Originally established in 1969 as a youth wing of the National Socialist White People's Party, in 1974 it reconstituted itself as the NSLF after its leader Joseph Tommasi was expelled from the NSWPP.

The NSLF was established in 1969 by Joseph Tommasi, with the backing of William Luther Pierce, as a campus-based revolutionary organization to compete with New Left militant groups.

The NSLF broke with established Nazi tradition, eschewing brownshirt uniforms and abandoning attempts to raise a "mass movement" of supporters to win power through legal means.

[4][5] The new organization was structured with two tiers, a legal "aboveground" membership - which at most included forty members - and a smaller "underground" that was dedicated to violent, revolutionary action.

[6] Joseph Tommasi was killed at the El Monte headquarters of the NSWPP in August 1975 and was succeeded by his lieutenant David Rust, who was soon arrested on a weapons charge.