George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the American Nazi Party, conducted a brief, 10-minute, open-air rally here today, delivering an anti-Semitic address which was booed by most of a crowd estimated by Chief of Police Gordon Hufnagle at between 2,000 and 2,500 persons. A few members of the crowd did cheer him, the police chief said, but “most of them either laughed or booed.”
The self-styled Nazi leader had been notified by county officials that he would not be permitted to speak from the steps of the County Court House. Federal officials had notified him likewise that he would be forbidden to use the steps in front of the Post Office. The Lewisburg Borough Council had advised him in advance that “there can be no guarantee of personal safety for you and your associates, as the police department cannot in any measure afford adequate protection.”
Chief Hufnagle, expecting “trouble,” had mobilized his entire force of 25 men, while 25 deputy sheriffs guarded the Court House. In addition, troopers of the State Police were in readiness, though not showing themselves in the center of town, as Rockwell and about 10 or 12 followers entered Lewisburg by automobile for his rally at 2 p.m. Rock-well had been invited to speak here by Bucknell University students here.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
