Christian Party (United States, 1930s)

Christian Party
Leader	William Dudley Pelley
Founder	William Dudley Pelley
Founded	August 16, 1935 (1935-08-16)
Dissolved	circa 1939
Headquarters	Asheville, North Carolina, U.S
Paramilitary wing	Silver Legion of America
Ideology	Christian fascism, Occult fascism [1]
Colors	Silver

The Christian Party was an American fascist political party which was founded by William Dudley Pelley in 1935. ^[2] He chose 16 August 1935 as the Christian Party's founding date, because it was a so-called "pyramid date". ^[3] The party can be considered the political wing of Pelley's paramilitary organization, the Silver Legion of America. It ran with Pelley as its candidate for the 1936 presidential campaign ^[4] (Willard Kemp, commander of the Silver Legion in Southern California ^[5] , was the vice presidential candidate). Pelley gained just 1,600 votes in the election. ^[6] The party quickly vanished after the United States entered World War II. Although the party was nominally Christian, its ideology was blended with a variety of occult beliefs held by Pelley. ^[7]

References

1. Toy, Eckard V. (September 2006). "William Dudley Pelley: A Life in Right-Wing Extremism and the Occult". Journal of American History. 93 (2): 572–573. doi:10.2307/4486338. JSTOR   4486338.
2. Barkun, Michael (1997). Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement. UNC Press Books. p. 91. ISBN   9780807846384.
3. Scott Beekman: William Dudley Pelley – A Life in Right-Wing Extremism and the Occult, Syracuse (NY): Syracuse University Press 2005, p. 113.
4. Schultz, Will. "William Dudley Pelley (1885-1965)". North Carolina History Project. Retrieved February 4, 2020.
5. Monteagudo, Merrie (2020-10-12). "In 1934 a right-wing militia allegedly plotted to capture City Hall". San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved 2025-02-21.
6. Beekman, Scott (October 31, 2006). "Pelley, William Dudley". American National Biography (online ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1501310.(subscription required)
7. Toy, Eckard V., Jr. (2006-09-01). "William Dudley Pelley: A Life in Right-Wing Extremism and the Occult". Journal of American History. 93 (2): 572–573. doi:10.2307/4486338. ISSN   0021-8723. JSTOR   4486338.