Laird Wilcox
Encyclopedia
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest university in the state of Kansas. KU campuses are located in Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas with the main campus being located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest point in Lawrence. The...
. Wilcox worked as carpenter, investigator and writer while living in Olathe, Kansas
Olathe, Kansas
Olathe is a city in and the county seat of Johnson County, Kansas, United States. Located in northeastern Kansas, it is also the fifth most populous city in the state, with a population of 125,872 at the 2010 census. As a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri, Olathe is the fourth-largest city in the...
.
In 1968, Wilcox signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.
Wilcox Collection of Contemporary Political Movements
The Wilcox Collection of Contemporary Political Movements, housed in the Kansas Collection of Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of KansasUniversity of Kansas
The University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest university in the state of Kansas. KU campuses are located in Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas with the main campus being located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest point in Lawrence. The...
, includes coverage of "more than 10,000 individuals and organizations. The bulk of the collection covers 1960 to the present and comprises nearly 10,000 books, pamphlets and periodicals, 800 audio tapes, 73 feet (22.3 m) of manuscript materials and more than 100,000 pieces of ephemera including flyers, brochures, mailings, clippings and bumper stickers." Wilcox continues to make regular donations.
The collection began in 1963-1964 when Wilcox, then a student at the University of Kansas, kept a scrapbook while he was chair of the Student Union Association Minority Opinions Forum. According to the Kenneth Spencer Research Library website, the forum was very active that year, with speakers invited to discuss civil liberties, freedom of expression, apartheid
History of South Africa in the apartheid era
Apartheid was a system of racial segregation enforced by the National Party governments of South Africa between 1948 and 1994, under which the rights of the majority 'non-white' inhabitants of South Africa were curtailed and white supremacy and Afrikaner minority rule was maintained...
, communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, the American Nazi Party
American Nazi Party
The American Nazi Party was an American political party founded by discharged U.S. Navy Commander George Lincoln Rockwell. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, Rockwell initially called it the World Union of Free Enterprise National Socialists , but later renamed it the American Nazi Party in...
, and the Socialist Labor Party. In 1965, the university purchased a number of books, serials, and pamphlets from Wilcox, and the Wilcox Collection began.
In 1989 Wilcox received the "Kansas City Area Archivists Award of Excellence" in 1989 for his role in founding and maintaining the Wilcox Collection. In 1993 he was awarded the Myers Center Award for the Study of Human Rights in the United States. In 1994 he was awarded the Freedom of Information Award of the Kansas Library Association/SIRS "For outstanding commitment to intellectual freedom." In 1995 he received the Mencken Award of the Free Press Association "For outstanding journalism in defense of liberty." In 2005 the University of Kansas honored Wilcox, then 63, in the Spencer library's North Gallery for his role in founding the collection. He has been a member of the American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
since 1961 and a member of Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
since 1970.
Criticism of "Watchdog" groups
In his 1997 self-published book The Watchdogs Wilcox criticized and "industry" of such groups "whose identity and livelihood depend upon growth and expansion of their particular kind of victimization." He holds such groups use "links and ties" to imply connections between individuals and groups. And they collect millions of dollars by greatly exaggerating the size and danger of such groups, becoming "a massive extortion racket." He names groups like the Southern Poverty Law CenterSouthern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center is an American nonprofit civil rights organization noted for its legal victories against white supremacist groups; legal representation for victims of hate groups; monitoring of alleged hate groups, militias and extremist organizations; and educational programs that...
, the Anti-Defamation League
Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects...
, Political Research Associates
Political Research Associates
Political Research Associates , named and known on the Web as PublicEye.org, is a non-profit research group located in Somerville, Massachusetts.-Mission:...
and the Center for Democratic Renewal. Mark Potok
Mark Potok
Mark Potok is a spokesman and director of publications and information for the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, a nonprofit organization that arose from the anti-segregation movement to counter extremism and hate crimes....
of Southern Poverty Law Center told a reporter that Wilcox "had an ax to grind for a great many years," and engaged in name calling against others doing anti-racist work. Chip Berlet
Chip Berlet
John Foster "Chip" Berlet is an American investigative journalist, and photojournalist activist specializing in the study of right-wing movements in the United States, particularly the religious right, white supremacists, homophobic groups, and paramilitary organizations...
of Political Research Associates
Political Research Associates
Political Research Associates , named and known on the Web as PublicEye.org, is a non-profit research group located in Somerville, Massachusetts.-Mission:...
told a reporter that "Laird Wilcox is not an accurate or ethical reporter...He simply can't tolerate people who are his competition in this field."
Books
- Nazis, Communists, Klansmen, and Others on the FringeNazis, Communists, Klansmen, and Others on the FringeNazis, Communists, Klansmen, and Others on the Fringe: Political Extremism in America is a 1992 book by John George and Laird Wilcox. It is an examination of political extremism of both the far left and far right in the United States....
, by John George (professor of political science and sociology at the University of Central Oklahoma) and Laird Wilcox, 1992. It is an examination of political extremismExtremismExtremism is any ideology or political act far outside the perceived political center of a society; or otherwise claimed to violate common moral standards...
of both the far leftFar leftFar left, also known as the revolutionary left, radical left and extreme left are terms which refer to the highest degree of leftist positions among left-wing politics...
and far rightFar rightFar-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
in the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
- Be Reasonable: Selected Quotations for Inquiring Minds, by Laird Wilcox and John George, 1995. It is a large collection of quotations on twenty topics, including civil liberties, Freedom of Speech and of Press, Ideologies and Ideologues, Propaganda, and Public Opinion and Mass Media. "This is a unique reference work consisting of provocative quotations meant to challenge tendencies toward censorship an supression of ideas as well as the stifling effects of 'politically correct' behavior."
- The Watchdogs: A Close Look At Anti-Racist "Watchdog" Groups, self-published by Laird Wilcox, 1997. "Included are documented instances of illegal spying, theft of police files, fund-raising irregularities, questionable "hate crime" statistics, irresponsible and fraudulent claims, perjury, harassment and stalking, violence, and deep and longstanding involvements with Marxist-Leninist extremists."
Further reading
- Wilcox, Laird. "What Is Political Extremism?," Free Inquiry, Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism. Fall 1990, Vol. 10, No. 4., pp. 13–16. A more recent (2005?) and shortened version of this essay appears here
- "Far Left and Far Right Meet in a Midwest Library ," Education Section, New York Times (12 August 1992) .
- Farney, Dennis. "Emergence of Extremist Groups Reflects Changing U. S. Society, Researcher Says." Wall Street Journal (27 April 1995).
- Wilcox, Laird. "Who Watches The Watchmen?," in The Cultic Milieu: Oppositional Subcultures in an Age of Globalization, Edited by Jeffrey Kaplan and Helene Loow, Alta Mira Press, 2002. ISBN 978-0759102040
- Wilcox, Laird. The Protocols of Ritual Defamation: How Values, Opinions and Beliefs Are Controlled in Democratic Societies. Essay written in 2002.
- Wilcox, Laird. The Writer's Rights: Over 1,600 Selected Quotations on Freedom of Expression, Civil Liberties and Individual Rights. 136 pp. ISBN 0-9761337-4-1. 2005.
- Wilcox, Laird. Propaganda, Persuasion & Deception: Over 1,125 Selected Quotations for the Ideological Skeptic. 124 pp. ISBN 0-9761337-0-9. 2005.
- Wilcox, Laird. Rationality, Rhetoric, Skepticism & Logic: Over 835 Selected Quotations for the Ideological Skeptic. 80 pp. ISBN 0-9761337-3-3. 2005.
- Wilcox, Laird. Fanaticism, Dogmatism & Ideological Thinking: Over 1,050 Selected Quotations for the Ideological Skeptic. 95 pp. ISBN 0-9761337-1-7. 2005.
- Wilcox, Laird. Political & Social Psychology & Behavior: Over 1,250 Selected Quotations for the Ideological Skeptic. Compiled by Laird Wilcox. 121 pp. ISBN 0-9761337-2-5. 2005.