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Inventory of the California Un-American Activities Committees Records
93-04-12; 93-04-16
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Title: California Un-American Activities Committees Records
Dates: 1935-1971
Collection number: 93-04-12; 93-04-16
Creator:
Senate Fact-Finding Subcommittee on Un-American Activities, 1961-1971;
Senate Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities, 1947-1960;
Joint Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities in California, 1941-1947;
Assembly Relief Investigating Committee on Subversive Activities, 1940-1941
Collection Size:
48 cubic feet and 13 boxes
Repository:
California State Archives
Sacramento, California
Abstract: The California Un-American Activities Committees (CUAC) files (identification numbers 93-04-12 and 93-04-16) span the period
1935-1971 and consist of eighty cubic feet. The files document legislative investigations of labor unions, universities and
colleges, public employees, liberal churches, and the Hollywood film industry. Later the committee shifted focus and concentrated
on investigating communist influences in America, racial unrest, street violence, anti-war rallies, and campus protests.
Physical location: California State Archives
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
While the majority of the records are open for research, any access restrictions are noted in the record series descriptions.
For permission to reproduce or publish, please contact the California State Archives. Permission for reproduction or publication
is given on behalf of the California State Archives as the owner of the physical items. The researcher assumes all responsibility
for possible infringement which may arise from reproduction or publication of materials from the California State Archives
collections.
[Identification of item], California Un-American Activities Committee, [ID number], California State Archives, Office of the
Secretary of State, Sacramento, California.
Acquisition and Custodial History
These records were transferred to the California State Archives from the Senate Rules Committee in 1971.
The growth of international communism in the 1930s had an enormous impact on American politics. Coupled with the rise of Nazi
Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan, the threat of communism during the period leading up to World War II was very
real and pervasive. In response to allegations that communists had infiltrated the State Relief Administration, the California
Legislature created in 1940 what was to become a thirty-one year investigation into un-American activities in California.
The first investigating committee, chaired by Los Angeles Assemblyman Sam Yorty, was called the Assembly Relief Investigating
Committee on Subversive Activities. A report of the Committee's work was issued in late 1940 (HR9, HR29, and HR133, 1st Ex
Session). This short-lived body devoted its attention solely to the State Relief Administration.
A second committee was created by Assembly Concurrent Resolution 58 in 1943 as a joint body of the State Senate and Assembly
and was named the Joint Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities in California. This committee consisted of three
senators and four assembly members. Assembly member Jack Tenney of Los Angeles chaired the committee. This Joint Committee
received widespread, wartime support from the public. It divided its investigations between the activities and organization
of pro-Axis and communist groups.
In 1947, the Assembly withdrew from the Committee. The Senate took control and renamed it the Senate Fact-Finding Committee
on Un-American Activities (Senate Resolution 75). Tenney, now a Senator, remained as chair. The Senate Committee focused its
attention largely on identifying and exposing communists, and held many hearings on this subject. In particular, the Committee
investigated labor unions, universities and colleges, public employees, liberal churches, and the Hollywood film industry.
In 1949, Senator Tenney, under pressure from fellow legislators, resigned as chair and was replaced by Senator Hugh Burns
of Fresno.
The name of the Committee changed once again in 1961, this time to the Fact-Finding Subcommittee on Un-American Activities.
Senator Burns remained as chair. During the 1960s, the Committee shifted its emphasis to investigating communist influence
in racial unrest, street violence, anti-war rallies, and campus protests. Instead of hearings and staff field investigations,
the Committee based the reports more on information gathered from newspapers and police files. Senator James Mills of San
Diego became chair in 1970. Senator Mills abolished the committee in 1971 and the Senate transferred the records to the State
Archives.
The California Un-American Activities Committees (CUAC) files (identification numbers 93-04-12 and 93-04-16) span the period
1935-1971 and consist of eighty cubic feet. Over this period, the Committees produced or received thousands of documents,
including fifteen published reports; unpublished reports and studies; newspaper clippings; photographs; hearing transcripts;
correspondence; publications (books, magazines, and pamphlets); depositions; audio tapes; approximately 125,000 index cards,
tracking an estimated 20,000 individuals and organizations.
The CUAC files represent one of the most significant collections for a study of modern California history and politics. Indeed,
given the scope and breadth of the materials, the collection has importance for American and international history. It is
interesting to note that California's attention to un-American activities predates McCarthyism by a decade. As the files reveal,
however, there was a close and ongoing relationship between state and federal efforts.
As with most historical collections, the files are especially rich in certain subjects. Topics include labor and labor unions;
public schools and education; Hollywood and the motion picture industry; civil rights; universities and colleges (in particular,
the University of California-Berkeley, the University of California-Los Angeles, and San Francisco State University); political
parties (including the California Democratic Party, the American Communist Party, the Los Angeles County Communist Party,
and the Black Panther Party); the Soviet Union and Soviet-American relations; communism in China and Vietnam; fascist and
Nazi movements in America; and, the anti-war and peace movements. The Committees paid attention to specific events as well.
These events include the Alger Hiss trial; the Watts riots; the King, Ramsey, and Connor cases; and, the Sleepy Lagoon event.
Great attention was devoted to a number of ethnic and occupational groups in society, including students, teachers, scientists,
women, African-Americans, lawyers, clergy, musicians, writers, actors, Jews, Hispanics, Japanese, reporters, union activists,
and public employees. Throughout the files, well-known names appear, including Cesar Chavez, Henry Wallace, Harry Bridges,
Paul Robeson, Richard Nixon, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Earl Browder.
Additionally, special note should be given to records that relate to the development of the American labor movement and its
activity in party politics; the role of the motion picture industry in shaping public perceptions; the growth of militant
activities in universities during the 1960s (in particular, as related to the protest against the Vietnam War); the development
of the farm labor movement in California; life in the Soviet Union in the 1950s and Soviet-American relationships during the
Cold War; the emergence of civil rights politics as a response to the investigations; and, the evolution of anti-Semitic thought
and practice and its relationship to public perceptions of Jewish life and culture.
Unfortunately, little is known about the structure of the Committees and how they operated. In addition to Senators Tenney
and Burns, two other figures were dominated the work of the committees. Richard E. Combs, chief counsel, who directed the
investigations and conducted most of the questioning during depositions and public and executive hearings and Thomas L. Cavett,
chief investigator, who acted as the "eyes and ears" of the body, and gathered information from a wide network of local operatives
(mostly unnamed).
Researchers will benefit by first turning to the fifteen published reports (known as the "red books"), which have long been
available at a number of repositories. The collection contains several sets. The reports combine a wealth of data from Committee
files and, in many ways, summarize its work.
The records are divided into six principal series, several of which may be subdivided into smaller sections. The "F number"
(a designation created by the Committee) series consists of twenty-eight boxes. These materials are predominantly from the
1940s and 1950s and, unquestionably, are the most important part of the collection. It is within this series that the researcher
will find nearly all the topics noted above.
The hearing transcripts provide documentation of formal public hearings conducted by the Committees. In response to a court
order, the majority of transcripts were released to the public in November 1999. There are two boxes of duplicate transcripts.
The index cards are crucial to understanding and using the collection. This portion of the collection is divided into three
separate parts. The largest division consists of 24 boxes and provides indexing to the F number series. The other two divisions
total eight boxes and principally cover Committee work during the 1960s, particularly, the Bay Area reports.
Bay Area reports represent a major effort by the Committee in the 1960s to investigate suspected subversive activities in
the greater San Francisco Bay region. The incomplete and unpublished manuscripts include reports numbered three through seven
with supporting information, and some general office files from the period. Reports number one and two, though reflected in
the index and background files, are missing from the collection.
The records contain a wide variety of publications. Although newspapers, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, books, and other
published forms may be found throughout the collection, a significant grouping can be found in Series 5. The publications
span the entire period of the Committees' activities.
The office files contain various materials, principally correspondence and reports that were never cataloged into the Committees'
filing system. Most are from the 1960s and early 1970s.
No further accruals are expected.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
California. Legislature. Joint Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities in California
Communism
Labor unions
Civil rights