How Many Americans Were Fascists?

In 1939, 1 in 9 Americans supported a "widespread campaign against the Jews."

Madison Square Garden fascist rally. February 20 1939.

In February 1939 some 20,000 people assembled in Madison Square Garden. George Washington stands, haloed by a cone of light, between swastikas.

How many Americans were fascists, sympathizers, or anti-Semites? The short answer (approximations within order of magnitude; America’s population ~130M):

1. About 100,000 Americans were part of an expressly fascist organization.

2. Major far-right organizations enrolled memberships in the millions.

3. Before Pearl Harbor, about 2 - 5% of Americans supported Hitler or Mussolini.

4. About 10 - 15% favored severe action against Jews.

5. About half blamed Jews, wholly or partly, for their own persecution.

Few backed Hitler, but many embraced antisemitism.

Eleven national polls reveal a large gap between explicit fascist sympathy and broader antisemitism. Assembled here:

Fascist orgs had ~100,000 members.

• Black Legion: With “60,000 to 100,000 armed and disciplined men,” the Legion “had become the most formidable nativist organization around.”¹

• Bund: German-Americans for Hitler.²

• Silver Legion: Aimed to “lead a nationwide movement of Silver-Shirted men to drive the Jews and revolutionaries from power!”³

• Fascist Circles: Italian-Americans for Mussolini.⁴

• Christian Front: They “saw themselves as the advance guard in a holy war against Communists and Jews.”⁵

Far-right movements reached millions.

This data I’d put the least weight on—historical accounts not only disagree on membership numbers, they also disagree on the political identities of the groups.

• Mothers’ Movement: Characterized by one historian as a “mass movement of profascist women”⁶ but more cautiously a “loose coalition” of conservative anti-interventionists.⁷

• KKK: Capitalized on “white Protestant fear of Catholicism, Judaism, and racial amalgamation.”⁸

• National Union for Social Justice: Combined populism, Catholicism, and radical monetary reform.⁹ Included because of Father Coughlin’s personal control & authoritarian bend.

• Committee of One Million: Gerald Smith’s Christian-nationalist organization—Coughlinites, antisemites, and antiwar activists.¹⁰

• America First Committee: Anti-interventionist coalition with an influential antisemitic far-right faction.¹¹

1. Peter Amann, Vigilante Fascism (1983).

2. Leland Bell, Anatomy of a Hate Movement (1968).

3. Donald S. Strong, Organized Anti-Semitism in America (1979).

4. Pretelli & Ferro, Gli Italiani Negli Stati Uniti del XX secolo (2005) (quoting Dino Grandi, Foreign Minister of Italy)

5. Charles Gallagher, Nazis of Copley Square (2021)

6. Glen Jeansonne, Women of the Far Right (1996)

7. Laura McEnaney, He-Men and Christian Mothers (1994).

8. Kenneth Jackson, The KKK in the City (1967)

9. David Bennett, Demagogues in Depression (1969)

10. Glen Jeansonne, Minister of Hate (1988)

11. Wayne S. Cole, America First (1953)