Power of the County · Episode 6 of 7 · 18 min
The John Birch Society: Seedbed of North Idaho's Anti-Government Defiance
Before the Posse and the Aryan Nations came the John Birch Society, with anti-UN billboards and conspiracy politics. The episode examines the society in the rural Northwest, from Robert Welch's 1958 founding to the 'Get US Out! of the UN' campaign. It places the Birchers at the legal, electoral, explicitly non-racialist end of the spectrum, a seedbed rather than the same thing as the racialist movements that followed.
Who's who
- Robert Welch+1 more episodeFounded the John Birch Society in 1958
Where it happens
- Sandpoint, Idaho+1 more episodeArea of a remembered 1975 anti-UN billboard
- Rural NorthwestRegion where the society took root
Timeline
- 1958John Birch Society founded
- 1975Anti-UN billboard remembered near Sandpoint
Still debated
The Birch Society and the Aryan Nations share a milieu but not an organizational line. The 1975 Sandpoint billboard is a credible firsthand memory not yet independently documented.