The Silver Legion of America, commonly known as the Silver Shirts, was an American fascist and pro-Nazi organization which was founded by William Dudley Pelley and headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina.

Pelley was a former journalist, novelist and screenwriter turned spiritualist who began to promote antisemitic views by 1931, including the belief that Jews were possessed by demons. He formed the Silver Legion with the goal of bringing about a "spiritual and political renewal", inspired by the success of Adolf Hitler's Nazi movement in Germany.

A nationalist, fascist group, the paramilitary Silver Legion wore a uniform modeled after the Nazis' brown shirts (SA), consisting of a silver shirt with a blue tie, along with a campaign hat and blue corduroy trousers with leggings. The uniform shirts bore a scarlet letter L over the heart, which according to Pelley was "standing for Love, Loyalty, and Liberation." The organizational flag was a plain silver field with a red L in the canton on the upper left hand corner. By 1934, the Legion claimed that it had 15,000 members.

The McCormack–Dickstein Committee, the House Special Committee on Un-American Activities created in March 1934, held hearings in Washington, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Newark, and Asheville between April and December 1934. Marine Corps infiltrators Virgil Hayes and Edward Grey testified in August 1934 that Silver Shirts in San Diego had planned to seize City Hall around May Day 1934 and sought stolen military arms. When asked the group's purpose, Hayes stated: "To change the government, William Dudley Pelley, the national organizer told me." The committee submitted its final report on February 15, 1935.

The Dies Committee called Pelley to testify in February 1940. He surrendered himself to the committee in Washington, where one observer remarked he "jumped on the committee's lap… like an unwelcome dog." During testimony, Pelley stated he would imprison Senators Robert M. La Follette Jr. and Samuel Dickstein and labour leader John L. Lewis for life. The committee found that Pelley had disseminated German Ministry of Propaganda material while concealing its origins from his own members, and that the Silver Legion operated chapters in Detroit, New York, Boston, Windsor, Ontario, and Villa Acuña, Mexico. A government infiltrator testified that Pelley sought to become "dictator of the United States."

The Silver Legion maintained direct connections with Nazi Germany and its American affiliates. German-made sidearms were ordered for Silver Shirt members, and the organisation cooperated with the Friends of New Germany. One Silver Shirt communiqué instructed recipients to "Destroy if in danger of being taken — Never Surrender them."

Pelley reprinted articles from the Nazi Deutsche Zeitung published in New York, which in turn reprinted his anti-Jewish attacks. He claimed "divine" foreknowledge that "a young house painter in Germany would rise and clear his country of the Jews."

The Minnesota Silver Shirts claimed approximately 6,000 members statewide, with roughly 800 in Minneapolis. Roy Zachary, the national field organiser, held rallies at the Royal Arcanum hall in Minneapolis on July 29 and August 2, 1938, where he called for a vigilante attack on Teamsters Local 544. The union responded by forming a "union defense guard." Rabbi Albert Gordon of Adath Jeshurun publicly identified local business figures, including George K. Belden of the Minneapolis industrial association, who had attended the rallies.