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Inventory of the California Un-American Activities Committees Records

93-04-12; 93-04-16

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Table of contents

Series Description

93-04-12, Boxes 1-28

Series 1 F Number Files 1935-1971

Physical Description: 28 cubic feet

Arrangement

Arranged numerically by F number.

Scope and Content Note

This series contains files on alleged communist, fascist, and other suspected subversive organizations and individuals under CUAC investigation. Materials include correspondence, reports, clippings, testimony, exhibit items relating to hearings, photographs, and supporting background information. Although no guide to the CUAC filing system is available, the following pattern emerges from a careful evaluation of the records:

F1 (boxes 1-2): Communist Party organizations and leaders

F2 (boxes 2-12): Suspected communist front organizations

F3 (boxes 12-15): Communist publications and documents about communism

F4 (boxes 15-16): Suspected communists

F5 (boxes 16-21): Suspected fellow travelers, both organizations and individuals

F6 (boxes 21-24): Miscellaneous topics, principally from the 1950s

F7 (boxes 25-26): Communist Party election petitions

F10 (box 27): Subversive non-communist organizations

F11 (box 27): Subversive publications

F12 (box 27): Suspected subversive individuals

F13 (box 27): Other investigated individuals

F20 (box 28): Miscellaneous information on subversive organizations

F21 (box 28): Miscellaneous information on subversive organizations, individuals, and unnumbered files on schools

Access to the F Number Files is also provided by the 5" x 8" index cards through Index Cards, Series 3, Sub-series a, which is arranged alphabetically by last name.

For an inventory of Boxes 1-28, see Appendix A in Additional Series Information.

Additional Series Information

Appendix A: Boxes 1-28

93-04-12, Boxes 29-34

Series 2 Public Hearing Transcripts 1941-1958

Physical Description: 6 cubic feet

Arrangement

Arranged chronologically by date of hearing.

Scope and Content Note

These are transcripts of public hearings conducted by the Committees at various locations throughout the state. As noted above, the transcripts of public hearings were opened in November 1999.

Many of the transcripts reference an F number file that contains exhibits or other supporting documentation relating to that hearing. In addition, each transcript includes a list of witnesses that are included in each volume.

For an itemized listing of hearings, see Appendix B in Additional Series Information.

Additional Series Information

Appendix B: Boxes 29-34

93-04-12, boxes 35-66

Series 3 Index Cards 1939-1968

Physical Description: 32 cubic feet

Arrangement

Arranged into three sub-series: (a) 5" X 8" Cards, (b) 3" X 5" Cards, (c) Miscellaneous Cards.

Scope and Content Note

The content of the index cards varies from one index to the next. Some of the cards are quite extensive in the information provided about an organization or individual, extending through several cards. Others contain only the name of the organization or individual and a brief reference to records in the collection.

The first set of index cards (Sub-series "a") focuses entirely on California. The second and third sets of index cards (Sub-series "b" and "c") are national in scope and contain many examples of information reproduced from membership lists of suspected subversive organizations or subscription lists of subversive publications. In addition, these cards rely heavily on newspaper and television reports about individuals participating in or attending various anti-war, civil rights, nuclear disarmament, or peace rallies.

For a more detailed listing of indices, see Appendix C in Additional Series Information.

Additional Series Information

Appendix C: Boxes 35-66

93-04-12, boxes 35-58

Subseries A 5" X 8" cards 1939-1960

Physical Description: 24 cubic feet

Arrangement

Arranged alphabetically by last name.

Scope and Content Note

This large, alphabetized set of cards provides access to the F number file where additional information may be found and relevant dates. A reference may also be provided to the hearing transcripts when appropriate.

93-04-12, boxes 59-64

Subseries B 3" X 5" cards 1954-1968

Physical Description: 6 cubic feet

Arrangement

Arranged by color (white, blue, green, salmon).

Scope and Content Note

White cards are used for Tocsin, pre-1964, Delano and post-1968 references; blue cards refer to the first Bay Area report; green cards refer to the third Bay Area report; and salmon cards represent the Delano preliminary report.

93-04-12, boxes 65-66

Subseries C Miscellaneous Cards 1964-1967

Physical Description: 2 cubic feet

Arrangement

Arranged by index type, as described below.

Scope and Content Note

Miscellaneous cards, principally relating to the Bay Area or other Committee reports, 1960s, boxes 65-66. Box 65 contains five separate indices: the first relates to the Peace and Freedom Party and Clubs; the second to the 1967 report; the third to San Francisco State University; the fourth and fifth to the Bay Area reports. Box 66 contains an index to the Bay Area reports, nos. 2-4, and the Bay Area index, 1964-1965. Some of the indices are arranged alphabetically; others have no apparent organization.

93-04-12, boxes 67-71

Series 4 Bay Area Reports 1962-1971

Physical Description: 6 cubic feet

Arrangement

There is no logical arrangement to this series and no rearrangement has been imposed.

Scope and Content Note

In addition to manuscripts covering the third through the seventh Bay Area reports, this series contains a wide variety of information, including correspondence, newspaper clippings, reports, publications, and supporting documentation. To a great extent, the files relate to the San Francisco Bay region. Information found within the files relates to the Delano grape strike and boycott, Martin Luther King, Jr., the Watts riots, and unrest at the University of California-Berkeley, as well as other subjects.

For a box list, see Appendix D in Additional Series Information.

Additional Series Information

Appendix D: Boxes 67-71

93-04-12, boxes 72-76, 93-04-16, box 29

Series 5 Publications 1940-1960

Physical Description: 6 cubic feet

Arrangement

There is no logical arrangement to this series and no rearrangement has been imposed.

Scope and Content Note

This is the working library of the Committees and contains a wide variety of publications, including books, booklets, pamphlets, newspapers, audio tapes, and brochures received or acquired during the course of the investigations. In addition, a number of copies of the Committees' own reports are included.

Prominent subjects include communism, the Soviet Union and its leaders, the federal House on Un-American Activities, labor, civil rights, the Vietnam War, student unrest, the Black Power movement, Marxism, and Communist China. Of particular note is the nearly complete set of the "Little Lenin Library", which consists of writings of Lenin, Stalin, Marx, and Engels.

For a box list, see Appendix E in Additional Series Information.

Additional Series Information

Appendix E: Boxes 29, 72-76

93-04-12, boxes 77-78, 93-04-16, box 30

Series 6 Office Files 1940-1971

Physical Description: 3 cubic feet

Arrangement

There is no logical arrangement to this series and no rearrangement has been imposed.

Scope and Content Note

This series contains a broad assortment of uncataloged materials, including books, bulletins, posters, Dictaphone disks, correspondence, reports, transcripts, newspaper clippings, photographs, and supporting documentation. Although the files cover four decades, the items are predominantly from the 1960s, and reflect the principal topics of the Committee work at the time, including anti-war protests, the student peace movement, and the growth of ethnic power groups.

A second group of files dates from the 1940s and 1950s and includes reports of the Senate Investigating Committee on Education and various publications of the period.

For a box list, see Appendix F in Additional Series Information.

Additional Series Information

Appendix F: Boxes 30, 77-78

Series Description

F Number Files

Public Hearing Transcripts

Index Cards

5" X 8" cards

3" X 5" cards

Miscellaneous Cards

Bay Area Reports

Publications

Office Files