Into the Spotlight
In 1958, Rockwell decided he no longer wanted to sit on the sidelines. He organized his first demonstration in Washington. The following year, he founded the American Nazi Party. Rockwell’s new party was headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. Rockwell’s new group immediately garnered headlines, and in February 1960, the U.S. Navy determined he was no longer fit to serve in the Naval Reserves because of his desire “to foster religious and racial hatred.”
Rockwell spent the rest of 1960 organizing protests on the National Mall in Washington and at other sites, espousing his twisted beliefs and hatred across the country. The leader of the American Nazi Party also began releasing his new publication, The National Socialist Bulletin, later renamed The Stormtrooper Magazine.
Rockwell’s party wore Nazi uniforms and marched with Nazi flags down American streets. He helped the Ku Klux Klan organize against Civil Rights protesters, and he also became an outspoken Holocaust denier. Rockwell told a reporter, “I don’t believe for one minute that any 6,000,000 Jews were exterminated by Hitler. It didn’t happen.” Rockwell attempted to counter the Civil Rights iconic Freedom Riders movement with his own “Hate Bus,” a Volkswagen van decorated with racist slogans and imagery that he drove to rallies. The BBC referred to Rockwell as the “American Hitler.”
Rockwell continued his hateful crusade throughout the 1960s, speaking at rallies and universities, leading demonstrations, and debating notable African-American activists such as Black Panther Stokely Carmichael. Rockwell also began using the term “White Power” in 1966 in direct response to the Black Power movement.
Cut Down By One Of His Own
On August 25, 1967, a former American Nazi Party member, 29-year-old John Patler, shot and killed George Lincoln Rockwell while he was leaving a laundromat in Arlington, Virginia. In addition to being a former member of Rockwell’s party, Patler was also the editor and cartoonist for The Stormtrooper Magazine. Rockwell had kicked Patler out of the American Nazi Party in 1967 after an argument about the group’s policies.
Rockwell was 49-years-old at the time of his death. His party was immediately taken over by his second in command, Matt Koehl, who led the neo-Nazi organization until his death in 2014. John Patler served 8 years in prison for the murder of Rockwell.