Gerald L. K. Smith

Gerald L. K. Smith
Smith, left, and Bernard A. Doman with The Cross and the Flag on April 16, 1942
Born	Gerald Lyman Kenneth Smith (1898-02-27)February 27, 1898 Pardeeville, Wisconsin
Died	April 15, 1976(1976-04-15) (aged 78)
Parent(s)	Sarah and Lyman Z. Smith

Gerald Lyman Kenneth Smith (February 27, 1898 – April 15, 1976) was an American clergyman and far-right political organizer, who became a leader of the Share Our Wealth movement during the Great Depression and later founded the Christian Nationalist Crusade. He founded the America First Party in 1944, for which he was a presidential candidate in the election that year.

He was born in Pardeeville, Wisconsin, on February 27, 1898, to Sarah and Lyman Z. Smith. He had one sister. The family moved and the children grew up in Viroqua, Wisconsin. He graduated from Valparaiso University in Indiana in 1918 with a degree in biblical studies.

The descendant of three generations of Disciples of Christ ministers, he followed his father into the ministry, becoming ordained in 1916. He first ministered in the Midwest: Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana.

Smith married Elna Sorenson in 1922. They adopted their only child, whom they named Gerald L. K. Smith Jr.

Smith moved his family to Louisiana in 1928 because his wife contracted tuberculosis, and facilities in Shreveport had a good reputation for helping those with the disease. Smith served as a minister in Shreveport, making radio broadcasts attacking local utility companies and corruption, while supporting trade unions.

Smith met Senator Huey P. Long in 1929 and became his national organizer during the Great Depression, when he launched the Share Our Wealth society. This movement proposed minimum and maximum limits on household wealth and income. Smith resigned his ministry to work full-time recruiting members to the society. In describing his campaign philosophy, Smith wrote that "in order to succeed, a mass movement must be superficial for quick appeal, fundamental for permanence, dogmatic for certainty, and practical for workability."