| | In 1956, Courtney organized a campaign to prevent pro-[[civil rights]] law professor Walter Fischel Gellhorn (1906-1995) of [[Columbia University]] in [[New York City]] from lecturing at [[Louisiana State University]] in [[Baton Rouge]]. Gellhorn was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a long-term board member of the [[American Civil Liberties Union]] as well as a critic of [[segregation]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/record/archives/vol21/vol21_iss13/record2113.35.html|title=Walter Gellhorn, Law Authority, Is Dead at 89|publisher=Columbia.edu|date=December 1995|accessdate=August 15, 2019}}</ref> | | In 1956, Courtney organized a campaign to prevent pro-[[civil rights]] law professor Walter Fischel Gellhorn (1906-1995) of [[Columbia University]] in [[New York City]] from lecturing at [[Louisiana State University]] in [[Baton Rouge]]. Gellhorn was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a long-term board member of the [[American Civil Liberties Union]] as well as a critic of [[segregation]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/record/archives/vol21/vol21_iss13/record2113.35.html|title=Walter Gellhorn, Law Authority, Is Dead at 89|publisher=Columbia.edu|date=December 1995|accessdate=August 15, 2019}}</ref> |
| | In October 1959, Kent and Phoebe Courtney sponsored a two-day meeting in [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]], which included a banquet to honor [[Robert Welch]] of [[Massachusetts]], the founder of the [[anti-communism|anticommunist]] [[John Birch Society]]. [[William F. Buckley, Jr.]], columnist and publisher of ''[[National Review]]'' [[magazine]] attended the meeting and for a time was a confidant of Welch.<ref name=ourcampaigns/> Three years later, Buckley was one of the founders of the Conservative Party of New York under whose label he ran in 1965 for mayor of [[New York City]] but lost out to the liberal Republican U.S. Representative (and later Democrat) John Vliet Lindsay (1921-2000). By the middle 1960s, Buckley had become a critic of the JBS and those espousing "conspiracies" which he said marginalize conservatives in the electorate as a whole.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1995/12/the-conservative-1960s/376506/|title=The Conservative 1960s: From the perspective of the 1990s, it's the big political story of the era|publisher=''Atlantic Monthly'' magazine|author=Matthew Dallek|date=December 1995|accessdate=August 15, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/06/william-f-buckley-john-birch-society-history-conflict-robert-welch/|title=William F. Buckley and John Birch Society: History of Conflict with Robert Welch|publisher=''[[National Review]]''|author=Alvin Felzenberg|date=June 20, 2017|accessdate=August 17, 2019}}</ref> | | In October 1959, Kent and Phoebe Courtney sponsored a two-day meeting in [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]], which included a banquet to honor [[Robert Welch]] of [[Massachusetts]], the founder of the [[anti-communism|anticommunist]] [[John Birch Society]]. [[William F. Buckley, Jr.]], columnist and publisher of ''[[National Review]]'' [[magazine]] attended the meeting and for a time was a confidant of Welch.<ref name=ourcampaigns/> Three years later, Buckley was one of the founders of the Conservative Party of New York under whose label he ran in 1965 for mayor of [[New York City]] but lost out to the liberal Republican U.S. Representative (and later Democrat) John Vliet Lindsay (1921-2000). By the middle 1960s, Buckley had become a critic of the JBS and those espousing "conspiracies" which he said marginalize conservatives in the electorate as a whole.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1995/12/the-conservative-1960s/376506/|title=The Conservative 1960s: From the perspective of the 1990s, it's the big political story of the era|publisher=''Atlantic Monthly'' magazine|author=Matthew Dallek|date=December 1995|accessdate=August 15, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/06/william-f-buckley-john-birch-society-history-conflict-robert-welch/|title=William F. Buckley and John Birch Society: History of Conflict with Robert Welch|publisher=''[[National Review]]''|author=Alvin Felzenberg|date=June 20, 2017|accessdate=August 17, 2019}}</ref> |