Politics in the mid-twentieth century wasn't just about suits and handshakes. It was often violent. If you look back at 1958, specifically in Knoxville, Tennessee, you’ll find the birth of a group that most history books try to gloss over. The National States Rights Party (NSRP) didn't just want to win elections. They wanted to tear the existing social fabric apart.
Honestly, it’s easy to write them off as a fringe group of "angry men" in the South. But that’s a mistake. They were organized. They were loud. They were dangerous.
The NSRP wasn't your standard political party. It was a cocktail of white supremacy, neo-Nazism, and absolute refusal to accept the changing reality of a desegregated America. Edward Reed Fields and J.B. Stoner were the architects. They didn't care about being "polite" or "moderate." They saw themselves as the frontline against the Civil Rights Movement. You've probably heard of the KKK, but the NSRP was often more radical because they sought a formal political platform to legitimize their hatred.
The Origins of a Radical Platform
Why did this happen in 1958? It wasn't an accident. The Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 sent shockwaves through the segregationist community. While some groups tried to fight integration through "massive resistance" in the courts, the founders of the National States Rights Party thought those people were being too soft.
They used a thunderbolt as their symbol. Think about that for a second. It was a direct nod to the SS in Nazi Germany. They weren't hiding their allegiances. They held their first convention in Knoxville and immediately set their sights on a national audience, though they primarily stuck to the Southeast.
The party platform was basically a fever dream of conspiracy theories. They believed that international communism and Jewish interests were behind the push for racial equality. To them, "states' rights" wasn't just a constitutional argument about federalism—it was a dog whistle for maintaining a racial caste system at any cost.
J.B. Stoner and the Violent Rhetoric
Jesse Benjamin Stoner, or J.B. Stoner as everyone knew him, was the face of the party’s most aggressive wing. He was a lawyer, which made him even more dangerous. He knew how to dance on the edge of the law.
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Stoner was linked to some of the most horrific acts of the era. We're talking about the 1958 bombing of the Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham. He wasn't just a guy giving speeches; he was a guy who believed that violence was a legitimate tool of political discourse. It took decades for the law to catch up with him—he wasn't convicted for that Birmingham bombing until 1980. That’s a long time to be walking free after such a heinous act.
The Thunderbolt: Propaganda as a Weapon
You can't talk about the National States Rights Party without talking about their newspaper, The Thunderbolt. It was their primary way of spreading poison. At its peak, it actually had a surprisingly large circulation. People across the country subscribed to it.
The writing in The Thunderbolt was intentionally inflammatory. It used dehumanizing language that would make most modern readers recoil. But in the 1960s, it served as a connective tissue for various extremist groups. It gave them a sense of community. It made them feel like they weren't just isolated radicals, but part of a "national" movement.
The NSRP used the paper to organize rallies, raise money, and attack anyone they deemed an enemy. This included not just Black Americans, but also the "liberal" press and federal officials. They were essentially the pioneers of the "fake news" narrative, claiming every major media outlet was part of a grand conspiracy to destroy the white race.
Political Ambitions and Failed Campaigns
They actually tried to run for office. Multiple times.
In 1960, they nominated Orval Faubus for President—without his permission. Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas who had famously blocked the Little Rock Nine, didn't actually want their endorsement, but they didn't care. They got on the ballot in a few states. They didn't get many votes, obviously, but the goal wasn't to win the White House. The goal was to push the "Overton Window." They wanted to make their radical ideas seem like a valid part of the conversation.
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By 1964, they were backing John Kasper. If you don't know Kasper, he was a professional agitator who traveled the South trying to start riots over school integration. He was a protégé of Ezra Pound, the poet. The party was a weird magnet for these types of "intellectual" racists and street brawlers.
The FBI and the COINTELPRO Files
The federal government wasn't just sitting by. J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI was watching the National States Rights Party very closely. Under the COINTELPRO (Counterintelligence Program), the FBI infiltrated the NSRP just like they did with the Black Panthers and the SCLC.
The FBI files on the NSRP are massive. They detail internal squabbles, financial problems, and the constant paranoia that defined the party's leadership. One of the most interesting things you’ll find in those records is how much the various extremist leaders hated each other. Fields and Stoner were constantly looking over their shoulders, worried that the KKK or other rival groups were going to steal their members or their money.
The NSRP's downfall wasn't a single event. It was a slow rot. By the 1970s, their brand of open, unapologetic Nazism was becoming a liability even for other segregationists. The world was moving on. The Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act had changed the legal landscape. The "states' rights" argument was losing its teeth in the courts.
Why Does This Matter in 2026?
You might think this is all just ancient history. It isn’t.
The DNA of the National States Rights Party lives on in modern extremist movements. The way they used media—specifically The Thunderbolt—to create an echo chamber for their followers is exactly what we see today on radicalized internet forums. They were the early adopters of the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory, though they called it by different names back then.
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When you see modern groups using Norse runes or specific types of lightning bolt imagery, that’s a direct line back to the NSRP and their predecessors. They created a template for how to dress up hatred as a "political party" to avoid certain types of scrutiny.
The NSRP officially faded away in the late 1980s. Fields eventually moved on to other organizations like the America First Party (not to be confused with the current usage of that term, though the themes overlap). Stoner went to prison and died in a nursing home in 2005. But the ideas didn't die with them.
Understanding the Legacy
If you want to understand why political polarization is so intense today, you have to look at these fringe groups from the 60s. They proved that a small, highly dedicated group of radicals could influence the national conversation by being more extreme than everyone else. They forced "mainstream" segregationist politicians to either move further to the right or look weak.
The National States Rights Party was a reminder that democracy is fragile. It shows how easily the language of "rights" and "constitutionality" can be hijacked to serve the interests of hate.
How to Research This Further
If this deep dive into one of America's darker corners has sparked an interest, don't just take my word for it. Primary sources are where the real story lives.
- Check the FBI Vault: You can access thousands of pages of declassified documents on the NSRP and J.B. Stoner. It's dense, but it's the raw data.
- University Archives: Many southern universities, like the University of Georgia or UT Knoxville, hold collections of The Thunderbolt and original party pamphlets. Seeing the physical documents changes your perspective.
- Read "The Blood of Emmett Till" by Timothy B. Tyson: While not solely about the NSRP, it provides the essential context of the era and the violent atmosphere these groups thrived in.
- Investigate the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) archives: They have tracked the descendants of these groups for decades and offer great maps of how these ideologies migrated from the NSRP into modern "Alt-Right" circles.
The best way to prevent history from repeating itself is to recognize the patterns before they become the norm. The NSRP was a pattern of exclusion and violence disguised as political activism. Recognize it, study it, and understand how it shaped the world we live in now.
Actionable Next Steps:
To truly grasp the impact of the NSRP on modern movements, focus on researching the transition of extremist groups from the "White Power" era of the 1960s to the "Leaderless Resistance" model that emerged in the late 1980s. This shift explains why modern extremism is so much harder to track than the centralized party structure of the National States Rights Party.