Page "Frank Collin" Paragraph 2

Collin's organization, the National Socialist Party of America, remained relatively obscure until 1977, when it announced plans to march through the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Illinois in retaliation for the City of Chicago banning the NSPA from speaking publicly in Marquette Park.

It prompted a landmark legal battle.

At the time, Skokie had the largest Jewish population per-capita in the United States, and many residents were Holocaust survivors ; it was widely presumed that this is why Skokie was chosen.

Ultimately, the NSPA won the right to march, but without their swastika armbands ( yet with their Nazi military uniforms ).

However, the Skokie march was called off when the city of Chicago, at the behest of Skokie's Jewish leaders and residents, decided to allow Collin to speak in the city.