Gerald Lyman Kenneth Smith (February 27, 1898 – April 15, 1976) was an American Disciples clergyman, politician and organizer known for his populist and far-right demagoguery. On October 22, he was punched in the face after delivering a radio talk in New Orleans. On the night before the election, he was arrested for disturbing the peace, reviling the police, and using obscene language after attacking Leche on statewide radio. Despite the boasts of Smith, Townsend, and Coughlin, the Union ticket received only 2 percent of the national vote, mostly in Catholic precincts where Coughlin's popularity was strongest; within two years, the party collapsed entirely.

America First Party of 1943

left|thumb|Anti-Taft pro-Roosevelt attack ad published by the "National Non-Partisan League" in "The Michigan Chronicle " on October 28, 1944

As European tensions rose with the ascendancy of the Nazi Party in Germany, Smith tried to form an alliance with the non-interventionist America First Committee, but did not succeed.

In 1943, Smith formed the America First Party, essentially appropriating the name. He became a member of William Dudley Pelley's fascist Silver Legion of America, which was patterned after Hitler's brown shirts. Smith told an audience of Silver Shirts, "We're going to drive that cripple out of the White House," meaning Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Smith's only other bid for the presidency was in 1956, when he received eight write-in votes in California.

Of his run for president, Smith biographer Glen Jeansonne wrote, "Smith was fascinated by the Office of the President of the United States", and that "Gerald Smith ran for president because he lusted for power, but his hatred for Jews and his relentless crusade against them had no such 'rational' motivation".

Christian Nationalist Crusade

In 1947, speaking at a sparsely attended rally at the Washington Monument. Smith announced a new name, the Christian Nationalist Party, to replace the America First Party. Moving forward Smith's agenda was the Christian Nationalist Crusade. Smith incorporated religious issues to further his political goals by mobilizing the support of Christian Identity. His publicity agent, Don Lohbeck, was sentenced to 30 days in jail.

In the early 1950s, at the time of the appointment of Anna M. Rosenberg as Assistant Secretary of Defense, the Anti-Defamation League published an article attributing the attacks on Rosenberg's loyalty to "professional anti-Semites and lunatic nationalists", including the "Jew-baiting cabal of John Rankin, Benjamin Freedman and Gerald Smith". Smith's activism in the Los Angeles area was opposed by a coalition of Jewish and black groups; a headline in the B'nai B'rith Messenger called him "the Little Fuehrer".

In 1956, Smith joined a strong campaign against the Alaska Mental Health Enabling Act. He was among such opponents as those who nicknamed it the "Siberia Bill" and denounced it as being part of a communist plot to hospitalize and brainwash Americans. It was a bipartisan, federal effort to improve mental health care for residents of Alaska, which was still a territory, and its passage was aided by the support of the conservative senator Barry Goldwater.

The Christian Nationalist platform called for deportations of Jews and African Americans. Smith and his groups also targeted screeds against Catholics, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and others.

Last years

thumb|285x285px|Portrait of Smith 1970

Smith eventually moved to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where he bought and renovated a mansion as a retirement home. In 1964, he began construction of a planned religious theme park on his own property, to be called "Sacred Projects". Smith's biographer, Glen Jeansonne, in Gerald L. K. Smith: Minister of Hate, writes that Smith only had $5,000 to his name at the end of 1963 and yet raised $1,000,000 by the spring of 1964 to commission and construct the "Christ of the Ozarks" project.

Although the park was never fully developed, in 1966 the centerpiece, the Christ of the Ozarks statue, was completed on Magnetic Mountain at an elevation of 1,500 feet, from where it overlooked the town. Emmet Sullivan, the sculptor, had worked under Gutzon Borglum as one of the sculptors of Mount Rushmore.

Smith's original plans were for a life-size recreation of ancient Jerusalem in the hills near Eureka Springs; no construction of this portion took place. He did initiate an annual outdoor Passion Play, inspired by another passion play which is performed every ten years in the town of Oberammergau, Germany. It is staged in an amphitheater located near the statue for several nights each week from late April through late October.

Personal life and death

Smith married Elna Sorenson on June 21, 1922. His wife took over the Christian Nationalist Crusade at his death.

Works

Smith is claimed to be the originator of the following quotation, often wrongly attributed to others (in particular Baptist pastor, author, and political commentator Adrian Rogers, who quoted it in a sermon without attribution):

According to the Congressional Record of 1958, it had also been said by U.S. Senator James Eastland of Mississippi during his address at the November 13, 1957, annual meeting of the Illinois Agricultural Association.

Smith read Henry Ford's book The International Jew, of which he noted, "The day came when I embraced the research of Mr. Ford and his associates and became courageous enough and honest enough and informed enough to use the words: 'Communism is Jewish.'" Smith sold many copies of this book, which he reprinted.

;Books published by Smith

  • The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem (prepared by Gerald L. K. Smith)

; Books by Smith

  • Matters of Life and Death: A Handbook for Patriots dealing with the issues on which America will rise or fall

;Books edited by others:

  • Besieged Patriot: Autobiographical Episodes Exposing Communism, Traitorism, and Zionism from the Life of Gerald L. K. Smith

See also

  • 1948 United States presidential election
  • Christian nationalism
  • Holocaust denial
  • Meade McClanahan, Los Angeles City Council member recalled from office in 1946, because of his association with Smith

References

Further reading

Articles

  • Janowitz, Morris. "The Technique of Propaganda for Reaction: Gerald L. K. Smith's Radio Speeches." The Public Opinion Quarterly, vol. 8, no. 1, 1944, pp. 84–93.
  • Jeansonne, Glen. "Preacher, Populist, Propagandist: The Early Career of Gerald L. K. Smith." Biography, vol. 2, no. 4, Fall 1979, pp. 303–327.
  • Jeansonne, Glen. "Partisan Parson: An Oral History Account of the Louisiana Years of Gerald L. K. Smith." Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, vol. 23, no. 2, 1982, pp. 149–158.
  • Jeansonne, Glen. "Oral History, Biography, and Political Demagoguery: The Case of Gerald L. K. Smith." The Oral History Review, vol. 11, 1983, pp. 87–102.
  • Sitton, Tom. "Direct Democracy vs. Free Speech: Gerald L. K. Smith and the Recall Election of 1946 in Los Angeles." Pacific Historical Review, vol. 57, no. 3, 1988, pp. 285–304. .
  • Jeansonne, Glen. "Huey P. Long, Gerald L. K. Smith and Leander H. Perez as Charismatic Leaders." Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, vol. 35, no. 1, 1994, pp. 5–21.
  • Jeansonne, Glen. "Arkansas's Minister of Hate: A Research Odyssey." The Arkansas Historical Quarterly, vol. 59, no. 4, 2000, pp. 429–435. .
  • Jeansonne, Glen. "Gerald L. K. Smith: From Wisconsin Roots to National Notoriety." Wisconsin Magazine of History, vol. 86, no. 2, Winter 2002, pp. 18–29. Full issue available.

Books

  • .
  • Gerald L K Smith in 1956
  • "Gerald Lyman Kenneth Smith", Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture
  • Gerald L.K. Smith, American Jewish Committee, 1953
  • FBI files on Gerald L.K. Smith, obtained under the FOIA and hosted at the Internet Archive:
  • Parts 1–10
  • Parts 11–18
  • University of Michigan: Gerald L. K. Smith Papers: 1922–1976