The Color of Fascism: Lawrence Dennis, Racial Passing, and by Gerald Horne
By Gerald Horne
What does it suggest that Lawrence Dennis—arguably the “brains” in the back of U.S. fascism—was born black yet spent his whole grownup lifestyles passing for white? Born in Atlanta in 1893, Dennis begun lifestyles as a hugely touted African American baby preacher, traveling nationally and arousing audiences together with his dark-skinned mom as his escort. even though, at some point soon among leaving prep college and coming into Harvard college, he selected to desert his family members and his former lifestyles as an African American to be able to cross for white. Dennis went directly to paintings for the kingdom division and on Wall highway, and finally grew to become the general public face of U.S. fascism, assembly with Mussolini and different fascist leaders in Europe. He underwent trial for sedition in the course of global battle II, nearly touchdown in legal, and finally turned a chilly struggle critic ahead of death in obscurity in 1977. in keeping with broad archival examine, the colour of Fascism blends biography, social historical past, and significant race thought to light up the interesting lifetime of this advanced and enigmatic guy. Gerald Horne hyperlinks passing and fascism, the 2 major poles of Dennis's existence, suggesting that Dennis’s anger with the U.S. due to his upbringing in Jim Crow Georgia led him to alliances with the antagonists of the U.S. and that his own isolation which ended in his determination to move dovetailed along with his final isolationism. Dennis’s existence is an enduring testomony to the resilience of right-wing proposal within the U.S. the 1st full-scale biographical portrait of this fascinating determine, the colour of Fascism additionally hyperlinks the unusual occupation of a widespread American who selected to cross.
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Extra resources for The Color of Fascism: Lawrence Dennis, Racial Passing, and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism in the United States
Example text
25 Entering the military in 1917, by 1919, he had been discharged honorably. 26 Evidently he was not regarded as a Negro by the military for he did not serve in an all-Negro unit. A subsequent investigation found that Dennis was “considered very clever and did excellent work” and, generally, he found France quite pleasing. ” It is remarkable that he chose not to, particularly since he “claimed” to have encountered “trouble” at “Camp Devons” where he was stationed. He was “tried at Camp Devons on a charge of inefficiency and inability to command men”—though this was not entirely his own doing since “it developed” that “the other men did not associate or run around with him and Passing Fancy?
Sallie Montgomery died in May 1934—at this juncture, Lawrence Dennis already was established as rising star of the right. ” Though it never revealed publicly its thorough investigation of Dennis’s ancestry, it is remarkable how color-obsessed the agency was at this point. They interviewed those who had known Dennis in Atlanta, including one person who collected rents for the Green Dennis estate during the first decade of the twentieth century. M. L. Thrower advised that Cornelia Green could be easily described as a mulatto and that Green Dennis was a brownish color though he would not describe him as being either yellow or black.
Asian Indians were so accorded this privileged status near this same time—before the decision was reversed on appeal. ’ ”30 A century earlier another jurist concluded that the way to adjudge “whiteness” was not via skin color but by hair texture since dark skin, he thought, could disappear via miscegenation but a “ ‘wooly head of hair . . ’ ”32 Whatever the case, it was evident that a society bent on pursuing the rigidity of bipolar racial categories had difficulty grappling with the likes of a Lawrence Dennis.