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article from the Social Science History Vol. 12, No. 4 (Winter, 1988), pp. 429-449

This is an interesting article...if I'm reading the tables right, it appears that almost 30% of Southern whites were considered to be sympathetic/supportive to extreme right wing groups. All are assumed to be white, but racism isn't explicitly discussed as one of their beliefs, only anti-communist and anti-change sentiments... Did/does "anti-communist" serve as a euphemism for race issues?

"In addition to nominating segregationist candidates for office, the party demonstrated frequently and sparked or participated in street violence in several states. In St. Augustine, Florida, in 1964, Connie Lynch, the NSRP's "official policy speaker," told a crowd of 800, "I favor violence to preserve the white race....In 1966 Lynch and four other party leaders were convicted and sent to prison for inciting a riot in Baltimore, and killings took place in the wake of NSRP rallies in Alabama in 1965 and in Kentucky in 1968." This organization gained followers from many different kinds of right-wing activists: Klansmen, White Citizens' Councils, conspiratorial anti-Communists and George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party.

tips for history teachers on how 1960s movies show social pressures for anti-communism

COINTELPRO is an acronym for a series of FBI counterintelligence programs designed to neutralize political dissidents from 1956 to 1971 - their work broadly targeted radical political organizations. Since the early 1950s, the Communist Party was illegal in the United States, and the US Senate and House of Representatives each set up investigating committees to prosecute communists and publicly expose them. (The House Committee on Un-American Activities and the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy). However, Supreme Court rulings in 1956 and 1957 questioned the constitutionality of Smith Act prosecutions and Subversive Activities Control Board hearings. This did not stop the local and state govenments from starting up their own vigilance committees. In addition, the FBI created COINTELPRO which was designed to "neutralize" radicals such as civil rights or peace and anti-arms race activists, many of whom were said to be part of "communist front organizations." The FBI led over 2000 COINTELPRO operations until it was officially discontinued in April of 1971.