that Rockwell could not be buried until the NSWPP made a new request to the Pentagon and agreed to follow protocol.
The Nazis returned to Arlington with Rockwell’s body. Plans were made to bury Rockwell in Spotsylvania County, but they fell apart when local Jewish organizations protested. Fearing that Arlington County officials might seize the body, the ANP had Rockwell cremated the next morning, and a memorial service was held that afternoon at party headquarters. On February 8, 1968, the NSWPP filed suit to obtain a Nazi burial for Rockwell’s remains at any National Cemetery. On March 15, 1969, a Federal district judge upheld the Army Secretary’s ruling that Rockwell was ineligible for a burial with full military honors in a national cemetery. Today Rockwell's ashes reside next to those of Savitri Devi in the memorial room of New Order
New Order (National Socialist)
New Order, a successor organization to the original American Nazi Party, is now a self-styled National Socialist religious group which promotes Esoteric Nazism as an alternative faith for "Aryans" ....
headquarters in New Berlin, Wisconsin
New Berlin, Wisconsin
New Berlin is a city in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 38,220 at the 2000 census. New Berlin is the third largest community in Waukesha County after the cities of Waukesha and Brookfield....
.
Following psychiatric evaluation, John Patler was judged competent to stand trial. He pleaded not guilty at his preliminary hearing to the charge of first degree homicide. His trial began on November 27 amid tight security at the Arlington County Courthouse. On December 15, Patler was found guilty and released on bond to await sentencing. On February 23, 1968, Patler was sentenced to 20 years in prison, at that time the least amount possible for a first degree murder conviction. The Virginia Circuit Court postponed imprisonment pending his appeal.
On November 30, 1970, the Virginia Supreme Court upheld Patler’s conviction and 20-year sentence for slaying Rockwell, and ordered him to begin serving his sentence. On May 16, 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected Patler’s appeal based on claims of witness contamination. In August 1975, Patler was paroled from the Pulaski correctional unit after serving less than four years of his sentence. Judge Charles S. Russell, who had presided over Patler’s murder trial, wrote a lengthy letter to the parole board supporting Patler’s release, the only time he did so in his career. The following year Patler violated the terms of his parole and was returned to prison for an additional six years. On December 30, 1977 Patler petitioned the Henry County Circuit Court to change his surname back to its original form, Patsalos. After serving out the remainder of his sentence, John Patsalos returned to the New York City area.
The exact reason for Rockwell's murder is still a matter of debate. Patler's nasty feud with Rockwell and a family history of violence weighed against him at the trial. Despite being convicted of the crime, Patler has always maintained his innocence. The case against him was largely circumstantial and key evidence against him (e.g., whether he possessed the murder weapon at the time of the killing) was disputed by defense witnesses.
The small strip mall where Rockwell was killed is still called the Dominion Hills Shopping Center, although it has since been refurbished and the laundromat replaced by a dry cleaners. After his death, admirers of Rockwell painted a white swastika on the blacktop surface of the parking lot, marking the exact spot where he died. Several attempts by the property owners were made to obliterate the emblem with a square patch of black paint, but the white swastika would always surreptitiously reappear, usually on or near the anniversary of Rockwell's death. It remained visible, off and on, well into the 1980s, until the NSWPP renamed itself New Order
New Order (National Socialist)
New Order, a successor organization to the original American Nazi Party, is now a self-styled National Socialist religious group which promotes Esoteric Nazism as an alternative faith for "Aryans" ....
and moved their headquarters to Wisconsin. Since then the parking lot has been resurfaced and the swastika never replaced, however the spot where his body lay can be approximated today by using a crime scene photograph that appears on page 323 of William H. Schmaltz's biography of Rockwell. On August 27, 2007, the 40th anniversary of the assassination, a group of unidentified, non-uniformed Rockwell admirers appeared at the Dominion Hills Shopping Center to conduct a brief ceremony and lay a wreath. They carried a plain white banner with black and red lettering that bore the symbolic slogan "Lincoln Rockwell Lives!".
Legacy
Rockwell was a source of inspiration for White Nationalist politician David DukeDavid Duke
David Ernest Duke is a former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan an American activist and writer, and former Republican Louisiana State Representative. He was also a former candidate in the Republican presidential primaries in 1992, and in the Democratic presidential primaries in...
. As a student in high school, when Duke learned of Rockwell's assassination, he reportedly said "The greatest American who ever lived has been shot down and killed". In the mid-1960s, Rockwell had a strategy to develop his Nazi political philosophy within the Christian Identity
Christian Identity
Christian Identity is a label applied to a wide variety of loosely affiliated believers and churches with a racialized theology. Many promote a Eurocentric interpretation of Christianity.According to Chester L...
religious movement. Previously, Christian Identity had antisemitic and racist views, but not a Third Reich orientation. The Christian Identity group Aryan Nations
Aryan Nations
Aryan Nations is a white supremacist religious organization originally based in Hayden Lake, Idaho. Richard Girnt Butler founded the group in the 1970s, as an arm of the Christian Identity organization Church of Jesus Christ–Christian...
started to use various Nazi flags in its services, and its security personnel started wearing uniforms similar to those worn by Rockwell's stormtrooper
Stormtrooper
Stormtroopers were specialist soldiers of the German Army in World War I. In the last years of the war, Stoßtruppen were trained to fight with "infiltration tactics", part of the Germans' new method of attack on enemy trenches...
s. Two of Rockwell's associates, Matt Koehl
Matt Koehl
Matt Koehl is the leader of a self-defined religious organization called the New Order. As deputy commander, in August 1967 Koehl succeeded the assassinated George Lincoln Rockwell as 'Commander' of the National Socialist White People's Party...
and William Luther Pierce
William Luther Pierce
William Luther Pierce III was the leader of the white separatist National Alliance organization, and one of the most important ideologists of the white nationalist movement. Pierce originally worked as an assistant professor of physics at Oregon State University, before he became involved in...
, formed their own organizations. Koehl, who was Rockwell's successor, renamed the NSWPP to New Order
New Order (National Socialist)
New Order, a successor organization to the original American Nazi Party, is now a self-styled National Socialist religious group which promotes Esoteric Nazism as an alternative faith for "Aryans" ....
in 1983 and relocated it to Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
shortly thereafter. Pierce founded the National Alliance.
George Lincoln Rockwell was also mentioned in the lyrics to the Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
song "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues
Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues
Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues, also known as Talkin' John Birch Society Blues and Talkin' John Birch Blues, is a talking blues song written by singer-songwriter Bob Dylan in 1962. It is a satirical song, in which a paranoid narrator is convinced that communists, or "Reds" as he calls them, are...
". In the lyrics to the song, the narrator accuses Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
and Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
of 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."
In an episode of The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode is a mixture of self-contained drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist...
entitled "He's Alive
He's Alive
"He's Alive" is a fourth-season episode of The Twilight Zone. It tells of an American neo-Nazi who is inspired by the ghost of Adolf Hitler...
", Dennis Hopper portrays the leader of a small Neo-Nazi group; a character apparently inspired by Rockwell.
Summary of military career
Rockwell had a successful Naval career, both on active duty and in the Naval Reserve. A veteran of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he was a naval aviator and served a follow-on tour during the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
. He would transfer to the naval reserve. In his nineteen years of service, he had reached to the rank of Commander
Commander
Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...
and had commanded officer of several aviation reserve units. In 1960, as a result of his political and racist activities, the United States Navy discharged Rockwell one year short of retirement, since he was regarded as "not deployable" in due to his political views. The proceedings to dismiss him were an extremely public affair, and Rockwell widely advertised the results, staying he "had basically been thrown out of the Navy"
Service dates
- 15 March 1941: Enlisted U.S. Naval Reserve
- 17 March 1941: Called to Active Duty
- 12 June 1941: Appointed Aviation Cadet, U.S. Naval Reserve
- 16 October 1941: Commissioned EnsignEnsignAn ensign is a national flag when used at sea, in vexillology, or a distinguishing token, emblem, or badge, such as a symbol of office in heraldry...
- 22 November 1945: Released from Active Duty as a LieutenantLieutenantA lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
- 21 September 1950: Recalled to Active Duty
- 20 October 1954: Released from Active Duty as a CommanderCommanderCommander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...
- 5 February 1960: Discharged from the Naval Reserve
Dates of rank
- Seaman RecruitSeaman RecruitSeaman recruit is the lowest enlisted rank in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard, just below seaman apprentice; this rank was formerly known as seaman third class...
: 15 March 41 - Aviation Cadet: 2 June 41
- Ensign: 16 October 41
- Lieutenant Junior Grade: 1 October 42
- Lieutenant: 1 October 43
- Lieutenant CommanderLieutenant CommanderLieutenant Commander is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander...
: 3 October 45 - Commander: 1 February 54
Awards
- American Defense Service MedalAmerican Defense Service MedalThe American Defense Service Medal is a decoration of the United States military, recognizing service before America’s entry into the Second World War but during the initial years of the European conflict.-Criteria:...
- American Campaign MedalAmerican Campaign MedalThe American Campaign Medal was a military decoration of the United States armed forces which was first created on November 6, 1942 by issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt...
(w/1 service star) - Asiatic-Pacific Campaign MedalAsiatic-Pacific Campaign MedalThe Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal is a service decoration of the Second World War which was awarded to any member of the United States military who served in the Pacific Theater from 1941 to 1945 and was created on November 6, 1942 by issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The medal was...
(w/3 service stars) - European-African Middle Eastern Campaign Medal (w/1 service starService starA service star, also referred to as a battle star, campaign star, or engagement star, is an attachment to a United States military decoration which denotes participation in military campaigns or multiple bestowals of the same award. Service stars are typically issued for campaign medals, service...
) - World War II Victory MedalWorld War II Victory MedalThe World War II Victory Medal is a decoration of the United States military which was created by an act of Congress in July 1945. The decoration commemorates military service during World War II and is awarded to any member of the United States military, including members of the armed forces of...
- National Defense Service MedalNational Defense Service MedalThe National Defense Service Medal is a military service medal of the United States military originally commissioned by President Dwight D. Eisenhower...
- Naval Reserve MedalNaval Reserve MedalThe Naval Reserve Medal is a decoration of the United States Navy which was created by order of Secretary of the Navy James Paulding. The medal was first issued on September 12, 1938 and was an active decoration until 1958. On September 12, 1958, the Naval Reserve Medal was declared discontinued...
- Philippine Liberation MedalPhilippine Liberation MedalThe Philippine Liberation Medal is a military award of the Republic of the Philippines which was created by an order of Commonwealth Army of the Philippines Headquarters on December 20, 1944...
(w/2 service stars)
Works
- In Hoc Signo Vinces, a political manifestoManifestoA manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature. Manifestos relating to religious belief are generally referred to as creeds. Manifestos may also be life stance-related.-Etymology:...
(World Union of Free Enterprise National Socialists, 1960) - How to Get Out or Stay Out of the Insane Asylum, recounts his experience of being sentenced to thirty days observation (American Nazi Party, 1960)
- The Fable of the Ducks and the Hens, a long-form poem that uses various sub-species of birds to illustrate Rockwell's own views of the racial problems in America and the world.
- This Time the World, his autobiography (written 1960; First Published by Parliament House 1961; Reprinted by White Power Publications, 1979; and later Liberty Bell Publications, 2004, ISBN 1-59364-014-5).
- White Power (written 1967; John McLaughlin, 1996, ISBN 0-9656492-8-8)
External links
- The American Nazi Party by Frederick J. Simonelli
- Biography for George Lincoln Rockwell
- Excerpts from This Time The World, including photos.
- American Fuehrer: George Lincoln Rockwell and the American Nazi Party review by Katharine Whittemore at salon.comSalon.comSalon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
. - "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
- Federal Bureau of Investigation - American Nazi Party monograph, June 1965 - Includes background information on George Lincoln Rockwell