Edward Reed Fields (born September 30, 1932) is an American white supremacist and anti-Semite. He helped found the National States' Rights Party, and was for several decades the editor of the white supremacist newspaper The Thunderbolt, later renaming it The Truth At Last.
Edward Reed Fields | |
|---|---|
.jpeg) Fields in 1969 | |
| National Director of the National States' Rights Party | |
| In office 1958–1983 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Expelled |
| Personal details | |
| Born | September 30, 1932 |
| Party | National States' Rights (1958–1983) |
| Education | Palmer College of Chiropractic |
Early life
editFields was born in 1932[1] in Chicago, Illinois, and moved at an early age to Atlanta, Georgia, where he graduated from Catholic school.[2] He was raised in Marietta, Georgia.[1] His parents were both practicing Catholics.[1] During this time he became active in far-right politics, and associated himself with the Black Front, a local Nazi organization, serving as a recruiter.[2] He first became interested in Nazism aged 14.[3]
Fields attended law school in Atlanta, but transferred to the Palmer College of Chiropractic in 1953 and graduated in 1956.[1] Fields began practice as a chiropractor, although this occupation was soon overshadowed by his political activity.[2][1]
White supremacy
editFields was active in several white supremacist political organizations, joining the Columbians, an anti-black and anti-Semitic group, in high school, and joining J. B. Stoner's Christian Anti-Jewish Party in 1952; he later served as its Executive Director. He was also a member of the American Anti-Communist Society in 1950 and 1951.[2][4]
National States' Rights Party
editHe founded the short-lived United White Party (UWP) in 1956; it merged with another racist group the States' Rights party. This became,[1] in 1958,[3] the National States' Rights Party, which advocated racial segregation and white supremacy; he served as its National Director while Stoner served as its National Chairman. Fields edited the party's newspaper, The Thunderbolt. During this time period, he frequently wrote to print publications detailing his beliefs, for instance in 1969 a letter by Fields was published in Playboy, alleging, "we will never have law and order in America until all Negroes are deported back to Africa and completely removed from this nation that was founded and built by the great white race."[2]
Fields and the National States' Rights Party in 1963 were enlisted by Alabama Gov. George Wallace and state public safety chief Albert Lingo to create pretexts that Wallace used to order closed public schools that were slated for integration and to deploy state troopers—over the objections of local authorities—in communities otherwise determined to comply with federal court orders to desegregate.[5]
In 1976, following Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley's opening of prosecution against Robert Edward Chambliss, who was one of the bombers of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Fields wrote a letter to Baxley, referring to him as an "honorary nigger" and threatening to assassinate him. Baxley responded with his own letter the following day, telling Fields, "My response to your letter of February 19, 1976, is - kiss my ass."[6][7]
Later
editFollowing J. B. Stoner's imprisonment for his involvement in the 1958 Bethel Baptist Church bombing, Fields lost the trust of many party members, largely due to his increasing activity with the Ku Klux Klan and decreasing involvement with the party, and was expelled from the party in August 1983. He continued publishing The Thunderbolt, but changed the newspaper's name to The Truth At Last. Fields founded the white supremacist America First Party in 1993, and spoke at the Populist Party's 1994 convention.[4]
Fields attended the 2001 funeral of Klansman Byron De La Beckwith, who murdered civil rights activist Medgar Evers.[8]
In 2008, Fields retired from politics.[9]
References
edit- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Atkins 2011, p. 41.
- 1 2 3 4 5 "National States Rights Party". Federal Bureau of Investigation. May 1970. Retrieved May 22, 2018.
- 1 2 Newton 2014, p. 67.
- 1 2 Profile of Edward Fields Archived 2007-10-17 at the Wayback Machine from Anti-Defamation League
- ↑ Carter, Dan T. (1995). The politics of rage : George Wallace, the origins of the new conservatism, and the transformation of American politics. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 164–174. ISBN 0-684-80916-8. OCLC 32739924.
- ↑ Cornish, Audie; Baxley, Bill; Huntsberry, Will (October 16, 2014). "Alabama Attorney General's 1976 Letter Told KKK Off In 3 Short Words". All Things Considered. National Public Radio. Retrieved April 22, 2023.
- ↑ Newton 2014, pp. 67–68.
- ↑ Braun, Ken (April 5, 2013). "Ken Braun: Dave Agema should resign after Facebook post citing a Holocaust denier". MLive. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
- ↑ Macklin, Graham (2020). "John Tyndall: In pursuit of the 'Anglo-Saxon Reich'". Failed Führers: A History of Britain’s Extreme Right. Routledge Studies in Fascism and the Far Right. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 429. ISBN 978-0-415-62729-0.
Works cited
edit- Atkins, Stephen E. (2011). Encyclopedia of Right-Wing Extremism in Modern American History. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-59884-350-7.
- Newton, Michael (2014) [2007]. The Ku Klux Klan: History, Organization, Language, Influence and Activities of America's Most Notorious Secret Society. Jefferson: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-9559-7.