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Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders

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The Foley Square trial was a 1949 federal criminal case, in which eleven leaders of the Communist Party of the United States were accused of conspiring to overthrow the government. The trial focused on fundamental freedom of speech issues, and was a major episode in the McCarthyism era of American history. It was also one of the lengthiest and most contentious trials in American history. All eleven defendants were convicted and served time in prison. The trial is sometimes referred to as the Smith Act trial.[1]

The trial was held in the Foley Square federal courthouse in Manhattan.

The trial–held in Manhattan's Foley Square courthouse–lasted for ten months, and was widely publicized by the media. Large numbers of protesters supporting the communist defendants protested outside the courthouse daily. The defense attorneys used a "labor defense" strategy, which attacked the trial as a capitalist venture that could never provide a fair outcome to proletarian defendants. During the trial, the defense routinely antagonized the judge and prosecution, and five of the defendants were sent to jail for contempt of court for outbursts protesting the judge's decision. The prosecution's entire case rested on the testimony of 13 informants, who interpreted Communist texts, such as The Communist Manifesto, and argued that the Communist doctrine advocated the violent overthrow of the US government.

The jury found all 11 defendants guilty.[2] The defendants were sentenced to terms of five years in federal prison.[3] When the trial concluded, the judge sent all five defense attorneys to jail for contempt of court. Two of the attorneys were disbarred. Following the trial, other Communist Party members had difficulty finding attorneys to represent them in subsequent trials.

The trial decimated the leadership of the US Communist Party, and its membership plunged. The US Supreme Court upheld the verdict in Dennis v. United States, a 6-2 decision. The government, encouraged by their success, convicted over 100 additional Party officers in the early 1950s. Some of them were convicted solely of being members of the Communist Party. Eight years after the trial, in 1957, the US Supreme Court brought an end to similar prosecutions with its decision in Yates v. United States, holding that discussions of abstract, future violence may not be prohibited by law, but rather the threat of violence must be "imminent".

Background

See also: Cold war and Red Scare

The Smith Act

Main article: Smith Act

The Smith Act, passed in 1940, is a United States federal statute that sets criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of the US government and required all non-citizen adult residents to register with the government.[4] The Smith Act made it illegal to join any organization which advocates "overthrowing or destroying any government in the United States by force or violence".[5] The act was passed before the McCarthyism era, and the original intention of the act was to prosecute foreign agents who were engaging in seditious activity during World War II; it was only after the war ended that the Act was applied to US Citizens.[6]

According to Victor Navasky, the Communist Party was never a serious threat to the US government.[7] The US communist party membership in 1950 was around 32,000, or less than one tenth of one percent of the US population (it's membership peaked at around 75,000 during World War II, when the US was allied with the USSR).[7] In spite of the relatively small size, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Justice embarked on a campaign against the party, marked by trials such as that of the Hollywood ten in 1947. Dorothy Healey maintained that the US Communist Party did not advocate imminent violence, but instead worked for a peaceful transition to socialism within the United States.[8] Much of the nation's fear of the Party was due to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover who maintained an extensive program of surveillance on the Communist Party.[9]

In July 1945, Hoover instructed his agents to begin gathering information on the US Communist Party members, with the goal of demonstrating the Party's subversive goals.[10] After several years of gathering data from undercover informants, Hoover urged the Department of Justice to initiate prosecutions in 1948.[11] Whether or not President Truman pushed for the prosecutions is not certain.[12]

Undercover informants

To obtain convictions under the Smith Act, the FBI relied heavily on undercover informants.[7] The entire prosecution case in the Foley Square trial was provided by thirteen undercover informants, including Angela Calomiris, Louis Budenz, and Herbert Philbrick.[13] Angela Calomiris was recruited by the FBI in 1942, and infiltrated the Communist Party, gaining access to a membership roster.[14] During the seven years she was an informant, the FBI paid her a salary.[14] Beginning in mid-1947, informant (and former Communist) Elizabeth Bentley began supplying the FBI with names of Party members.[13] When the Justice Department was conducting the majority of the Smith Act prosecutions, from 1951 to 1956, over a dozen informants were occupied full-time traveling from trial to trial, testifying against communist defendants in federal trials. The informants were paid for their time, leading some historians describe them as "professional witnesses" and to call their objectivity into question.[15][16]

Indictments

In 1948, the Cold War continued to intensify, J. Edgar Hoover instructed the Department of Justice to take action against the Communist Party of the United States.[17] John McGohey, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, was given the lead role in prosecuting the cases and, under the Smith Act, presented charges against twelve communist leaders on July 20, 1948. The specific charges against the defendants were first, that they conspired to overthrow the US government by violent means, and second, that they belonged to an organization that advocated the violent overthrow of the government.[18] The defendants were indicted by a grand jury and arrested.[19][20] Communist Dorothy Healey asserted that the timing of the indictments was partially motivated by President Truman's desire to weaken Henry A. Wallace, his opponent in the upcoming 1948 election.[21] The twelve defendants were:[22][23]

The defendants. Back row: Stachel, Potash, Winter, Davis, Gates, Green. Front row: Thompson, Winston, Dennis, Hall, Williamson

Hoover expressed disappointment that prosecutors had indicted only 12 leaders and he wrote–recalling his 1917 arrests of over one hundred leaders of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)–"the IWW was crushed and never revived [in 1917], similar action at this time would have been as effective against the Communist Party."[24] Although 12 Party members were indicted, only 11 were tried, because William Z. Foster was not brought to trial due to his ill health.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was dominated by anti-communist leaders during the 1940's, and did not provide much support to persons indicted under the Smith Act. However, the ACLU did provide minor support to the Foley Square defendants by filing an amicus brief endorsing a motion for dismissal.[25]

Pre-trial antagonism

Before the trial began, supporters of the Communist Party bombarded judge Medina with telegrams and letters urging him to dismiss the charges.[11] The defense challenged the jury selection process, presenting a lengthy and complex argument that systematic exclusion of African-Americans rendered the process illegal.[26][27][28] Medina's hostility to the defense may have been exacerbated by the fact that another federal judge had recently died of a heart attack during a similar trial involving the Smith Act.[11][29]

Trial

Robert Thompson and Benjamin Davis surrounded by pickets as they leave the Foley Square Courthouse in New York City

The trial was presided over by judge Harold Medina. Medina was a former professor, who had been a judge only 18 months: this was Medina's first criminal case.[23][30] The trial was held in the Foley Square federal courthouse in New York city, and opened on November 1, 1948; preliminary proceedings and jury selection lasted until January 17, 1949; the defendants first appeared in court on March 7; and the trial concluded on October 14, 1949.[31][32] Although later trials surpassed it, in 1949 it was the longest federal trial in history.[31][33]

Some analysts concluded that the judge was biased against the defendants, and it was reported that one of the jurors stated that "we must fight communism to the death" and spoke of his desire to "hang those Commies".[34][26]

The trial was one of the most contentious legal proceedings in American history.[26] The trial sometimes had a "circus-like atmosphere": The defendant's attorneys used the trial as an opportunity to promote Communist policy.[32][26][35]

Four hundred police officers were assigned to the courthouse on the opening day of the trial.[31] During the trial, there were days when several thousand picketers protested in Foley Square outside the courthouse, chanting slogans like "Adolph Hitler never died, He's sitting at Medina's side".[32] In response the US House of Representatives passed a law outlawing protesters in front of federal courthouses, but the Senate did not vote on it before the trial was over.[31][36]

Prosecution

The witnesses for the prosecution consisted of 13 undercover informants, including Angela Calomiris, Louis Budenz, and Herbert Philbrick.[37] The vast majority of the evidence provided by the prosecution was interpretation of the fundamental texts of Communism, such as the Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels.[29][38] The prosecution attempted to show that the texts advocated violent revolution, and that by adopting the texts as their political foundation, the defendants were also personally guilty of advocating violent overthrow of the government.

Budenze testified that the Constitution of the US Communist Party implicitly endorsed the violent overthrow of the government.[38] He also claimed that the numerous passages in Communist texts which disavowed violence were, in fact written in "Aesopean language" and were coded messages that meant the opposite of what they stated.[38] Philbrick's testimony included his recitation of a quote from Lenin's State and Revolution: "the replacement of the bourgeois by the proletarian state is impossible without a violent revolution."[39]

In her testimony, Calomiris identified four of the defendants, John Williamson, Benjamin J. Davis, Robert G. Thompson, and Gilbert Green as members of the Communist Party and provided information on its organization.[40] She also testified that the Party espoused violent revolution against the government and that the Party had attempted to recruit members working in key war industries, on instructions from Moscow.[41]

According to Victor Navasky, one technique the prosecution used to impugne defense witnesses was to ask them to identify other Party members. Most witnesses refused to identify other members and were threatened by the judge with contempt of court.[29][42]

Defense

All five of the defense attorneys were sent to jail for contempt of court: Abraham Isserman, George Crockett, Richard Gladstein, Harry Sacher, and Louis F. McCabe.

The five attorneys who volunteered to defend the eleven were familiar with leftist causes and personally supported the defendants rights to affiliate with the Communist Party. They were Abraham Isserman, George W. Crockett, Jr., Richard Gladstein, Harry Sacher, and Louis F. McCabe.[31][43][44] Defendant Eugene Dennis represented himself. The defense strategy employed a two-pronged strategy: first, portraying the Communist Party as a conventional political party,  thus the defendants acts and writings were protected by the First Amendment's freedom of speech; and second–the "labor defense"–using the trial as a propaganda opportunity to attack the trial as a capitalist venture which could never provide a fair outcome to proletarian defendants.[26][45] The defense attorneys, utilizing the "labor defense" tactic, attacked the entire trial process, including the prosecutor, the judge, and the jury selection process.[11] The strategy also involved verbally disparaging the judge and the prosecutors, and may have been an attempt to provoke a mistrial.[46]

Another strategy of the defense was to rally popular support to free the defendants, in the hope that public pressure would help achieve acquittals.[11] Throughout the course of the trial, thousands of supporters of the defendants flooded the judge with protests, and marched outside the courthouse in Foley Square. The defense also attempted to portray the Communist Party's advocacy as a peaceful, lawful political movement. The defense presented testimony that the Party had rejected violent tactics during the Seventh World Congress of the Comintern in 1935.[47]

The defense deliberately antagonized the judge by making a large number of objections and motions,[23] which led to numerous bitter engagements between the attorneys and judge Medina.[11][46] Out of the chaos, an atmosphere of "mutual hostility" arose between the judge and attorneys.[46] Medina came to believe that the defense attorneys were using the trial as an opportunity to publicize Communist propaganda, and that the they deliberately disrupted the trial using any means they could.[11] Judge Medina attempted to maintain order by removing defendants who were out of order. In the course of the trial, Medina sent five of the defendants to jail for outbursts: Hall because he shouted "I've heard more law in a Kangaroo court", and Winston–an African American–for shouting "more than 500 Negroes have been lynched in this country".[48][49]

Developments outside the courtroom

During the course of the ten month trial, the Red Scare grew in intensity across America and the Western World. Several widely publicized events may have influenced the outcome of the trial, such as: The Judith Coplon Soviet espionage case was in progress; the University of California required all faculty to take a non-communist oath; Alger Hiss was tried for perjury; labor leader Harry Bridges was accused of perjury when he denied being a communist; and the American Civil Liberties Union passed an anti-communist resolution.[50] Two events during the final month of the trial may have been particularly influential: On September 23, 1949, the USSR detonated its first atomic bomb. And on October 1, 1949, the Communists in China drove their opposition to Formosa, and declared a Communist state.[50]

Convictions and sentencing

A crowd gathers outside the Foley courthouse on October 21, 1949, during the sentencing phase of the trial.

On October 14, 1949, after a ten-month trial, the judge determined as a matter of law (the jury was not allowed to consider the question) that the Communist Party did pose a clear danger to the government.[50] The jury then retired for seven hours and returned a guilty verdict against all defendants.[31] The judge sentenced each of the ten defendants to five years and a $10,000 fine. The eleventh defendant, Robert G. Thompson – a veteran of the Second World War – was sentenced to three years in consideration of his wartime service.[51] Thompson said that he took "no pleasure that this Wall Street judicial flunky has seen fit to equate my possession of the Distinguished Service Cross to two years in prison."[52]

Immediately after the jury rendered a verdict, Medina turned to the defense attorneys saying he had some "unfinished business" and he held all of them in contempt of court, and sentenced all of them–including future Congressman George W. Crockett, Jr.–to sentences ranging from 30 days to six months.[31][53] The attorneys had no opportunity to respond, and were immediately handcuffed and led to jail.[54] The judge's action was unprecedented, but the Supreme Court later upheld his actions in 1952 in Sacher v. United States.[55] Crockett served four months in an Ashland, Kentucky Federal prison in 1952.[56] Time magazine featured Judge Medina on its cover the week following the end of the trial.[57]

Out on bail

Defendant Gus Hall helped lead the Communist Party when he was out on bail, but later fled to Mexico and was captured trying to reach the Soviet Union.

The trial ended in late 1949, with all eleven defendants convicted. All defendants were released on bail, pending appeal.[58] Their bail was provided by Civil Rights Congress, a non-profit trust fund which had $500,000 available to assist Party members with legal expenses.[59] Released on bail, Hall was appointed to a position in the secretariat of the CPUSA.[60]

Eugene Dennis was–in addition to his Smith Act charges– was also fighting contempt of Congress charges stemming from an incident in 1947 when he refused to appear before the House Unamerican Activities Committee. He appealed the contempt charge, but the Supreme Court upheld his conviction for contempt in March of 1950, and he began to serve a one year term at that time.[61]

Appeal to the Supreme Court

See also: First amendment issues related to speech critical of government
Party leader Eugene Dennis was the lead appellant in the unsuccessful Dennis v. United States appeal to the Supreme Court.

The trial resulted in a dozen appeals to the federal Court of Appeals, and five appeals to the Supreme Court.[46] While the appeals were in progress, the Korean war began as the Communists invaded South Korea.[51] The most important of the US Supreme Court decisions arising from the trial was the Dennis v. United States on June 4, 1951: by a vote of 6 to 2, the Court upheld the convictions in a decision that hinged on freedom of speech arguments. Prior to the decision, speech could only be outlawed if there was a "clear and present" danger of violence; but the Court's decision weakened that test to "grave and probable".[62][63] Justices Hugo Black and William O. Douglas dissented; Black writing "there is hope, however, that in calmer times, when present pressures, passions and fears subside, this or some later Court will restore the First Amendment liberties to the high preferred place where they belong in a free society."[64][65]

Prison time

When the Supreme Court upheld the convictions on June 4, 1951, Hall, Green, Winston and Thompson skipped bail and went underground.[66][67] These four defendants did so partially because they believed that the entire Party leadership would soon be arrested, and they wanted to be able to lead the Party from outside prison.[68] Hall's attempt to flee to Moscow failed when he was picked up in Mexico City on October 8, 1951.[67] He was sentenced to three more years and eventually served over five and a half years in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary.[69]

Aftermath

Rise of McCarthyism

After the victory in the Foley Court trial, the Justice Department prepared to expand their prosecution of the Communist Party. Three months after the trial, in January 1950, a representative of the Justice Department testified before Congress during appropriation hearings to justify an enlarged budget to support Smith Act prosecutions. He testified that there were 21,105 potential persons that could be indicted under the Smith Act, and that 12,000 of those depended on the precedent set by the Foley Square trial.[70] The FBI had also compiled a list of 200,000 persons in its Communist Index, but since the communist party had only around 32,000 members in 1950, the FBI explained the disparity by asserting that for every official Party member, there were ten person who were loyal to the Party and ready to carry out its orders.[71]

The Foley Square trial was a major victory for anti-Communists, and gave momentum to the rise of McCarthyism: Eight months after the convictions, Hoover stated "Communists have been and are today at work within the very gates of America. Western Civilization was at stake".[72] Several agencies of the federal government worked to undermine the Communist Party. The IRS investigated 81 organizations that were considered to be subversive, threatening to revoke their tax exempt status; Congress passed a law prohibiting members of subversive organizations from obtaining federal housing benefits; and attempts were made to terminate Social Security benefits, veterans benefits, and unemployment benefits to Communist sympathizers.[73]

Trials of "second tier" officials

Second tier defendant Dorothy Healey claimed that Truman initiated the indictments to undermine his Progressive opponent in the 1948 presidential election.

The conviction of the eleven leaders was considered by prosecutors to be, in the words of Belknap, a "green light" to move against the entire Party leadership structure.[74]

Between 1951 and 1956, the Justice Department indicted 126 additional Communists under the Smith Act, leading to trials in over a dozen cities.[74][75] These post-1950 defendants were called "second string" or "second tier" defendants[62] and they included 15 Party members in Los Angeles (including Dorothy Healey), 21 in New York (including Claudia Jones and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn) and others in Honolulu, Pittsburg, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Seattle and other cities.[62] Approximately 89% of the second tier defendants were convicted.[74][76] Some of the defendants in California were able to win aquitals by persuading the jury that they had a legal right to be Communists.[77] Through 1955, federal appeals courts upheld all convictions, and the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal.[74]

Many of the second tier defendants were unable to post bail, because the government refused to permit the Civil Rights Congress to provide bail funds. After four of the original defendants went underground, leaders of the Civil Rights Congress were called before a grand jury and asked to identify the donors who had contributed money to the bail fund. Novelist Dashiel Hammet, a manager of the fund, invoked the Fifth Amendment, refused to name names, and was sentenced to six months in prison.[78]

The second tier defendants also had a difficult time finding lawyers to represent them: all of the lawyers in the first case had been convicted for contempt of court,[54] and two of the attorneys, Abraham Isserman and Harry Sacher were disbarred.[79] Attorneys for other Smith Act defendants routinely found themselves attacked by courts, attorneys' groups, and licensing boards.[80] As a result, one defendant, Steve Nelson, had to ask 162 lawyers before he found one that would defend him; and a judge had to appoint eight unwilling attorneys for other defendants.[81] The National Lawyers Guild provided some lawyers to the defendants, leading Attorney General Herbert Brownell to threaten to list the Guild as a subversive organization.[81] FBI leader J. Edgar Hoover personally attacked lawyers that objected to informants or who counseled their clients to rely on the Fifth Amendment.[82]

Impact on Communist Party

The trial decimated the leadership ranks of the US Communist Party.[18] The personal and professional lives of many of the defendants were destroyed. The Communist Party, alarmed at the undercover informants that had testified for the prosecution, initiated efforts to identify and exclude informers from its membership. Membership dropped dramatically, and the Party's leadership was marked by confusion and discord. Dennis attempted to provide leadership from within his cell in the Atlanta penitentiary, but prison officials censored his mail and successfully isolated him from the outside world.[74] Similarly, prison officials from the Lewisburg prison prevented Williamson from writing to anyone other than immediate family members.[74] Lacking leadership, the CPUSA suffered from internal dissention and disorder.[74]

Decline of McCarthyism

Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin died in 1953, setting the stage for a gradual retreat from the post World War II anti-communist hysteria. McCarthyism declined in late 1954 after television journalist Edward R. Murrow and others publicly chastised McCarthy.[83] The controversies over the Bill of Rights that were generated by the Cold War ushered in a new era in American Civil liberties: around 1954 the Supreme Court started to decide civil liberties cases in favor of expanded rights, and thereafter a flood of civil rights victories dominated the legal landscape.[84]

The end of the Smith Act prosecutions came on "Red Monday", June 17, 1957, when the Supreme Court reversed its 1951 Dennis v. United States decision in Yates v. United States, which was a landmark case that refined the limits of freedom of speech; Yates held that discussions of abstract, future violence may not be prohibited by law, but rather the threat of violence must be "imminent".[85][86][87] This decision, along with the companion case Watkins v. United States, undermined the Smith Act and marked the beginning of the end of communist Party membership inquiries.[88]

When the indictments ceased in 1956, 138 persons had been indicted, with cumulative sentences totaling 418 years, and $435,500 in fines. The final prisoner's sentence was commuted by president Kennedy on Christmas Eve, 1962.[73][89]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ The "First Smith Act trial" refers to the first trial under the Smith Act, held in 1941 in Minneapolis, which prosecuted members of the Socialist Workers Party. The Foley Square trial is sometimes referred to as the "Second Smith Act trial".
  2. ^ One of the original 12 persons indicted was not tried due to ill-health.
  3. ^ One defendant, Thompson, a decorated war veteran, was sentenced to three years.
  4. ^ The Smith Act is 18 U.S.C. § 2385.
  5. ^ Stephen M. Kohn, American Political Prisoners: Prosecutions under the Espionage and Sedition Acts. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994; pg. 21.
  6. ^ Martelle, p 6.
  7. ^ a b c Navasky, p 26.
  8. ^ Healey, p 115.
  9. ^ Navasky, p 26. Hoover quoted by Navasky.
  10. ^ Redish, pp 81–82, 248. Redish cites Schrecker and Belknap
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Redish, p 82.
  12. ^ Redish, p 248 (suggests that Truman was not involved).
    Healey, p 114; Navasky, p 30 (speculation that the timing of the indictments benefited Truman's re-election chances).
  13. ^ a b Navasky, p 30.
  14. ^ a b Mahoney, M.H., Women in Espionage: A Biographical Dictionary, Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 1993, pp 37–39.
  15. ^ Navasky, pp 33, 38.
  16. ^ See also Sabin, pp 62–63.
  17. ^ Redish, p 81 (Hoover). The Justice department never consulted Truman about the prosectuion. Redish cites Schrecker, p 191.
    Belknap (1994), p 207 (Cold War).
  18. ^ a b Redish, p 81.
  19. ^ Belknap, Michael (1977). Cold War Political Justice. Greenwood Press. p. 51.
  20. ^ Belknap (1994), p 207.
    Navasky, p 30.
  21. ^ Healey, p 114. Wallace was not a Communist, but many Communists supported the Progressive Party.
    See also Navasky, p 30.
  22. ^ Lannon, p 122.
  23. ^ a b c Morgan, p 314.
  24. ^ Morgan, p 314. Hoover quoted by Morgan. Bracketed words not in original quote.
  25. ^ Walker, pp 185–187. Many local affiliates of the ACLU, however, did aggressively support communist defendants.
  26. ^ a b c d e Walker, p 185.
  27. ^ Starobin, p 206.
  28. ^ The appellate decision regarding the jury selection methods is 83 F.Supp. 197 (1949).
  29. ^ a b c Belknap (2001), p 860.
  30. ^ Sabin, p 41.
  31. ^ a b c d e f g "Communist Trial Ends with 11 Guilty", Life, October 24, 1949, p 31.
  32. ^ a b c Morgan, p 315.
  33. ^ Longer trials have been held since then, for example a 20 month trial in 1988.
  34. ^ Sabin, pp 44–45. "Circus-like" are Sabin's words. Juror (unnamed) is quoted by Sabin.
  35. ^ Sabin, pp 44–45.
  36. ^ Walker, p 186.
  37. ^ Navasky, pp 30, 32.
  38. ^ a b c Navasky, p 31.
  39. ^ Navasky, p 32. Philbrick quoted by Navasky
  40. ^ Hearst, Joseph (April 27, 1949). "Girl Official of Party Stuns Reds at Trial". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 21.
  41. ^ Porter, Russell (April 29, 1949). "Communist Drive in Industry Bared". The New York Times. p. 11.
  42. ^ Navasky, p 35.
  43. ^ Sabin, p 42.
  44. ^ Attorney Maurice Sugar participated in an advisory role.
  45. ^ Sabin, pp 44–46.
  46. ^ a b c d Sabin, p 46.
  47. ^ Starobin, p 207.
  48. ^ Sabin, pp 46–47. Sabin writes that only 4 defendants were cited.
  49. ^ Morgan, p 315. Quotes from Morgan.
  50. ^ a b c Sabin, p 45.
  51. ^ a b Morgan, p 317.
  52. ^ Morgan, p 317. Thompson quoted by Morgan.
  53. ^ Navasky, p 37. Defendant Dennis, representing himself, also received a contempt sentence for his actions acting as an attorney. Attorney Maurice Sugar, who participated in an advisory role, was not cited for contempt.
  54. ^ a b Sabin, p 47.
  55. ^ Sabin, p 47. The case was Sacher v. United States, 343 US 1 (1952).
  56. ^ Smith, Jessie Carney, Notable Black American Men, Volume 1, Gale, 1998.
  57. ^ Follow TIME Facebook Twitter Google + Tumblr (1949-10-24). "''Time'', October 24, 1949". Time.com. Retrieved 2012-01-27. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  58. ^ Healey, p 116.
  59. ^ Navasky, p 36.
  60. ^ Kostiainen, Auvo (2010-04-27). "Hall, Gus (1910–2000)". The National Biography of Finland. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= / |date= mismatch (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  61. ^ Associated Press, "Justices Uphold Red Conviction", Spokesman-Review, March 28, 1950.
  62. ^ a b c Navasky, p 33.
  63. ^ Walker, p 187.
  64. ^ Sabin, p 84.
  65. ^ Morgan, pp 317–318.
  66. ^ Healey, p 123.
  67. ^ a b Barkan, Elliot Robert (2001). Making it in America: A Sourcebook on Eminent Ethnic Americans. ABC-CLIO. p. 147. ISBN 1576070980.
  68. ^ Navasky p 36; Navasky also suggests that the 20 June 1951 arrest of 17 additional Party leaders precipitated their flight.
  69. ^ "Gus Hall, American Communist Party boss, dies at 90". CNN.com. Archived from the original on 2008-05-28. Retrieved 2007-10-25.
  70. ^ Sabin, p 56.
    See also Fast, Howard, "The Big Finger", Masses & Mainstream, March, 1950, pp 62-68.
  71. ^ Sabin, p 56 (200,000 figure).
    Navasky, p 26 (32,000 figure).
  72. ^ Sabin, p 56. Hoover quoted by Sabin.
  73. ^ a b Sabin, p 60.
  74. ^ a b c d e f g Belknap (1994), p 225.
  75. ^ Sabin p 59. The 126 were in addition to the original 12.
  76. ^ Navasky p 33; Navasky gives a figure of 141 total persons indicted
  77. ^ Starobin, p 208.
  78. ^ Navasky, p 36
    Sabin, p 49.
  79. ^ Sabin, pp 47–48.
  80. ^ Sabin, p 48.
  81. ^ a b Navasky, p 37.
  82. ^ Navasky, pp 37–38.
  83. ^ Walker, p. 212.
  84. ^ Walker, pp. 213–214, 217–218.
  85. ^ Belknap (2001), p 869 (term "Red Monday")
  86. ^ sabin, p 10.
  87. ^ Parker, Richard A. (2003). "Brandenburg v. Ohio". In Parker, Richard A. (ed.) (ed.). Free Speech on Trial: Communication Perspectives on Landmark Supreme Court Decisions. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press. pp. 145–159. ISBN 081731301X. {{cite book}}: |editor= has generic name (help)
  88. ^ Walker, pp 240–242.
  89. ^ The final prisoner released was Junius Scales, the only person convicted under the "membership" clause of the Smith Act (all others were convicted of conspiring to overthrow the government). He was released when President John F. Kennedy commuted his sentence in 1962. New York Times: Ari L. Goldman, "Junius Scales, Communist Sent to Prison, Dies at 82," August 7, 2002, accessed April 23 2011; New York Times: "Clemency for Scales," December 28, 1962, accessed April 23, 2011.

References

  • Belknap, Michal, R., American political trials, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1994, ISBN 9780275944377
  • Belknap, Michal R., "Cold War, Communism, and Free Speech", in Historic U.S. Court Cases: An Encyclopedia (Vol 2)., Johnson, John W. (Ed.), Taylor & Francis US, 2001, ISBN 9780415930192
  • Martelle, Scott, The Fear Within: Spies, Commies, and American Democracy on Trial, Rutgers University Press, 2011, ISBN 9780813549385
  • Morgan, Ted, Reds: McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America, Random House Digital, Inc., 2004, ISBN 9780812973020
  • Navasky, Victor S., Naming names, Macmillan, 2003, ISBN 9780809001835
  • Redish, Martin H., The Logic of Persecution: Free Expression and the McCarthy Era, Stanford University Press, 2005, ISBN 9780804755931
  • Sabin, Arthur J., In Calmer Times: the Supreme Court and Red Monday, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999, ISBN 9780812235074
  • Schrecker, Ellen, Many are the crimes: McCarthyism in America, Princeton University Press, 1999, ISBN 9780691048703
  • Smith, Craig R., Silencing the opposition: how the U.S. government suppressed freedom of expression during major crises, SUNY Press, 2011, ISBN 9781438435190
  • Starobin, Joseph R., American communism in crisis, 1943-1957, University of California Press, 1975, ISBN 9780520027961
  • Walker, Samuel, In Defense of American Liberties: A History of the ACLU, New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990, ISBN 0-19-504539-4

Further reading

Selected works by defendants

  • Davis, Benjamin, Communist councilman from Harlem: autobiographical notes written in a federal penitentiary, International Publishers Co, 1991, ISBN 9780717806805
  • Dennis, Eugene, Ideas They Cannot Jail, International Publishers, 1950
  • Dennis, Eugene, Letters from prison, International Publishers, 1956
  • Flynn, Elizabeth Gurley, et al, 13 Communists Speak to the Court, New Century Publishers, 1953
  • Foster, William Z., History of the Communist Party of the United States, Greenwood Press, 1968, ISBN 9780837104232
  • Gates, John, The Story of an American Communist, Nelson, 1958
  • Green, Gil, Cold War Fugitive: a personal story of the McCarthy years, International Publishers, 1984, ISBN 9780717806157
  • Healey, Dorothy; and Isserman, Maurice, California Red: A Life in the American Communist Party, University of Illinois Press, 1993, ISBN 9780252062780
  • Lannon, Albert, Second string red: the life of Al Lannon, American communist, Lexington Books, 1999, ISBN 9780739100028
  • Scales, Junius Irving, et al, Cause at Heart: A Former Communist Remembers, University of Georgia Press, 2005, ISBN 9780820327853
  • Williamson, John, Dangerous Scot: the Life and Work of an American "Undesirable"., International Publishers, 1969
  • Winston, Henry, Africa's Struggle for Freedom, the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R.: a selection of political analyses, New Outlook Publishers, 1972


Selected works by undercover informants

  • Budenz, Louis, This is My Story, McGraw-Hill, 1947
  • Budenz, Louis, The Techniques of Communism, Henry Regnery, 1954, ISBN 0405099371
  • Calomiris, Angela, Red masquerade: undercover for the F. B. I., Lippincott, 1950
  • Philbrick, Herbert, I led three lives: citizen, "Communist," counterspy, Hamilton, 1952
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