Citizenship and Loyalty

Debates over the nature of citizenship and patriotism became acute during the Cold War. The evolution of these concepts and other long-held tenets of American society and law are recorded in the papers of individuals who played key roles in the debates. The Manuscript Division holds the papers of members of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA), a member of the Subversive Activities Control Board (SACB), and lawyers, jurists, and defendants in loyalty cases. The papers of several jurists include files on the landmark Supreme Court case Communist Party v. Subversive Activities Control Board. Collections document the impact of loyalty questions on organizations such as the American Psychological Association, the Cosmos Club, Smith College, and the Tennessee Valley Authority. The actions of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and of Senator Joseph McCarthy are represented in several collections, and reflected in the papers of journalists who reported and commented on them.

The following collection titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content, including finding aids for the collections, are included when available.

American Psychological Association records
Published/Created: 1917-1986 (bulk 1940-1980)
Finding Aid (PDF, 569.245 KB)
Professional organization for psychologists founded in 1892 to advance psychology as a science, as a profession, and as a means of promoting human welfare. The records consist of correspondence; memoranda; minutes of meetings; drafts of books, articles, and lectures; congressional testimony; reports; and other material documenting the organization and management of the association's boards, committees, and publications. Subjects include ethical standards, loyalty oaths, psychological testing, women's issues, equal opportunities for minorities, drug use, homosexuality, and Vietnam War veterans. Subject files in the “Administration” series include material on loyalty investigations, 1949-52.
Emanuel Celler papers
Published/Created: 1924-1973 (bulk 1945-1973)
Finding Aid (PDF, 459.173 KB)
Celler (1888-1981) was a lawyer and US representative from New York. His papers include correspondence, memoranda, speeches, notes, financial records, clippings, printed matter, and other papers relating chiefly to Celler's service in Congress and as chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary. Subjects include American Jewish issues, civil rights, crime, foreign trade, immigration, internal security and loyalty, Israel and Zionism, monopolies, mutual security, oil, oligopoly, pollution, poverty, presidential disability, refugees, religion in schools, segregation, selective service, trusts, Vietnam, and welfare. Celler was an opponent of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Under the general headings of “Internal Security”, his papers include files on HUAC, the McCarthy investigations, the Subversive Activities Control Board, and on various movements to outlaw Communism in the United States.
Robert C. Cook papers
Published/Created: 1882-1992 (bulk 1940-1970)
Finding Aid (PDF, 201.577 KB)
Cook (1898-1991) was a geneticist, demographer, editor, and author. The collection includes correspondence, diaries, writings, research notes, professional files, and other papers documenting Cook's career as an authority on population policy, eugenics, and the effect of population growth on the environment. Includes material pertaining to the Cosmos Club (Washington, DC) admissions “blackballing” controversy of the McCarthy era (1949-54).
May Craig papers
Published/Created: 1929-1975
Finding Aid (PDF, 110.743 KB)
Craig (1889?-1975) was a journalist. Her papers contain correspondence, writings, scrapbooks, and other papers relating to Craig's career as a Washington and foreign correspondent for newspapers of the Gannett Publishing Company. The collection includes scrapbooks containing Craig’s columns on the Army-McCarthy hearings, 1954; a European trip, 1954; and Soviet satellite countries, 1955.
Theodore Francis Green papers
Published/Created: 1924-1960 (bulk 1937-1960)
Finding Aid (PDF, 215.922 KB)
Green (1867-1966) was a US senator, governor of Rhode Island, and lawyer. The papers contain correspondence, memoranda, speeches, reports, subject and chronological files, clippings, printed matter, photographs, and other papers relating principally to Green's career and activities in the Senate, particularly as a member and chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Subjects include Democratic Party politics, domestic issues, foreign affairs, the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and fisheries treaties. Other subjects include agriculture, appropriations, communism, loyalty and security questions, state and federal patronage, the US Army, the Atomic Energy Commission, the Commission on Civil Rights, the Department of State, and the Democratic National Committee. Also included are files relating to Senator Joseph McCarthy and to Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Dwight Eisenhower. Collection series include a "McCarthy, Loyalty, and Security File, 1950-1951."
Meg Greenfield papers
Published/Created: 1890-1999 (bulk 1952-1999)
Finding Aid (PDF, 231.896 KB)
Greenfield (1930-1999) was an editor and journalist. Her papers include correspondence, memoranda, minutes, speeches, writings, interview transcripts, reports, research files, and other papers documenting Greenfield's career in journalism as Washington correspondent and editor for Reporter magazine (1961-1968), editorial writer and editor of the Washington Post editorial page (1968-1999), and columnist for Newsweek (1974-1999). Within the “Personal and Family Papers” series is a file on “Communist and subversive activities allegations” at Smith College in 1954.
John Earl Haynes papers relating to the U. S. v. Paul H. Hughes case
Published/Created: 1954-1990 (bulk 1954-1956)
(No Finding Aid)
Haynes (1944- ) is a historian. The collection consists of research material such as photocopies of a trial transcript, Federal Bureau of Investigation Freedom of Information documents, press clippings, and related press material concerning the perjury case, United States v. Paul H. Hughes. Haynes compiled the material for use in his article, "The 'Spy' on Joe McCarthy's Staff," published in 1990. The papers document Hughes's trial for perjury for his claims to a federal grand jury that civil rights advocate Joseph L. Rauh and others had bribed a government witness. They relate to Hughes's claims to be a member of Senator Joseph McCarthy's staff in possession of material documenting questionable and illegal activities of McCarthy and to Hughes's attempts to present these to a group of individuals including Rauh.
Sam Jaffe papers
Published/Created: 1915-1991 (bulk 1925-1984)
Finding Aid (PDF, 119.825 KB)
Jaffe (1891-1984) was an actor. His papers include correspondence, writings, newspaper clippings, printed matter, sketches, photographs, and other papers relating to Jaffe's career as an actor and his personal life including his experience as a blacklisted actor in the 1950s.
Philip C. Jessup papers
Published/Created: 1574-1983 (bulk 1925-1983)
Finding Aid (PDF, 293.693 KB)
Jessup (1897-1986) was a jurist, diplomat, and educator. His papers contain family and general correspondence, reports and memoranda, speeches and writings, subject files, legal papers, newspaper clippings and other papers pertaining chiefly to Jessup's work with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Institute of Pacific Relations, US Department of State, United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, and International Court of Justice. Included is material concerning charges made against him by Senator Joseph McCarthy and postwar loyalty and security investigations; the Democratic Party and national politics; American policy in Vietnam; American Society of International Law; and to diplomacy, foreign affairs, human rights, and international law in general.
Katharine Amend Kellock papers
Published/Created: 1924-1969
Finding Aid (PDF, 108.988 KB)
Kellock (1892-1984) was an economist and editor. The papers consist of correspondence, writings, project reports, printed matter, and other papers relating chiefly to Kellock's work as an editor of the American Guide Series with the Federal Writers' Project. Included is material concerning Kellock’s dealings with HUAC, and investigations by the US Civil Service Commission and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Frank Kowalski papers
Published/Created: 1925-1976 (bulk 1948-1963)
Finding Aid (PDF, 167.118 KB)
Kowalski (1907-1974) was a US Army officer and congressman from Connecticut. The collection includes correspondence, memoranda, speeches, writings, reports, military orders and other papers pertaining to Kowalski's career in the army (1925-1958) and in the House of Representatives (1959-1963). Postcongressional files relate to his membership on the Subversive Activities Control Board (1963-1966).
Owen Lattimore papers
Published/Created: 1907-1997 (bulk 1950-1989)
Finding Aid (PDF, 208.641 KB)
Lattimore (1900-1989) was an orientalist, author, educator, and historian. The collection includes correspondence, journals, writings, reviews, speeches, research notes, interviews, reports, transcripts of hearings, newspaper clippings, printed materials, and other papers pertaining to Lattimore's studies in Chinese and Mongolian history and linguistics, his service as a political advisor to Chiang Kai-shek, his direction of Pacific Operations for the US Office of War Information Overseas Operations Branch during World War II, and his postwar work as a member of the US Reparations Mission to Japan. Also included are files on Senator Joseph McCarthy's accusations that Lattimore was a communist and Soviet agent, and subsequent Senate Foreign Relations Committee investigations (1951).
Agnes Elizabeth Ernst Meyer papers
Published/Created: 1853-1972 (bulk 1906-1970)
Finding Aid (PDF, 222.833 KB)
Meyer (1887-1970) was an author and social activist. The collection contains correspondence, diaries, speeches, an unpublished memoir and other writings, subject files, research material, family papers, and other papers relating to Meyer's career as an author, literary critic, linguist, and social activist, as well as to her personal and family life. In 1933 her husband Eugene purchased the Washington Post, which was later run by her daughter Katherine Graham. Diaries in the collection reflect Meyer's life as a prominent member of Washington, DC society. The files include material concerning her denunciation of Joseph McCarthy and his anti-communist investigations.
G. Bromley Oxnam papers
Published/Created: 1823-1963 (bulk 1912-1960)
Finding Aid (PDF, 172.670 KB)
Oxnam (1891-1963) was a Methodist clergyman and theologian. The collection contains correspondence, diaries, sermons, addresses, lectures, writings, articles, and other papers concerning Oxnam's life and career in religious and public service. Documented is his work with the Church of All Nations, the controversy over diplomatic relations between the US and the Vatican, issues of church, state, and Protestantism as they related to Catholicism, and charges made by HUAC against Oxnam. The “Subject File” series contains several boxes of “Un-American Activities and Related Material”, including files on “Hearing, July 21, 1953."
Jackie Robinson papers
Published/Created: 1934-2001 (bulk 1947-1987)
Finding Aid (PDF, 184.208 KB)
Robinson (1919-1972) was a baseball player, civil rights leader, and corporate executive. The collection includes correspondence, memoranda, telegrams, fan mail, speeches, writings, congressional testimony, baseball contracts, subject files, financial and legal records, military records, printed matter, and other papers relating chiefly to Robinson's career as a baseball player and corporate executive, and to his participation in political activities, religious and civic organizations, the civil rights movement, and media affairs. When Jackie Robinson began his career with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, he broke the unwritten racial color line that had existed in major league baseball since the late nineteenth century, and a significant portion of the collection is devoted to his pioneering efforts in this regard. Though not fully engaged as a political activist until the 1960s, Robinson was no stranger to political controversy as evidenced by his 1949 appearance before HUAC, where he refuted Paul Robeson's alleged statement that American blacks would not fight in a war against the Soviet Union. Robinson's testimony in the Political File recalls his support of American values and traditions and explores the aftermath of this witness to his faith in America as well.
Maurice Rosenblatt papers
Published/Created: 1910-2003 (bulk 1942-2000)
Finding Aid (PDF, 210.254 KB)
Rosenblatt (1915-2005) was a lobbyist and consultant. The papers include correspondence, memoranda, reports, newsletters, and other papers relating to Rosenblatt's career as a lobbyist, chiefly while working with the National Committee for an Effective Congress (NCEC) to curb the power and influence of Senator Joseph McCarthy and his anti-communism campaign. The collection also includes papers relating to the establishment of the McCarthy Clearing House, the Democratic Study Group, and the Foreign Policy Clearing House; and to congressional elections and financial support for congressional candidates.
Simon Ernest Sobeloff papers
Published/Created: 1882-2005 (bulk 1950-1973)
Finding Aid (PDF, 616.352 KB)
Sobeloff (1894-1973) was a lawyer, US solicitor general, and federal judge. The papers contain correspondence, memoranda, speeches, writings, briefs, opinions, case files, research material, subject files, scrapbooks, and other papers relating chiefly to Sobeloff's duties as solicitor general and as judge and chief judge of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Included is material pertaining to his involvement in Baltimore and Maryland law and politics; his efforts on behalf of American and European Jews; and family matters. Records kept as solicitor general include files on the US Supreme Court case Communist Party v. Subversive Activities Control Board (1955).
Robert G. Spivack papers
Published/Created: 1931-1970 (bulk 1936-1970)
Finding Aid (PDF, 160.438 KB)
Spivack (1915-1970) was a journalist. The collection includes correspondence, articles, book projects, columns, newsletters, topical files, printed matter, and other papers relating chiefly to Spivack's career as a reporter with the New York Post, syndicated columnist, and newsletter publisher. The material includes Spivack's New York Post articles; his newspaper columns, "Town's Backrooms" and "Watch on the Potomac"; and his newsletters, Private Wire and Spivack Report. Material on Joseph McCarthy is included in the Subject File.
Joseph C. Swidler papers
Published/Created: 1931-1997 (bulk 1958-1977)
Finding Aid (PDF, 214.565 KB)
Swidler (1907-1997) was a lawyer and public power industry regulatory official. His papers include correspondence, memoranda, reports, speeches, business and legal files, transcripts of congressional hearings, autobiographical material, an oral history transcript, printed matter, and other files documenting Swidler's career as a lawyer specializing in the regulation of the public power system. Topics include loyalty hearings with regard to the Tennessee Valley Authority employees' alleged connections with the Communist Party.
Earl Warren papers
Published/Created: 1864-1974 (bulk 1953-1974)
Finding Aid (PDF, 542.549 KB)
Warren (1891-1974) was Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, 1953-1969. The collection includes personal, family, and official correspondence; speeches and writings; Supreme Court files consisting of calendars, docket books, conference lists, bench memoranda, notes, opinions, and correspondence with associate justices; records relating to lower courts; and organizational files, scrapbooks, and other papers. Dating chiefly from Warren's appointment as Chief Justice, the papers relate principally to his activities with the Supreme Court and to the various landmark decisions identified with his tenure in such areas as civil rights, race relations, criminal procedure, legislative reapportionment, freedom of speech and press, and church-state relations. Included among these files is a number of cases concerning the government’s efforts to curtail communism and subversion in American society. These include Communist Party v. Subversive Activities Control Board, and American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born v. Subversive Activities Control Board.

Related case material concerning the Subversive Activities Control Board (SACB) is located in the papers of other jurists held by the Manuscript Division, including Hugo Lafayette Black, William J. Brennan, Harold G. Burton, William O. Douglas, Felix Frankfurter (Harvard), Arthur J. Goldberg, Harold M. Stephens, and Byron R. White.

William W. Weinstone papers
Published/Created: 1898-1985 (bulk 1937-1985)
Finding Aid (PDF, 201.531 KB)
Weinstone (1897-1985) was founder of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA). The papers contain family and personal correspondence; speeches and writings; notes and notebooks; and subject files documenting Weinstone's role as a founding member of the CPUSA in 1919, and as an educator promoting its ideology, chiefly from 1937 to 1985. Included is material on communist theory, labor history, civil rights protest and radicalist movements, and the history of the party. Also documented are Weinstone's arrest and conviction with twelve others of conspiracy to advocate violent overthrow of the government, and his subsequent two-year incarceration.

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Citizenship and Loyalty