Hi Vance, thank you for your hard work into an absolutely fascinating personality. As a PhD in history whose thesis was on a Pelley like figure active during 1935-1945 in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, I appreciate the influence and personality of Pelley.
I would love to learn more about the Silver Shirts and Pelley in greater depth. I used Scott Beekman’s work for a brief comparison in my thesis. Could you direct me to some sources that would help me to get a better understanding of Pelley, and the Silver Legion of America?
Thank you for your effort. I hope I didn't put you out too much. My own search turned up some interesting archival documents held at the University of Washington's Library, of which I will contact for further information. Thank you again.
No trouble at all. UW does not circulate their materials and I hardly think the archivist would know their way around the Pelley collection. Nearly everything should be there though. I know the fellow who donated most of it. Any particular item you are looking for, just ask. I may have it or know where to get it.
Thank you again for the kind offer. Forgive my late reply, I was mulling this over to be as specific as possible. I am interested in the Silver Legion's membership lists in California, especially its LA branch, which to my limited understanding, had a plethora of different organizational sub-branches, and personalities, such as Eugene Case. Delving into this is of particular interest to me. Any further help on my behalf would of course, be greatly appreciated.
I don't know that a membership list from Los Angeles posts was ever made public. I have a list of posts specific to several neighborhoods. The only LA figures I know much about are Kenneth Alexander and Henry Allen. As you may have mentioned, there was a breakaway group which put out their own publication and was critical of Pelley. Almost forgot about Dr. Joseph Jeffers. He was an interesting fellow out there.
Hey Vance, out of curiosity do you have the Legion guidelines for African-American auxiliary members or some such thing? I remember some time back when I was browsing through the Pelley Club page on Facebook I saw you mention them and despite having a great deal of Legion paperwork from the headquarters (digital photocopies, sadly no physical ones yet) that bit has always eluded me.
I also bought a copy of the magazine, it'll be nice to have more Pelley related stuff in a physical medium instead of on my PC. Cheers friend.
Thanks for buying FATE. They appreciate it. As for regulations regarding black members, I more recently ran across two citations amongst the photostats in the FBI files. It doesn't set up guidelines so much as to say black membership is at the discretion of local posts. In another place it mentions that there are no rules pertaining to black membership simply because black prospects weren't lining up to join, or words to that effect. Enough to show that the official organizational structure was not implicit in its discrimination against potential black members.
Fascinating, that actually meshes pretty well with the info I have on hand. I have digital copies of Legion recruitment papers from the Asheville headquarters which notably do not list or require racial criteria for membership, but I also have some from a Legion post in southern California which does include such things. If I'm not mistaken the Legion in California drew a lot of inspiration from the Bund and even had some members break away and try to form their own movement, it's interesting how much the organization could seemingly vary simply depending upon where in the country a specific post was.
Here is the most recent reference to potential colored membership I have run across. I think the policy in writing may have varied slightly over the years as I know I've seen paragraphs addressing negro auxiliary membership. https://www.facebook.com/groups/pelleyclub/posts/2084770011724842/
Fourth, regardless of defamatory statements to the contrary chiefly spread by Jews who would thus vent their rancor on The Legion for excluding them, Catholics as well as Protestants may belong to the organization. The Legion's ranks therefore include at present large numbers of Catholics in excellent standing -- Legionnaires who have displayed the finest exhibits of unquestionably-proven patriotism and Christian idealism. Owing to the difficulties involved in Post or Council memberships, however, colored people are only eligible for membership where individual Posts or Councils so vote. Primarily, none the less, this is a white organization and no aspersions are cast upon the colored race by generally keeping it such.
This reminds me of the Blue Tunic Army of Christ. I forget where I've heard/read about this concept but I believe it may have been explained by William Potter Gale
Hi Vance, thank you for your hard work into an absolutely fascinating personality. As a PhD in history whose thesis was on a Pelley like figure active during 1935-1945 in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, I appreciate the influence and personality of Pelley.
I would love to learn more about the Silver Shirts and Pelley in greater depth. I used Scott Beekman’s work for a brief comparison in my thesis. Could you direct me to some sources that would help me to get a better understanding of Pelley, and the Silver Legion of America?
Respectfully,
- Christian Kurzydlowski
Beekman's bio is the best/only published account written in this century. Maybe in a few years my own book will be the best source.
I would recommend Pelley's own autobiography "Door to Revelation." It is long out of print and very valuable, but has been digitized in an early manuscript edition from 1936 here... https://archive.org/details/wdp_pelley_door_to_revelation_1936
...and also: https://archvillain.substack.com/p/a-harvard-history-thesis-on-wdp
Thank you for your effort. I hope I didn't put you out too much. My own search turned up some interesting archival documents held at the University of Washington's Library, of which I will contact for further information. Thank you again.
No trouble at all. UW does not circulate their materials and I hardly think the archivist would know their way around the Pelley collection. Nearly everything should be there though. I know the fellow who donated most of it. Any particular item you are looking for, just ask. I may have it or know where to get it.
Thank you again for the kind offer. Forgive my late reply, I was mulling this over to be as specific as possible. I am interested in the Silver Legion's membership lists in California, especially its LA branch, which to my limited understanding, had a plethora of different organizational sub-branches, and personalities, such as Eugene Case. Delving into this is of particular interest to me. Any further help on my behalf would of course, be greatly appreciated.
I don't know that a membership list from Los Angeles posts was ever made public. I have a list of posts specific to several neighborhoods. The only LA figures I know much about are Kenneth Alexander and Henry Allen. As you may have mentioned, there was a breakaway group which put out their own publication and was critical of Pelley. Almost forgot about Dr. Joseph Jeffers. He was an interesting fellow out there.
Hey Vance, out of curiosity do you have the Legion guidelines for African-American auxiliary members or some such thing? I remember some time back when I was browsing through the Pelley Club page on Facebook I saw you mention them and despite having a great deal of Legion paperwork from the headquarters (digital photocopies, sadly no physical ones yet) that bit has always eluded me.
I also bought a copy of the magazine, it'll be nice to have more Pelley related stuff in a physical medium instead of on my PC. Cheers friend.
Thanks for buying FATE. They appreciate it. As for regulations regarding black members, I more recently ran across two citations amongst the photostats in the FBI files. It doesn't set up guidelines so much as to say black membership is at the discretion of local posts. In another place it mentions that there are no rules pertaining to black membership simply because black prospects weren't lining up to join, or words to that effect. Enough to show that the official organizational structure was not implicit in its discrimination against potential black members.
Fascinating, that actually meshes pretty well with the info I have on hand. I have digital copies of Legion recruitment papers from the Asheville headquarters which notably do not list or require racial criteria for membership, but I also have some from a Legion post in southern California which does include such things. If I'm not mistaken the Legion in California drew a lot of inspiration from the Bund and even had some members break away and try to form their own movement, it's interesting how much the organization could seemingly vary simply depending upon where in the country a specific post was.
Here is the most recent reference to potential colored membership I have run across. I think the policy in writing may have varied slightly over the years as I know I've seen paragraphs addressing negro auxiliary membership. https://www.facebook.com/groups/pelleyclub/posts/2084770011724842/
Fourth, regardless of defamatory statements to the contrary chiefly spread by Jews who would thus vent their rancor on The Legion for excluding them, Catholics as well as Protestants may belong to the organization. The Legion's ranks therefore include at present large numbers of Catholics in excellent standing -- Legionnaires who have displayed the finest exhibits of unquestionably-proven patriotism and Christian idealism. Owing to the difficulties involved in Post or Council memberships, however, colored people are only eligible for membership where individual Posts or Councils so vote. Primarily, none the less, this is a white organization and no aspersions are cast upon the colored race by generally keeping it such.
This reminds me of the Blue Tunic Army of Christ. I forget where I've heard/read about this concept but I believe it may have been explained by William Potter Gale