The Communist Activities Committee: South Carolina's Baby HUAC

Reflecting the political mood, the cover of the 1958 legislative manual featured a statue of ex-Confederate Wade Hampton in front of a Confederate flag
From the South Carolina State Library

One of the long-lasting consequences of the political attacks on Benedict College and Allen University was the creation of the Committee to Investigate Communist Activities. The committee appears to have had its origins in Governor Timmerman's January 15, 1958 annual message to the General Assembly. A large part of his speech was devoted to accusing Allen University and Benedict College of harboring highly trained communist workers. His speech ended with a recommendation that the General Assembly create a committee to investigate communist activities in order to protect the state from the "communist menace."

The legislature quickly took up the governor's suggestion. The proposed bill was read for the first time in February. It was ratified into law two months later, on April 16, 1958.

The committee was charged with investigating communist activities within the state and regularly reporting to the state General Assembly. They were also to recommend legislation when their investigations suggested that new laws were needed to preserve the state government. 

The committee's main power was to the ability to subpoena witnesses to testify before hearing and provide records like personal books and papers. The committee also was allowed to administer oaths and enforce them by charging witnesses with perjury. The history of the House Committee on Un-American Activities and committees like it demonstrated how significant these powers could be. Just subpeona-ing someone to testify could draw the press's attention and lead to the person being fired from their job and generally ostracized by the community.

The committee members were also given financial resources. They were allowed to employ an executive secretary or general counsel and clerical staff, and were reimbursed for their work via a per diem of ten dollars and milage. For its first year, the committee was appropriated ten thousand dollars (comparable to $100,000 in 2022) from the state general fund for the first year.

An observer knowledable about the history of HUAC-like committees would have sounded alarm. A committee like this provided legislators with a powerful political weapon, creating pressure to expand it beyond its original scope.

Florida's Johns' Committee illustrated how the dynamic could play out. The committee was created two years earlier (in 1956) to investigate organizations that participated in violence or in violation of state law. This type of language was often used to target communist organizations, which were believed to support the violent overthrown the United States government. The committee began by investigating civil rights groups like the NAACP with the goal of establishing ties between these groups and communism. However, in 1961, the legislature broadened the committee's charge to include investigating homosexuality. The committee's activities began to focus on universities, and it started investigating not only suspected homosexuals but also research and teaching activities that committee members found objectionable. Activities that raised concern included the publication of a scholarly article on Beat writers which included mild profanity. The committee questioned university students and faculty, and a number of them ended up being expelled from university.

Senator Rebert C. Dennis, a member of the investigative committee
From the 1958 SC legislative manual via  South Carolina State Library

Remarkably, none of this happened in South Carolina. In its first report (issued in May 1959), the committee reported that they found no substantial evidence of Communist Party activity within the state and expressed the opinion that no new legislation was needed to combat "subversive activities." Two years year (in May 1961), the state legislature expanded the committee's charge to include creating an educational program that informs South Carolinians about the threat posed by communism. 

The committee's activities became focused on its educational mission. In its public reports, the committee continued to advocate remaining vigilant against communism activities, but they also acknowledged that they had found no evidence that such activities were taking place. The sole activity they reported was that a Black self-help organization on Johns Island (the Progressive Club) had received twenty-eight thousand dollars in funding from the Highlander Folk School, a social justice center that many conservatives believed was a communist front. 

Although it existed for decades, the committee never held a public hearing and never used its power to subpoena. Its investigative function appears to have been limited to passing on tips it received to state law enforcement, especially SLED (the statewide investigative law enforcement agency).

In its 1971, committee members expressed concern about the growth of the New Left and student activism on college campuses. Anticipating that its focus would shift to these new political movements and away from communism, the committee asked the legislature to  be renamed the Internal Security Committee. The name change was made 1973.

At the time of the name change, the committee was still meeting twice a month, but it had become largely irrelevant in the public's eyes. The Columbia Record newspaper described the committee as "long inactive" in a 1973 article on the name change. The committee issued no further public reports, and it's unclear what, if anything, the committee did as its records have been lost. 

Remarkably, the committee remained in existence until 1993 when it was disbanded as part of a general reorganization of the state government. In the early 1980s, one state representative (Jarvis R. Klapman) proposed that the committee should focus on guarding against terrorist attacks on critical facilities like the Savannah River nuclear power plant. Nothing came out of this, and by the late 1980s, the committee members were spending their time addressing safety concerns about the Statehouse parking garage. 

Senator Francis C. Jones, a member of the investigative committee
From the 1958 SC legislative manual via  South Carolina State Library

The failure of the investigative committee can be attributed to political factors. The committee's most vocal supporter was Governor Timmerman, and he left electoral politics shortly after the committee was created. Under the state constitution, Timmerman was limited to a single 4-year term in office, and when his term ended (on January 20, 1959), he was appointed as a federal court judge. He remained in the judgeship until his retirement.

While Timmerman served as governor during a pivotal time in South Carolina's history, his political influence was limited. He had been elected in the first gubernatorial election held after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. Throughout the south, voters (who were overwhelming white because of voter suppression laws) were outraged at the prospect of school desegregation, and gubernatorial elections were largely decided by candidates' positions on segregation. Timmerman had won the election by being the most vocal segregationist.

Senator John C. West, a member of the investigative committee
From the 1958 SC legislative manual via  South Carolina State Library

Timmerman's overt and heavy-handed attacks on desegregation ran counter to the approach taken by many state politicians. In 1991 newspaper interview, the investigative committee's first chairman, John C. West, later said that the committee was "kind of a hot potato" and senior legislators did not want it. West said that he'd been given the chairmanship because he was a junior state senator looking for more experience on committees.

West's remarks should be viewed critically. He had a long and successful career in politics, and the investigative committee looked like an embarrassment by the 1990s, so he had every reason to downplay the support for the committee. A close examination of the historical record both supports and complicates West's statements. 

Once the initial shock of the Brown court decision wore off, South Carolina legislators avoided the sort of overt repressive measures that Timmerman advocated. Instead, they planned for a managed compliance with desegregation in which major elements of racial segregation were preserved through covert means. For example, public teacher salaries had been determined by a pay scale that was explicitly racist: the set wage for a black teacher was lower than that of a white teacher with the same experience. This system was replaced by one that used standardized test scores to determine salary after legislatures discovered that they could set score cutoffs in a way to largely replicate the older, overtly racially biased system.

The evolution of the investigative committee shows a similar strategy at play. A major component of the committee's educational activities involved working with the University of South Carolina (especially the international studies professor Richard L. Walker) to develop a summer program for public school teachers designed to train them on how to educate students about the purported dangers of communisms and the superiority of American democracy. By doing so, they made university administrators and faculty complicit in the state government's efforts to suppress leftist politics, but unlike more heavily-handed efforts like demanding the firing of left-leaning professors, this collaboration was unlikely to draw public criticism.

In the long-term, Timmerman's attacks on higher education were a dead end. The dismissal of the Benedict and Allen professors was the last effort by state politicians to force out left-leaning professors. However, those attacks demonstrated South Carolina politicians' interest in controlling and repressing higher education within the state. Those politicians were successful in their efforts. In the years that followed, the state government desegregated its higher educational system while simultaneously implementing measures (like the use of standardized test scores in admissions) designed to largely leave intact the system of white supremacy that segregation had produced. This was done with the acquiescence, and sometimes even the cooperation, of university professors. Ultimately, the hope expressed by the dismissed Allen University professor Edwin D. Hoffman, that resisting Governor Timmerman would "encourage teachers to stand on their own hind legs and be men," was not realized. 

Rep. Paul S. McChesney, Jr., a member of the investigative committee
From the 1958 SC legislative manual via  South Carolina State Library

Rep. James A. Spruill, Jr., a member of the investigative committee
From the 1958 SC legislative manual via  South Carolina State Library

Rep. T. Emmet Walsh., a member of the investigative committee
From the 1958 SC legislative manual via  South Carolina State Library

Professor of Atlanta University: Horace Bumstead

From Jen Snoots via FindAGrave

Horace Bumstead
From Jen Snoots via FindAGrave

Horace Bumstead
From Wikipedia

Horace Bumstead
From Atlanta University via Wikipedia

Horace Bumstead (b. September 29, 1841; d. October 14, 1919)

Massachusetts. White.
Education: A.B. (Dartmouth), D.D. (New York University)
Occupation: clergyman

Horace Bumstead was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Josiah Freeman and Lucy Douglas (Willis) Bumstead. His father Josiah worked as a merchant and authored a number of schoolbooks written for primary schools. His father was concerned about the rights of African Americans. Before the Civil War, he served as superintendent of a Sunday school for African Americans, and during the war, he taught freed persons who had fled to the north.

Growing up, Horace attending public schools in Boston including the Boston Latin School. At Boston Latin, his teachers included a friend and former classmate of the abolitionist Wendall Phillips (Francis Gardner). Horace had several opportunities to hear Phillips and he was inspired by his speeches advocating for ending slavery. 

After graduating from the Lain School, in 1859, Horace entered Yale College. He graduated with honors in 1863.

After receiving his college degree, Horace decided to fight for the Union in the Civil War. He was commissioned as a major for the 43rd United States Colored Infantry Regiment. He served during the final year of the war and then for six more years. He was present at the sieges of Richmond and Petersburg. In the summer of 1865, after the war had ended, Horace was and his troops were sent to Texas, near Brownsville, for garrison duty. Horace was discharged from military service on December 1, 1865.

After leaving the military, Horace continued his studies by enrolling at Andover Theological Seminar. He attended from 1866 to 1870 and then traveled around Europe. He spent fourteen months on the continent and visited Austria, Belgium, France, Holland, Italy, Switzerland, and England. While in Germany, he spent two semesters studying at the University of Tubingen. He attended lectures by the distinguished theologians Johann Tobias Beck, Gustav Friedrich Oehler, and Karl Heinrich Weizsäcker.

The Franco-Prussian War was on-going while Horace was in Europe. He was in Paris shortly before the German army besieged, and he was there a second time after the Paris Commune was put down. 

After returning to America in February 1872, he moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota to serve as pastor at the Vine Street Congregational Church (now the Park Avenue Congregational Church). The church had only recently been formed with support from the American Home Missionary Society, and Horace was its first regular pastor. Horace found work at the church frustrated and began seeking alternative employment. In the summer of 1874, his classmate Edmund A. Ware, then founding president of Atlanta University, visited him. In college, the two had discussed moving to the south after the Civil War and working to educate freed persons. Excited by the prospect of realizing these plans, Horace resigned from his pastorship in spring 1875 and moved to Atlanta.

Horace planned to work at the university for a year as an experiment, but ultimately, he remained there for almost three decades. He first served as professor of natural science. In 1880, he became professor of Lain and treasurer, serving in the second position until 1886. The year after he received these positions (in 1887), he received a D.D. degree from New York University. This degree was honorary (rather than earned by studies), but the university had chosen to confer the degree in recognition of a recent publication of Horace's, "The Biblical Sanction for Wine." 

Following the death of Atlanta University's founding president Edmund A. Ware, the university had a series of acting presidents. Horace served as acting president for the 1886-87 academic year and then received a regular appointment as president, serving from 1888 and 1907.

Horace faced a major controversy during his first year. Atlanta University had long had a racially integrated student body with the children of white professors studying alongside African Americans. During Horace's first year as university president, state legislators became upset upon learning that white students were studying alongside African American students. They threatened to withdraw financial support that the state government had been proving if the university continued to allow white students to attend. Horace refused to segregate the university, and in response, the legislature followed through on their threat to withhold funding. This had serious consequences for the university. For much of Horace's presidency, the university faced financial difficulties.

Horace's resistance to pressure from the state legislature was indicative of his presidency. Horace's former student and colleague George A. Towns one of the first and best allies that African Americans had among white people. In addition to resisting the state government's efforts to impose segregation, Horace promoted offering a high-quality academic education at Atlanta University during a time when there was intense public pressure to only offer vocational or "industrial" education for African Americans. One particularly notable act was the hiring of the celebrated academic W. E. B. Du Bois in 1897. During Horace's presidency, Du Bois wrote his celebrated books The Philadelphia Negro and The Souls of Black Folk. 

As a figure on campus, Towns recalled Horace as a man with "[t]he culture of Beacon Street [in Boston] ... in his speech, his dress, and his very walk .... He was cultivated 'to his finger-tips;' yet with all he was a noble soldier in precision and in loyalty."  

After stepping down from the university presidency, Horce retired to Brookline, Massachusetts. In retirement, he continued to support Atlanta University through fundraising. Horace died in New Hampshire in 1919. His death certificate lists cause of death as "unknown." Horace is buried in Forest Hills Cemetery and Crematory in Jamaica Plain (in Boston). 

Publications

1. "The Biblical Sanction for Wine." The Bibliotheca Sacra. Vol. XXXVIII, No. CXLIX. January 1881. 47-113.

Sources

1. Obituary Record of Yale Graduates, 1919-1920. (New Haven, Connecticut; Yale University, August 1920), 1360-1362.

2. Towns, George A. "Horace Bumstead." The Southern Workman. December 1919. 630-631.

3. A History of the Class of 1863, Yale College. Being the fourth of those printed by order of the class. (New Haven, Connecticut; The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Company, 1905). 47-56.

4. Towns, George A. “Phylon Profile, XVI: Horace Bumstead, Atlanta University President (1888-1907).” Phylon (1940-1956) 9, no. 2 (1948): 109–14.

5. New Hampshire Archives and Records Management; Concord, New Hampshire; New Hampshire Death Records, 1650-1969. Box number: 1104.

6. Year: 1850; Census Place: Boston Ward 6, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Roll: 336; Page: 326b.

7. Year: 1860; Census Place: Monson, Hampden, Massachusetts; Roll: M653_504; Page: 919; Family History Library Film: 803504.

8. Year: 1880; Census Place: Atlanta, Fulton, Georgia; Roll: 147; Page: 141B; Enumeration District: 089

9. Year: 1900; Census Place: Boston Ward 17, Suffolk, Massachusetts; Roll: 684; Page: 12; Enumeration District: 1407; FHL microfilm: 1240684

10. Year: 1910; Census Place: Brookline, Norfolk, Massachusetts; Roll: T624_608; Page: 26A; Enumeration District: 1085; FHL microfilm: 1374621N 

Professors of Atlanta University: Frank W. Smith

Frank Webster Smith (b. June 27, 1854; d. February 11, 1943)

Massachusetts. White.
Education: Harvard University (B.A., A.M.), University of Nebraska (Ph.D.)
Occupation: principal, teacher

Frank W. Smith was born in the town of Lincoln, Massachusetts to Francis and Abigail Prescott (Baker) Smith in 1854. His father was a farmer. He was a student at Phillips Academy (in Andover), graduating in 1873. He then attended Harvard University. He graduated from Harvard in 1877.

After receiving his undergraduate degree, he decided to work as a teacher. He was hired by Atlanta University that September. He served as the instructor of Greek and Latin, although his duties occasionally included teaching in other subjects. In an 1880 report to a Harvard alumni publication, Frank wrote that his experience at the university "has been varied and valuable, and I have had a good opportunity to become somewhat acquainted with an interesting part of the county."

Frank returned to the North around 1880. By 1883, he was teaching history and classics at the State Normal School in Westfield, Massachusetts. During this time, he continued his own education. Harvard awarded him an A.M. degree in 1882, although this was likely an honorary degree rather than an earned degree. Two years later he took classes at Harvard's summer school and then he attended the Teachers College at Columbia University from 1899 to 1900. Four years later, he received a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska. The degree was awarded for his dissertation "Studies in the evolution of the secondary school."

In 1896, Frank left his position at the State Normal School and moved out west. He settled in Grand Junction, Colorado and served as the superintendent of public schools. He moved to Salt Lake City, Utah and worked as a school principal and superintendent from 1900 to 1901. 

Frank returned to the northeast in 1905, after serving as an adjunct professor of education at the University of Nebraska from 1903 to 1905. He settled in the town of Paterson, New Jersey and served as principal of the City Normal School as well as the city examiner from 1905 to 1920. During this period, he wrote several articles and books on education, including Jesus - Teacher, The High School: A Study of Origins and Tendencies, and Historical Development of Secondary Education: From Prehistoric Times to the Christian Era (a version of his dissertation).

In1927, Frank retired to Winter Haven, Florida. He remained there until his death from heart problems in 1943.

Publications

1. "Studies in the evolution of the secondary school" (1904). ETD collection for University of Nebraska - Lincoln. AAIDP14152.

2. "The Normal School Ideal." Education. Vol. XXXIII, No. 1. September 1912.  19 - 26.

3. The High School: A Study of Origins and Tendencies (New York, New York; Sturgis & Walton Company, 1916).

4.  Jesus - Teacher: Principles of Education for both Public and Bible School Teachers (New York, New York; Sturgis & Walton Company, 1916). 

5. Historical Development of Secondary Education: From Prehistoric Times to the Christian Era (New York, New York; Sturgis & Walton Company, 1916). 

Sources

1. Year: 1860; Census Place: Lincoln, Middlesex, Massachusetts; Roll: M653_511; Page: 411; Family History Library Film: 803511

1. Year: 1910; Census Place: Paterson Ward 11, Passaic, New Jersey; Roll: T624_906; Page: 5B; Enumeration District: 0156; FHL microfilm: 1374919

2. Year: 1920; Census Place: Paterson Ward 5, Passaic, New Jersey; Roll: T625_1064; Page: 18B; Enumeration District: 107

3. Year: 1930; Census Place: Winter Haven, Polk, Florida; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 0014; FHL microfilm: 2340065

4. Year: 1940; Census Place: Polk, Florida; Roll: m-t0627-00613; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 53-39

5. Year: 1870; Census Place: Lincoln, Middlesex, Massachusetts; Roll: M593_626; Page: 352A

6. Harvard College: Class of 1877, Secretary's Report, No. II. (Cambridge, Mass; Riverside Press, 1880) 41-42.

7. Marquis, Albert Nelson. Who's Who in America: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men and Women of the United States: Vol. 12, 1922-1923. (Chicago, Illinois; A. N. Marquis & Company, 1923) 2849. 

Professors of Atlanta University: Cyrus W. Francis

Cyrus W. Francis
From A History of the Class of 1863, Yale College

Cyrus W. Francis
From A History of the Class of 1863, Yale College

Cyrus West Francis (b. June 17, 1838; d. June 12, 1916)

Connecticut. White.
Education: Yale College (B.A., B.D.)
Occupation: preacher, teacher, 

Cyrus W. Francis was born in 1838 in Newington, Connecticut to Cyrus and Nancy D. (Pratt) Francis. His parents ran a family farm. The family had deep roots in New England. Their ancestors had moved to the area in the 1600s, and one ancestor (Justus Francis) had served as a major in the Continental army during the Revolutionary War.

For school, Cyrus attended Dummer Academy in South Byfield, Massachusetts. He graduated valedictorian and then began attending Yale College. He attended Yale from 1859 to 1863, and was a standout student. He won third prize in an English composition competition and served as a deacon in the college church. He was classmates with Horace Bumstead and Edmund A. Ware, the founding president of Atlanta University.

After receiving his B.A. from Yale, he began studying in Yale's Theological Department. He completed a B.D. degree from the department in 1867.

His studies at Yale were interrupted towards the end of the Civil War. From 1864-65, he served in the U.S. Christian Commission, providing religious support with social services to Union soldiers. He was stationed in Washington, D. C. and in Summit Point in the Shenandoah Valley. 

By the time he graduated from Yale's Theological Department, Cyrus was licensed to preach and ordained as a missionary. In October 1867, he sent to Atlanta, Georgia by the American Missionary Association to perform religious and education work for freedmen. In March 1869, he was made pastor fo the First Congregational church. After serving as church pastor for four years, his wife became seriously ill, so he left his post and moved to California in the hope that a new climate would improve his wife's health. Sadly, her health problems persisted, and she died a few months after the move.

After his wife's death (in 1873), Francis returned to Georgia and became involved with Atlanta University. He remained at the university for almost two decades, until 1894. He held a number of important roles. He first held the professorship of systemic theology but was transferred to the position of professor of ethics and Christian evidences after one year. He also served as a trustee for twenty-seven years (from 1867 to 1893), librarian (from 1874 to 1887), and college church pastor (from 1874 to 1894). In the 1887-88 academic year, he served as acting president. 

In 1894, Francis left Georgia to return to Connecticut. He first served as pastor of the Congregational church in the town of Brookfield. After a decade (in 1904), his health began to fail, and he retired to the town of Hartford. Cyrus died of heart disease in 1916. He is buried in the Newington Cemetery. 

Sources

1. Obituary Record of Yale Graduates, 1915-1916.  (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University, June 1916), 50–51.

2. A History of the Class of 1863, Yale College. (New Haven, Connecticut; The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Company, 1905), 90–91.

2. Year: 1880; Census Place: Atlanta, Fulton, Georgia; Roll: 148; Page: 186B; Enumeration District: 090

3. Year: 1900; Census Place: Brookfield, Fairfield, Connecticut; Roll: 132; Page: 4; Enumeration District: 0050; FHL microfilm: 1240132

4. Year: 1910; Census Place: Hartford Ward 4, Hartford, Connecticut; Roll: T624_132; Page: 6A; Enumeration District: 0171; FHL microfilm: 1374145

The Professors of Atlanta University: J. F. Fuller

J. F. Fuller
From First Congregational Church

Jesse Franklin Fuller (b. March 4, 1832; d. August 31, 1909)

Massachusetts.  White.
Education: A.B. (Amherst College), A.M. (Amhest College)
Occupation: bookkeeper, farmer, teacher.

J. F. Fuller was born in the town of Middleton, Massachusetts in 1832 to Abijah and Abigail Frances (Weston) Fuller. Like most residents of Middleton, the father Abijah ran a family farm. The son attended local schools until he was nineteen (in 1851) when he left to take college preparatory classes at Wilbraham Academy. After graduating from the academy in 1854, he enrolled in Amherst College. He received a degree from the college in 1858. 

After completing his college education, Fuller began teaching, the vocation that would occupy him for the next four decades. He taught for a year in the town of Gloucester, but in May 1859, he left Massachusetts to settle in Appleton, Wisconsin. There he worked as a teacher and as a school superintendent. He was also highly active in the First Congregational Church, serving as organist and clerk.

Fuller remained in Appleton for two decades, until 1871. That year he became active in the American Missionary Society's efforts to educate freedmen. He first moved to Straight University in New Orleans to serve as professor of mathematics. After teaching there for five years (in 1876), he moved to Atlanta University to hold a similar professorship.

Fuller left the south to return to Wisconsin in 1880. He first served as a high school principal and school superintendent in the town of De Pere. He returned to Appleton in 1884 and worked as an accountant until about 1897. Shortly before he retired from his work as an accountant, Fuller published a family genealogy. Four years later he published a history of the First Congregational Church in Appleton.

Fuller remained in Appleton until his death, due to heart disease, in 1909.  

Publications

1. A Brief Sketch of Thomas Fuller and His Descendants With Historical Notes. (Appleton, Wis.: Crescent Printing House, 1896).

2. The First Congregational Church, Appleton, Wis. Prepared for the Semi-centennial Anniversary, Dec. 18, 1900. (Appleton, Wis.: Appleton Printing Co, 1900?)

Sources

1. Obituary Record of Graduates of Amherst College, for the Academical Year Ending June 24, 1903.  (Amherst, Mass.: Amherst College, 1903), 332–333.

2.  Spencer, Elihu, The Pioneers of Outagamie County, Wisconsin.  (Appleton, Wis.: Post Publishing Company, 1895), 275–276.

3. Montague, W. L., Biographical Records of the Alumni of Amherst College During Its First Half Century, 1821–1871.  (Appleton, Wis.: ?, 1883), 326.

4. Year: 1850; Census Place: Middleton, Essex, Massachusetts; Roll: 315; Page: 359a

5. Year: 1870; Census Place: Appleton Ward 2, Outagamie, Wisconsin; Roll: M593_1730; Page: 372B

6. Year: 1900; Census Place: Appleton Ward 1, Outagamie, Wisconsin; Roll: 1809; Page: 12; Enumeration District: 0064; FHL microfilm: 1241809