Organization and Structure
The Black Legion was organized along paramilitary lines and had five brigades, 16 regiments, 64 battalions, and 256 companies. Although its members boasted that there were one million legionnaires in Michigan, it probably had only between 20,000 and 30,000 members in the state in the 1930s, one third of whom lived in Detroit.
Members wore black uniforms with skull-and-crossbones insignia and were allegedly responsible for numerous murders of alleged communists and socialists.
Known killings were the slaying of black laborer Silas Coleman May 25, 1935 and a WPA worker named Charles Poole May 13, 1936.
Read more about this topic: Black Legion (political Movement)
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