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Alexander Pennes Papers (Committee for Medical Freedom Records), 1946-1968
MSS 048  
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Collection Contents

 

Series 1. Committee for Medical Freedom/Cedars of Lebanon, 1947-1957, n.d.

Physical Description: 21 folders

Scope and Content Note

This series contains documents created by the committee including minutes, correspondence, flyers, newsletters, and petitions. The committee's main activity was fighting the dismissals of Drs. Alexander Pennes, Murray Abowitz and. Richard W. Lippman from Cedars of Lebanon. Efforts included letters, petition drives, and rallies. Several issues of the Committee's newsletter Medical Freedom, flyers, action sheets, and some membership and other administrative information are found in the collection. Also included is correspondence about other blacklist cases (Betty Seldon and Dr. Edward Barsky) addressed to the Committee.
Also included in this series is one folder of material on the Community Medical Foundation (1946-1956), the non-profit pre-paid insurance and group medical practice, of which Pennes was a founding member. The folder includes some membership correspondence, donation information, the foundation's state charter, and a letter announcing the laying down of the foundation. Also included in this folder are the texts of Assembly Bills 800 and 1200, which proposed the prepaid system.
Box-folder 1/1

Minutes, 1952-1953

Box-folder 1/2

Address Lists, n.d.

Box-folder 1/3-1/8

Correspondence

Box-folder 1/3

Official, 1952-1953

Box-folder 1/4

Incoming and Third Party, 1952-1953

Box-folder 1/5

Literature Published by Other Organizations, 1952

Box-folder 1/6

Abowitz, Lippman, Pennes (includes other documents), 1947-1953, n.d.

Box-folder 1/7

B. Z. Goldberg, 1952, n.d.

Box-folder 1/8

Jewish Community Council, 1952-1953

Box-folder 1/9

Cedars of Lebanon Case and Background, 1952, n.d.

Box-folder 1/10

Goldberg Meeting, [1952]

Box-folder  1/11

Medical Freedom Newsletter, 1952

Box-folder 1/12

Flyers and Action Sheets, 1952, n.d.

Box-folder 1/13-1/15

Petitions

Box-folder 1/13

Unsigned, 1952

Box-folder 1/14

Signed: Los Angeles Jewish Community Council, 1952

Box-folder 1/15

Signed: Board of Trustees, Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, 1952

Box-folder 1/16

Executive Directors Files [Rose Pennes], 1952, n.d.

Box-folder 1/17

Fundraising and Membership Materials, 1952-1953

Box-folder 1/18

Materials from Other Organizations, 1952-1953

Box-folder 1/19

Committee for Reinstatement of Betty Selden, 1952-1953

Box-folder 1/20

Dr. Edward Barsky Case [New York], 1952

Box-folder 4/1

Community Medical Foundation (and AB 800 and AB1200), 1945-1957

 

Series 2. Laws, HUAC Hearings And Protests, 1951-1968, n.d.

Physical Description: 23 folders

Scope and Content Note

This series includes correspondence, notes, speeches, testimony and other documents pertaining to state laws proposing professional loyalty oath acts, the HUAC hearings targeting doctors (and other professionals) in Los Angeles, and the protests and other responses to these laws and hearings.
The loyalty oath materials focus primarily on SB 1665 and the various campaigns against it. They include a copy of the text of SB 1665 and correspondence about SB 1665 and similar bills. The HUAC materials are more extensive and include handwritten notes and speeches by Alex Pennes and Frank Weymouth and unidentified materials. (The Pennes speech folder also includes notes on other issues.) A folder of material on Reverend Stephen H. Fritchman, of the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles and his HUAC experiences is included in this series, as is correspondence and other material from the Citizens Committee to Preserve American Freedoms, in which Alex and Rose Pennes and Weymouth were all active, and materials from other anti-HUAC organizations. The hearing reports and testimonies include two California State Senate Investigating Committees on Education (Dilworth Committee) reports and testimony from several HUAC proceedings. Of particular note is the testimony of Dr. Louise Light Silver (Washington, DC, January 22, 1952) in which she names other physicians, and several large excerpts from the October 1-3, 1952 hearings in Los Angeles. Also of note is the published reprint of the 1968 testimony of Dr. Quentin D. Young of the Medical Committee for Human Rights. A legal-sized folder contains other testimony before HUAC as well as legislative and legal reports. Legal-sized folders also contain information on the Citizens Committee to Preserve American Freedoms and the National Committee to Abolish the House Committee on Un-American Activities (NCAHUAC).
This series also includes materials on a variety of other civil rights issues, collected by Pennes. These materials range from the execution of the Rosenbergs to labor and peace concerns. Material includes information on the protests against the blacklisting of doctors in the military and concerns over the Doctors Draft Law, as well as a physicians' protest of the execution of Wesley Robert Wells, and information on the blacklisting of teachers, labor leaders, and others. Two items refer to the film, Salt of the Earth. A legal-sized folder contains information on the Carl Braden/Frank Wilkinson Case.
Box-folder 1/21

Burns-Tenney Bill and Burns-Chapel Bills (SB 1665), 1951, 1955

Box-folder 4/2

Hearings, Bills, Legislative Information, 1952-1961, n.d.

Box-folder 1/22

Fact Sheets, 1956, n.d.

Box-folder 2/1

Alex Pennes and HUAC Protest [Includes Speech Notes], 1952, n.d.

Box-folder 4/3

Certificate to A. Pennes for HUAC Testimony, n.d.

Box-folder 2/2

HUAC Letters and Article [Frank Weymouth and unknown], n.d.

Box-folder 2/3

Reverend Stephen H. Fritchman, 1951

Box , Box-folder 2/4, 4/4

Citizens Committee to Preserve American Freedoms [Rose and Alex Pennes]

Box-folder 2/4

1952-1956

Box-folder 4/4

1954

Box-folder 4/5

National Committee to Abolish the House Committee on Un-American Activities (NCAHUAC), 1963-1967

Box-folder 2/5

Anti-HUAC Organizations, 1951-1953, n.d

Box-folder 2/6-3/1,4/6

Reports and Testimony

Box-folder 2/6-2/7

California State Legislature - Senate Investigating Committee on Education [Dilworth]

Box-folder 2/6

10th Report: The 1951 Hearings, 1952

Box-folder 2/7

11th Report: Opposition to Loyalty, 1953

Box-folder 2/8-2/13

HUAC

Box-folder 2/8

Testimony of Dr. Louise Light Silver [Washington, DC], Jan. 22, 1952

Box-folder 2/9-2/11

Communist Activities Among Professional Groups in Los Angeles Area

Box-folder 2/9

(Part 3), Sept. 30, Oct. 1 & 2, 1952

Box-folder 2/10

[p.329-408], Oct. 2, 1952

Box-folder 2/11

[p.495-636], Oct. 3, 1952

Box-folder 2/12

Testimony of Sol Kaplan [Los Angeles], April 8, 1953

Box-folder 2/13

Medical Committee for Human Rights Confronts HUAC: Testimony of Dr. Quentin D. Young, Oct 3-4, 1968

Box-folder 2/14

Los Angeles County Medical Association - Doctor's Draft Law/Loyalty Checks, 1953-1954

Box-folder 2/15

Wesley Robert Wells Case [Doctors Appeal Death Row Case], 1954, n.d.

Box-folder 4/6

Carl Braden/Frank Wilkinson Case, 1956, n.d.

Box-folder 3/1

Civil Liberties Issues [includes Rosenbergs], 1952-1968, n.d.

 

Series 3. Articles and Clippings, 1951-1968, n.d.

Physical Description: 5 folders

Scope and Content Note

This series is made up of clippings and various articles, reprints and flyers. The clippings are divided into material on the Cedars of Lebanon Case, on the blacklisting of teachers in Los Angeles and elsewhere, and on the HUAC hearings and other issues. The folder of Reprints, Articles and Flyers includes a history of test oaths and various other materials dealing with blacklisting and HUAC. A legal-sized folder contains miscellaneous periodicals including an article on Race Stereotypes in Education by Richard Slobodin, three issues of Now is the Time for DECISION published by the California Emergency Defense Committee (1952), two issues of the American Civil Liberties Union, Southern California Branch's The Open Forum (1952), four issues of I.F. Stone's Weekly (1959-1963), two issues of Variety (1952) and one issue of the Hollywood Review (1954).
Box-folder 3/2

Reprints, Articles, Flyers, 1951-1968, n.d.

Box-folder 3/3-3/5

Clippings

Box-folder 3/3

Cedars' Case, 1952

Box-folder 3/4

Teachers (L.A. and others), 1952-1953

Box-folder 3/5

HUAC, etc., 1952-1968

Box-folder 4/7

Press Release, Articles, Misc. Periodicals, 1951-1963