George Lincoln Rockwell

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George Lincoln Rockwell : biography

March 9, 1918 – August 25, 1967

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.

Legacy

Rockwell was a source of inspiration for White Nationalist politician David Duke. 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".Elinor Langer, "A Hundred Little Hitlers," (Picador, New York, 2004), p. 131 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 stormtroopers. 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.

In the television miniseries Roots: The Next Generations, Marlon Brando portrayed Rockwell and won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for his performance.

Early life

Rockwell was born in Bloomington, Illinois, 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 comedians and actors, and his father’s acquaintances included Fred Allen, Benny Goodman, Walter Winchell, Jack Benny, and Groucho Marx. by Alex Haley in Playboy (April 1966) by Lawrence N. Powell in American Jewish History (85.4, 1997, pp. 393–419) 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.