The Columbians, anti-Jewish and anti-Negro organization whose activities in Atlanta in recent months have received nation-wide publicity, are a fascist movement modeled on the Nazis’ and with the same aims and plan of action of the Hitlerites, it was charged today by the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League.
Based on an investigation made by two of its field workers who joined the Columbians and an testimony of two former members of the organization, the League’s evidence discloses that the Columbians aimed at first driving the Negroes out of Atlanta and then ousting the Jews and other minorities. Once they had secured control of Atlanta they planned to use the same pattern of activities to spread their influence throughout the country.
Prof. James H. Sheldon, chairman of the League, stated that as a result of the investigations, Homer Loomis Jr., and Emory Burke, the secretary and president of the Columbians, respectively, can be charged with: “1. Seeking to seize political power in the United States through terroristic gangs; 2. Systematically planning to intimidate and injure members of minority religious and racial groups; 3. Assembling a private arsenal of deadly weapons, presumably for use in riots or under other disorderly circumstances; 4. Planning the commission of arson,” and several other crimes.
James Childers, 18, and Lanier Waller, an ex-Marine, former Columbians, quoted Loomis, organizer of the movement as endorsing Hitler’s racial theories and also attacking Christianity. Loomis is reported to have said that when “all the Negroes and Jews are run out,” he would launch an attack on Christianity. Loomis is said to have an extensive library of Nazi literature at the Columbians’ headquarters, while Burke was in contact with someone in Germany.
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.
