Howard B. Rand, born in 1889, was raised in the British Israelite tradition, which held the belief that those born in Britain, and their Anglo-Saxon descendants elsewhere, were the direct descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. British Israelism has its roots as far back as the 17th century but became most prominent in the 1800s.
John Wilson’s 1840 book Lectures on Our Israelitish Origin attempted to justify British Israelism through historical fact, a dubious effort that nonetheless launched a late wave of British Israelism. Rand was most directly influenced by Judah’s Sceptre and Joseph’s Birthright, a 1902 book by J. H. Allen.
Rand, a lawyer who published books on the Bible and on the Egyptian pyramids, organized the Anglo-Saxon Federation of America in 1930, with the group hosting its first convention in Detroit in May of that year. New branches were soon organized in California, Illinois, Oregon, and other states, with William Cameron, the former editor of Henry Ford’s The Dearborn Independent playing a key role. Cameron infused right-wing politics into the Federation and connected Rand with leading fringe political figures.
The original British Israelites had favorable views of Judaism, but Rand and Cameron introduced anti-Semitic ideas into the Federation. Rand is credited with coining the term “Christian Identity,” which is now an umbrella term for several white supremacist Christian groups. Rand differed from these later groups in that he saw Christianity as the successor to, and rightful replacer of, Judaism, but did not express racial hatred of Jews themselves. He was also a pacifist who spoke against any sort of ethnically driven violence.
Rand and Cameron had a falling out in 1938, and Rand moved the headquarters of the organization to Haverhill, Massachusetts, where he lived. Rand made several runs for Massachusetts attorney general as the nominee of the Prohibition Party, always receiving less than one percent of the statewide vote. The last branch of the Federation outside of Massachusetts closed its doors in 1964, and Rand shut down the Federation’s Destiny Magazine in 1970. Rand died in 1991, but a small group continues to exist in the town of Merrimac, Massachusetts.
Key Sources:
Baldwin, N. (2001). Henry Ford and the Jews.
Barkun, M. (1997). Religion and the racist right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement. University of North Carolina Press Books.
Horsman, R. (1981). Race and manifest destiny: The Origins of American Racial Anglo-Saxonism. Harvard University Press.
Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects, and New Religious Movements 