Leon Milton Birkhead - Revision history

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Dr. '''Leon Milton Birkhead''' ([[April 28]], [[1885]]-[[December 1]], [[1954]]) was a [[communist]]-leaning [[Unitarian]] minister from [[Wichita, Kansas]] and founder of [[Friends of Democracy]]. In Kansas City he ran the "Liberal Center", a meeting place for Marxists, and moonlighted writing copy for the ''Militant Atheist''.<ref>''The Octopus'', by Elizabeth Dilling, page 206</ref> <ref>"Give These Matters Thought" by [[Westbrook Pegler]], ''The Milwaukee Sentential'' December 19, 1950</ref> He was an advisor to [[Sinclair Lewis]] when he wrote the novel ''Elmer Gantry''.<ref>''Letters of Eugene V. Debs, Volume 1'' By [[Eugene V. Debs]], [[J. Robert Constantine]], page 565</ref> In his correspondence he would often sign his letters, "Yours for the revolution, Comrade L. M. Birkhead".<ref>''Letters of Eugene V. Debs, Volume 1'' By [[Eugene V. Debs]], [[J. Robert Constantine]], page 566</ref>

==Life==
Leon Birkhead was the son of a Winfield, Missouri farmer. Birkhead visited [[National Socialist Germany]] in 1935 and was told by [[Paul Wurm]], [[Julius Streicher]]'s secretary, that many Americans were sympathetic to the aims of the New Germany. That same year another Wichita, Kansas minister, [[Gerald Winrod]], also visited Germany and was very impressed with Germany’s rebirth. The two would become local and national rivals.

In response to his visit to Germany, Birkhead two years later formed the [[Friends of Democracy]].<ref>''Making the Manifesto: The Birth of Religious Humanism'', By William F. Schulz, page 90</ref> Birkhead believed there were fifteen to twenty million "pro-Nazis" in the United States.<ref>''F. D. R.'s Undeclared War, 1939-1941'', by T. R. Fehrenbach, page 188</ref>

By 1947 Birkhead was under pressure from lawsuits from [[anti-communist]]s who felt they were libeled by the Friends of Democracy. In response Birkhead issued a pamphlet giving ten ways on how to identify a communist. Under oath Birkhead was asked if his associate [[Rex Stout]] was a communist or the publication Stout founded ''[[The New Masses]]'' was communist, of which Birkhead replied no in both instances. Congressional investigators had previously determined ''The New Masses'' was in fact the counterpart of the communist newspaper ''[[Daily Worker]]''.

Leon Birkhead was a [[Mason]].<ref>''10,000 Famous Freemasons from A to J Part One'', By William R. Denslow, Harry S. Truman, page 97</ref> He died in New York City on December 1, 1954 alone, in a Manhattan hotel room.

==Works==
* ''The Religion of Free Man'' (1929)
* ''The Dictator and the Devil''

==External link==
* [http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/leonmiltonbirkhead.html Unitarian profile of Leon Milton Birkhead]
* [http://www.umkc.edu/whmckc/collections/IKC0280.HTM Leon Milton Birkhead (1885-1954) Papers] and here [http://www.umkc.edu/whmckc/collections/INVTRY/KC0280.pdf]

==References==
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[[Category:1885 births]]
[[Category:1954 deaths]]
[[Category:Ministers]]
[[Category:American Unitarians]]
[[Category:Freemasons]]