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| Front page headline from the January 17, 1958 issue of The Columbia Record |
"Carolinas Have 147 Known Reds" screamed the headline of the January 17, 1958 issue of the Columbia Record newspaper. Only two days earlier the governor of South Carolina, in his annual address, had made a shocking accusation: there was a communist cell in South Carolina. He even disclosed that the cell was located less than two miles away from the statehouse, at Allen University.
The alleged cell was not made up of the 147 "known Reds" from the Record headline. The subheading clarified that only "17 Reside Within S. C." Even this number had only weak support. Deep into the article, the reporter clarified that the membership numbers came from a public report published seven years earlier. They "do not necessarily reflect a perfectly accurate count as of today," an unnamed FBI agent is quoted as saying.
The tone of the article invites to reader to imagine that the membership numbers had grown dramatically since 1951, but the reality was that the Communist Party USA had been in free fall for much of the 1950s. Support for the Communist Party had peaked in the immediate aftermath of World War II, a time when the Soviet Union was celebrated as an important ally. This situation changed quickly. Once the Cold War broke out, Party members found themselves on the frontline of the conflict. Mainstream political groups distanced themselves from communists, and the federal government, empowered by new anti-subversion laws, pursued criminal charges against much of the CP leadership. By 1958, the Party was in disarray, with almost one-hundred members criminally convicted.
The unnamed FBI agent the journalist spoke to was tightlipped about recent developments, but he had come to the conclusion that there were no serious concerns. The FBI had just completed a thorough investigation of the Allen professors. One professor, Edwin Hoffman, had been considered for inclusion in the FBI's index of people who were a threat to national security. Their conclusion? He "should not be included in the Security Index at this time."
The FBI did find that there were communists in South Carolina. Internal data included that estimate that five communist "registrants" were living in the state in 1956. This was actually a peak: there were no members in 1955 or 1954.
While the number of communists was tiny, the FBI was concerned about a recent reorganization within the CP. Communist leadership had abandoned the south in 1952 as part of a shift to "full-scale underground activity." By the summer of 1957, the Party had begun reemerge, and it reorganized its activities in the south. A newly created Southern Region Committee was "controlling unit" for most of the southern states including South Carolina.
FBI agents were eager to learn more about the SRC. They had determined that two CP members, James Edward Jackson and Nemmy Sparks, had represented South Carolina at a recent meeting. However, Jackson and Sparks lived out-of-state, and the regional organizer, Sylvia Hall, was based in New York City. The FBI had been unable to identify any of the Communists believed to live in the state.
The FBI did have its suspicions as to who the communists were. They believed they were the accused professors at Allen along with professors at Allen's neighbor, Benedict College. The conjecture was not unreasonable. The available information (age and race) matched.
The FBI agents were able to tie two of the professors to the Communist Party albeit with only a thin thread. In May 1957, an unnamed source provided the FBI with documents obtained from Sylvia Hall's apartment. The source had evidently searched the apartment and found papers referencing two of the South Carolina professors. The papers included an envelope with "The old man" written in a corner. Inside was a note that read "Anyone coming to see people will go to Ed Hoffman's house (phone book) or at Allen University" as well as the address "JSK, 1408 Senate St., Allen University." An address found on a torn envelop clarified the initials. They were those of "Rev. J. Spencer Kennard, Jr., 1408 Senate St., Columbia S. C." on a torn envelope placed in box containing the operational records of the SRC.
A third note referenced one "Morris" which agents believed was Shirley Juanita Morris, a student at Benedict College. Intriguingly, she appears nowhere in the public record even though the FBI had identified her as a CP member. Her alleged communist created to problems for her. While the professors were forced out of the state by the end of the year, Morris remained at Benedict and graduated magna cum laude in 1960.
The FBI used the tools it had to investigate the professors. They examined the professor's mail for a month and consulted with their informants (likely state law enforcement and sympathetic faculty at the schools), but ultimately obtained nothing of substance. Edwin Hoffman did a good job of summarizing the event in a letter to a friend. After explaining the situation, he wrote, "It can be said our state suffers from a cultural lag and McCarthyism is first limping into the picture at this time."
