| Notes |
In 1959, Birch Society founder Robert Welch toured the United States, attempting to recruit “patriotic Americans” at a series of meetings, including one in Chicago attended by Schlafly and her husband, historical documents reveal.
“The John Birch Society is doing a wonderful work, and my husband and I both joined promptly after the Chicago meeting,” Phyllis Schlafly wrote in a Dec. 5, 1959 letter to Verne P. Kaub, a Wisconsin journalist and political activist who became a member of the Willis Carto’s Liberty Lobby, a conservative, anti-Communist group known for its advocacy of both white supremacy and anti-Semitism. |