Ellen Chase Verdries Collection (Interviews/Paper): Blacklisted Teachers in Los Angeles, 1992-1996
Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Verdries, Ellen Chase
- Abstract:
- Oral history interviews with three blacklisted teachers and Ph.D. Dissertation using this material.
- Extent:
- 1 half-box 1/4 linear foot
- Language:
- English.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
This collection consists of three of Verdries oral history interviews with blacklisted teachers (Frances Robman Eisenberg, Muriel Goldsmith, and Florence Sloat) and a copy of her dissertation, Teaching with the Enemy: An Archival and Narrative Analysis of McCarthyism in the Public Schools. The oral history files consist of a bound transcript of each interview.
The oral histories are arranged alphabetically by interviewee. The dissertation follows.
- Biographical / historical:
- Historical Context: Blacklisting and the McCarthy Era
The individual collections within the Blacklisted Teachers in Los Angeles Collection share a common historical framework, the Anti-Communist fervor of the Cold War Period and what is commonly referred to as the McCarthy Era. After the end of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in the ideological battle known as the Cold War. The identification of communists and other radicals through the use of federal and state legislative investigative committees and the punishment of those identified through firing and blacklisting comprised a successful U.S. tactic. The investigations spread from federal and other government employees to the entertainment industry, the professions, labor unions, and the private sector. The major players in these campaigns included, on the Federal level, Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). In California major players included California State Assemblyman (later State Senator) Nelson S. Dilworth, and State Senators Jack B. Tenney and Hugh M. Burns. All three served on the Joint Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities in California (1945) and first Tenney and later Burns chaired the [California] Senate Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities. Of special note are the Levering (1952) and Dilworth (1953) Acts. The Levering Act made refusal to fully cooperate with any state committee grounds for firing a teacher and the Dilworth Act gave local school boards investigating authority and also required that all teachers sign an oath denying any Communist affiliation.
CollectionEllen Chase Verdries used a combination of oral history interviews and archival research to write her 1996 Ph.D. Dissertation in Education, Teaching with the Enemy: An Archival and Narrative Analysis of McCarthyism in the Public Schools, (Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, California).
Access and use
- Location of this collection:
-
6120 S. Vermont AvenueLos Angeles, CA 90044, US
- Contact:
- (323) 759-6063