Collection context
Summary
- Title:
- Abraham Minkus Papers: Blacklisted Teachers in Los Angeles,
- Dates:
- 1945-1983
- Creators:
- Minkus, Albert
- Abstract:
- Part of the larger Blacklisted Teachers in Los Angeles Collections, the Abraham Minkus Papers contain the materials created or collected by Minkus, a blacklisted Los Angeles teacher. The collection contains materials relating to Minkus' dismissal and subsequent lawsuits, as well as information on the cases of other blacklisted L.A. teachers.
- Extent:
- 4 boxes 1 1/2 linear feet
- Language:
- English.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Abraham Minkus Papers: Blacklisted Teachers in Los Angeles, Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research, Los Angeles, California.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
This collection contains correspondence, clippings, legal documents, and miscellaneous notes and documents relating to Minkus' dismissal and subsequent lawsuits. Also, included in the collection are documents relating to the dismissal and court cases of a number of other Los Angles teachers and one Hawaiian teacher. Other Los Angeles teachers mentioned include: David Arkin, Alice Ball, Minna Cooper, Frances Eisenberg, Serril Gerber, Leon Goldin, Claire Kaye, Solly Rubenstein, June Sirell, Harry Shepro, and Jean Wilkinson. Except for a few biographical sketches and four Gerber family wills, the collection deals only with the blacklisting aspect of the lives of those mentioned.
The collection is divided into three series: Abraham Minkus, Other Los Angeles Teachers, and Other Documents.
- 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.
BiographyAbraham Minkus was a major figure in the Los Angeles Federation of Teachers. A tenured teacher, Minkus was suspended and then dismissed from his job as an elementary school teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District after invoking the Fifth and First Amendments during a House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) Hearing held in March 1953. He unsuccessfully fought the dismissal all the way to the California Supreme Court. In 1977, he was a party to several suits seeking reinstatement and back pay for himself and other blacklisted teachers.
Minkus was born in 1914 in Chicago of immigrant parents. He graduated from high school in Chicago and moved to Los Angeles in 1932, graduating from UCLA with a Bachelor's in Education in 1934. He served as vice-president of the Los Angeles Federation of Teachers for ten years. Active on a number of educational and progressive issues he was not only dismissed from teaching, but received bomb threats and hate-letters threatening his children. Unable to teach, he worked as a salesman under an assumed name.
- Custodial history:
-
The materials in this collection were donated to the Library by Abraham Minkus.
About this collection guide
- Date Prepared:
- © 2000
- Date Encoded:
- Machine-readable finding aid encoded by Julia Bazar, Nov. 2000
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
The collection is available for research only at the Library's facility in Los Angeles. The Library is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. Researchers are encouraged to call or email the Library indicating the nature of their research query prior to making a visit.
- Terms of access:
-
Copyright has not been assigned to the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research. Researchers may make single copies of any portion of the collection, but publication from the collection will be allowed only with the express written permission of the Library's director. It is not necessary to obtain written permission to quote from a collection. When the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research gives permission for publication, it is as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Abraham Minkus Papers: Blacklisted Teachers in Los Angeles, Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research, Los Angeles, California.
- Location of this collection:
-
6120 S. Vermont AvenueLos Angeles, CA 90044, US
- Contact:
- (323) 759-6063