The American Nazi Party at their Glendale Headquarters. Photo from Larry Hart.

While the German American Bund, phased out completely in 1941, the Ku Klux Klan continued to have an active presence in Glendale up through the 1960s [22] [14]. In 1964, Glendale also saw the arrival of a new white supremacist group: the American Nazi Party [23]. 

Aware of Glendale’s history as a sundown town, and tolerance of other extreme organizations, Ralph Forbes, a leader of the American Nazi Party, selected the city to be its headquarters [23]. 

Forbes officially designated 823 E. Colorado Boulevard, a single family home he had leased, to be the group’s base [23]. 

This decision however, was met with much backlash from residents and protests were held. By 1966, Forbes was successfully evicted, and he moved the Party’s headquarters up to the La Crescenta neighborhood, and finally out of Glendale, and to the city of El Monte [23].

NAZISM

American Nazi Party Members, Glendale, 1965.

Photo from California State University, Northridge