Changes

[[Image:Pelley.jpg|right|thumb|300px|William Dudley Pelley, in the uniform of the Silver Shirts]]

[[Image:Pelley.jpg|right|thumb|300px|William Dudley Pelley, in the uniform of the Silver Shirts]]

[[William Dudley Pelley]] (1890-1965) was a Hollywood screenwriter best known as the founder and leader of The [[Silver Legion of America|Silver Shirts]]. It existed 1933-41 as an ant-Semitic hate group with chapters in the South and the West Coast.

'''William Dudley Pelley''' (1890-1965) was a Hollywood screenwriter best known as the founder and leader of The [[Silver Legion of America|Silver Shirts]]. It existed 1933-41 as an ant-Semitic hate group with chapters in the South and the West Coast.

Through a curious blending of astrology, spiritualism, anti-Semitism, and white supremacy, Pelley's Legion envisioned a Christian commonwealth filled with Nazi symbols and philosophies. The group was all sound and fury and apart from speeches and hate literature, had few activities.

Through a curious blending of astrology, spiritualism, anti-Semitism, and white supremacy, Pelley's Legion envisioned a Christian commonwealth filled with Nazi symbols and philosophies. The group was all sound and fury and apart from speeches and hate literature, had few activities.

Pelley was the son of a Methodist minister from Massachusetts but never graduated from high school.  

Pelley was the son of a Methodist minister from Massachusetts but never graduated from high school.  

==see also==

==See also==

* [[Silver Legion of America]]

* [[Silver Legion of America]]

==Further reading==

==Further reading==

* Beekman, Scott.  ''Wiliam Dudley Pelley: A Life in Right-Wing Extremism and the Occult'' (2005)

* Beekman, Scott.  ''Wiliam Dudley Pelley: A Life in Right-Wing Extremism and the Occult'' (2005)

* Beekman, Scott.  "Wiliam Dudley Pelley" in [http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-01310.html ''American National Biography]]  

* Beekman, Scott.  "Wiliam Dudley Pelley" in [http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-01310.html ''American National Biography]  

*  Ribuffo, Leo P. ''The Old Christian Right: The Protestant Far Right from the Great Depression to the Cold War'' (1983), which studies three anti-Semitic activists - William D. Pelley, Gerald B. Winrod, and Gerald K. Smith  

*  Ribuffo, Leo P. ''The Old Christian Right: The Protestant Far Right from the Great Depression to the Cold War'' (1983), which studies three anti-Semitic activists - William D. Pelley, Gerald B. Winrod, and Gerald K. Smith  

[[Category:Anti-Semitism]]

[[Category:Anti-Semitism]]