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| Photo of Harvey Klehr From Emory University |
This post is tied to my posts about Governor Timmerman's attacks on professors at Benedict College and Allen University. The posts start here.
Last week Harvey Klehr, an Emory Political Science Professor and an expert on the American Communism movement, generously took the time to chat with me about communism in the Deep South, especially in South Carolina. Talking to him put the Governor's attacks into perspective.
Recall that, in 1958, the Governor publicly accused 6 professors at Benedict College and Allen University of harboring communist workers. After explaining how the schools were harboring "known communist workers," he said
The CPUSA was also actively supportive for African American rights and, at times, promoted radical positions. For example, in 1920s the party endorsed a plan to create an independent African American nation within the United States.
The accusations were also taken seriously by people sympathetic to the dismissed professors. Former Allen student and State Senator Kay Patterson spoke glowingly of Hoffman and Rideout in a 2008 interview, but he is also defensive about the accusations ("It is alleged that they were Communists. That’s the allegation but now they were the best teachers there")
Last week Harvey Klehr, an Emory Political Science Professor and an expert on the American Communism movement, generously took the time to chat with me about communism in the Deep South, especially in South Carolina. Talking to him put the Governor's attacks into perspective.
Recall that, in 1958, the Governor publicly accused 6 professors at Benedict College and Allen University of harboring communist workers. After explaining how the schools were harboring "known communist workers," he said
It is believed that the presence of communists at these two Negro institutions is in furtherance of a long-range program to promote racial hatred among young and impressionable Negro students, looking toward an ultimate communist goal of creating civil and racial disorder.When I first read the Governor's speech, I felt it was easy to dismiss the accusation as a nonsense: this seems like a ham-handed attempt to demonize a handful of liberal academics. I think it is worth revisiting this issue. A major accomplishment of Klehr's was to document that there were valid reasons to be concerned with communist infiltration. The Soviet Union provided funding to the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), and members of the CPUSA were committing espionage for the Soviets.
The CPUSA was also actively supportive for African American rights and, at times, promoted radical positions. For example, in 1920s the party endorsed a plan to create an independent African American nation within the United States.
The accusations were also taken seriously by people sympathetic to the dismissed professors. Former Allen student and State Senator Kay Patterson spoke glowingly of Hoffman and Rideout in a 2008 interview, but he is also defensive about the accusations ("It is alleged that they were Communists. That’s the allegation but now they were the best teachers there")
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| Former State Senator Kay Patterson Photo from Carolina Panorama December 15, 2016 |
The Governor made very specific accusations against the professors (he doesn't mention anyone by name, but he gives enough details to figure out who is who). While overblown in some cases, the accusations were probably accurate. The speech was part of the public record, so he probably had the text vetted by lawyers. Moreover, he could draw on law enforcement to collect information on the professors (one of the Davis's children said that their parents had been under police and FBI surveillance for some time before the governor's speeches), so he had ample tools for documenting previous political involvement.
The most serious accusation is that Marion Davis joined the Communist Party (presumably meaning the CPUSA) in 1945. Marion and her husband Horace (who is only tangentially mentioned in the speeches as he had already left South Carolina) were indeed members of the CPUSA. Their son Chandler, for example, has discussed their membership in later interviews. In the interviews, Chandler says they had left the party by the late 1950s (the time of the Governor's accusations). This was not uncommon as many people left the party after 1956, as people became more aware of the crimes of Stalinism.
In any case, there is little information about what the Davises did in South Carolina. The Governor is silent on this matter; the last accusation he makes is that Marion "Entertained CP leader in home at Kansas City" in 1953, two years before she moved to South Carolina. While some of the dismissed faculty (like Hoffman) were actively involved in the civil rights movement, Marion's daughter Terry Davis said that she doesn't remember her parents being involved in these issues (although they were later involved in civil rights issues in like lunch counter sit-ins in North Carolina).
Marion and Horace Davis were the only people whose names Klehr recognized. The only other person accused of membership in a communist political party is Forrest O. Wiggins who was accused of being a member of the Socialist Worker Party (SWP). While both the SWP and the CPUSA were communist political parties, they differed in important ways. Most significantly, the CPUSA aligned itself the political positions of the Soviet Union (which helped fund the party), the SWP was Trotskyist and often in conflict with the Soviet Union. (Update: the FBI actually found no evidence that he was a member of the SWP. See this blogpost.)
The SWP and its activities are as well-documented as the CPUSA, but compared to the CPUSA, it was a much smaller organization, and it was not promoting the interests of a foreign nation the was the CPUSA was.
Whatever the SWP was doing in the late 1950s, I have been unable to find any information about what Wiggins was doing in South Carolina. The Governor's last accusation against him is that he subscribed to the National Guardian.
Besides Wiggins and the Davises, the dismissed faculty weren't accused of being a member of being members of a communist political party. Moreover, of all the dismissed faculty, the Davises were the only people Klehr (an expert on the CPUSA) recognized. I am hesitant to say that that others weren't members of communist organizations (defenders of the Red Scare would argue that it is hard to document that people were party members because the organizations like the CPUSA were so secretive), but looking at the Governor's accusations, it looks like other dismissed faculty members had pretty far left political beliefs but were not Soviet agents.
Regardless of what the dismissed faculty were doing, there was hardly a credible communist threat to everything. South Carolina was essentially a desert of communism. The state provided a very weak basis for communist organizing. A major source of recruits to communism was industrial workers in urban centers, but mid-century South Carolina was a largely rural state where much of the population worked as farmers.
We can put some numbers to communism in South Carolina. Scholar Ernie Lazar has collected many FBI documents on the CPUSA. Here are the FBI's membership number estimates:
December 31, 1952: 6 members
December 31, 1955: 5 members
June 30, 1957: 5 members
June 30, 1960: 0 members
June 30, 1965: 0 members
To be these numbers in perspective, the FBI estimated that the total membership in the CPUSA was 22,700 in 1954.
Governor Timmerman can, I suppose, claim to have been effective. All 5 CPUSA members driven out of the state shortly after his governorship ended.
The most serious accusation is that Marion Davis joined the Communist Party (presumably meaning the CPUSA) in 1945. Marion and her husband Horace (who is only tangentially mentioned in the speeches as he had already left South Carolina) were indeed members of the CPUSA. Their son Chandler, for example, has discussed their membership in later interviews. In the interviews, Chandler says they had left the party by the late 1950s (the time of the Governor's accusations). This was not uncommon as many people left the party after 1956, as people became more aware of the crimes of Stalinism.
In any case, there is little information about what the Davises did in South Carolina. The Governor is silent on this matter; the last accusation he makes is that Marion "Entertained CP leader in home at Kansas City" in 1953, two years before she moved to South Carolina. While some of the dismissed faculty (like Hoffman) were actively involved in the civil rights movement, Marion's daughter Terry Davis said that she doesn't remember her parents being involved in these issues (although they were later involved in civil rights issues in like lunch counter sit-ins in North Carolina).
Marion and Horace Davis were the only people whose names Klehr recognized. The only other person accused of membership in a communist political party is Forrest O. Wiggins who was accused of being a member of the Socialist Worker Party (SWP). While both the SWP and the CPUSA were communist political parties, they differed in important ways. Most significantly, the CPUSA aligned itself the political positions of the Soviet Union (which helped fund the party), the SWP was Trotskyist and often in conflict with the Soviet Union. (Update: the FBI actually found no evidence that he was a member of the SWP. See this blogpost.)
The SWP and its activities are as well-documented as the CPUSA, but compared to the CPUSA, it was a much smaller organization, and it was not promoting the interests of a foreign nation the was the CPUSA was.
Whatever the SWP was doing in the late 1950s, I have been unable to find any information about what Wiggins was doing in South Carolina. The Governor's last accusation against him is that he subscribed to the National Guardian.
Besides Wiggins and the Davises, the dismissed faculty weren't accused of being a member of being members of a communist political party. Moreover, of all the dismissed faculty, the Davises were the only people Klehr (an expert on the CPUSA) recognized. I am hesitant to say that that others weren't members of communist organizations (defenders of the Red Scare would argue that it is hard to document that people were party members because the organizations like the CPUSA were so secretive), but looking at the Governor's accusations, it looks like other dismissed faculty members had pretty far left political beliefs but were not Soviet agents.
Regardless of what the dismissed faculty were doing, there was hardly a credible communist threat to everything. South Carolina was essentially a desert of communism. The state provided a very weak basis for communist organizing. A major source of recruits to communism was industrial workers in urban centers, but mid-century South Carolina was a largely rural state where much of the population worked as farmers.
We can put some numbers to communism in South Carolina. Scholar Ernie Lazar has collected many FBI documents on the CPUSA. Here are the FBI's membership number estimates:
December 31, 1952: 6 members
December 31, 1955: 5 members
June 30, 1957: 5 members
June 30, 1960: 0 members
June 30, 1965: 0 members
Governor Timmerman can, I suppose, claim to have been effective. All 5 CPUSA members driven out of the state shortly after his governorship ended.
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