Abraham Minkus Papers: Blacklisted Teachers in Los
Angeles,
1945-1983
Processed by Patricia Martinez and Julia Bazar
Southern California Library for Social Studies and
Research
6120 South Vermont Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90044
Phone: (323) 759-6063
Fax: (323) 759-2252
Email: archives@socallib.org
URL: http://www.socallib.org/
© 2000
Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research. All
rights reserved.
Register of the Abraham Minkus Papers: Blacklisted Teachers
in Los Angeles,
1945-1983
Collection number: MSS 040
Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research
Los
Angeles, California
Contact Information:
- Southern California Library for Social Studies and
Research
- 6120 South Vermont Avenue
- Los Angeles, CA 90044
- Phone: (323) 759-6063
- Fax: (323) 759-2252
- Email: archives@socallib.org
- URL: http://www.socallib.org/
- Processed by:
- Patricia Martinez and Julia Bazar
- Date Completed:
-
Dec. 2000
- Encoded by:
- Julia Bazar
© 2000 Southern California Library for Social Studies and
Research. All rights reserved.
Descriptive Summary
Title: Abraham Minkus Papers: Blacklisted Teachers in
Los Angeles,
Date (inclusive): 1945-1983
Collection number: MSS 040
Creator:
Minkus, Albert
Extent:
4 boxes
1 1/2
linear feet
Repository:
Southern California Library for Social Studies and
Research
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.
Language:
English.
Administrative Information
Provenance
The materials in this collection were donated to the Library by
Abraham Minkus.
Access
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.
Publication Rights
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.
Biography
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.
Biography
Abraham 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.
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.
Arrangement
The collection is divided into three series:
Abraham Minkus,
Other Los Angeles
Teachers,
and
Other Documents.
Related Material at the Southern California Library for Social
Studies and Research
Title: Frances Robman Eisenberg: Blacklisted Teachers in Los
Angeles,
Date: 1928-1995
Physical Description:
4 boxes and 1 oversize box
Title: Florence Sloat Papers: Blacklisted Teachers in Los
Angeles,
Date: 1959-1991
Physical Description:
1 box
Title: Thomas Fagan Collection (Interviews): Blacklisted Teachers
in Los Angeles,
Date: 1989-1990
Physical Description:
3 folders, 5 audio cassettes
Title: Greg Goldin Collection (Interviews): Blacklisted Teachers
in Los Angeles,
Date: 1977
Physical Description:
1 box, 15 audio cassettes
Title: Ellen Chase Verdries Collection (Interviews/Paper):
Blacklisted Teachers in Los Angeles,
Date: 1992-1996
Physical Description:
1 (half) box
Title: Jean Benson Wilkinson Papers: Blacklisted Teachers in Los
Angeles,
Date: 1953-1955
Physical Description:
1 folder
Title: Los Angeles Teachers Union Collection,
Date: 1933-1982
Physical Description:
2 boxes
Title: Dorothy Doyle Collection (Interviews): Blacklisted
Teachers In Los Angeles,
Date: 1986
Physical Description:
1 audio tape
Title: Clipping Collection: Blacklisted Teachers in Los Angeles,
Date: 1967-1982
Physical Description:
1 folder
A copy of the collection register is kept in the first box of the
collection (1/0).
Series 1.
Abraham Minkus,
1943-1983
Physical Description:
19 folders
Scope and Content Note
This series includes correspondence with Minkus' lawyers and the
U.S. Department of Justice, Minkus' FBI file, notes, other documents, and case
files from Minkus' several lawsuits. The lawsuits include: Los Angeles City
School Board vs. Abraham Minkus (1953-1955), Abraham Minkus vs. Los Angeles
City School Board (1977), Abraham Minkus and Serril Gerber vs. Los Angeles City
School Board (1977), and Minkus, Gerber, Eisenberg, Arkin, Sirell and Cooper
vs. Los Angeles City School Board (1977). A portion of Gerald L. K. Smith's FBI
file is also included in this section. Smith was a proponent of "Christian
American Nationalism," a "race-baiter" and a "native fascist." The file details
a protest of a Smith speech in 1945 by, among others, Minkus and Charlotta
Bass.
Box-folder 1/1
County of Los Angeles,
1977-1982
Box-folder 1/2
Law Offices of Melvin D. Morgan,
1981-1982
Box-folder 1/3-1/4
Law Offices of Silverton, Miller and Narvid [2
folders],
1977-1983
Box-folder 1/5
U.S. Department of Justice,
1978
Box-folder 1/6
Abraham Minkus,
1943-1968
Box-folder 1/7
Protest at Gerald L.K. Smith Speech,
1945
Box-folder 1/8
Meeting Notes,
1954, 1977, n.d.
Box-folder 1/9
Miscellaneous,
1953-1981, n.d.
Box-folder 1/10
Statements,
1977, 1979, n.d.
Box-folder 1/12-2/1
Los Angeles City Board of Education (LACBE) vs.
Abraham Minkus
Box-folder 2/2
Abraham Minkus vs. Los Angeles City Board of
Education,
1955, 1977
Box-folder 2/3-2/4
Minkus and Gerber vs. Los Angeles City Board of
Education
Box-folder 2/5
Minkus, Gerber, Eisenberg, Arkin, Sirell and Cooper
vs. Los Angeles City Board of Education,
1977-1981
Box-folder 2/6
Declarations -- Minkus, Arkin, Cooper, and Sirell,
[1977?]
Box-folder 2/7
Settlement Agreement -- Minkus, et al.,
1982
Series 2.
Other Los Angeles Teachers,
1953-1980
Physical Description:
17 folders
Scope and Content Note
This series includes legal documents, biographical sketches,
income statements, and other materials relating to other Los Angeles teachers
who were blacklisted. Of special interest is the miscellaneous material on
Frances Eisenberg, which includes her letter requesting a copy of her FBI file
(the actual file is in her collection).
Arrangement
Files are arranged alphabetically by teacher.
Box-folder 2/8
Los Angeles City Board of Education vs.,
1953-1955
Box-folder 2/10
Alice Ball vs. Los Angeles City Board of Education,
1968
Box-folder 3/1
Los Angeles City Board of Education vs.,
1954-1955
Box-folder 3/2
Los Angeles City Board of Education vs. Cooper,
Goldin, Sirell, Kaye, Rubenstein, and Arkin,
[1954?]
Box-folder 3/4
Los Angeles City Board of Education vs.,
1953-1955, 1977
Box-folder 3/5
Eisenberg, Arkin, and Sirrell vs. Los Angeles City
Board of Education,
1978-1979
Box-folder 3/7
Clarence and Doris Gerber -- Wills,
1977
Box-folder 3/8
Los Angeles City Board of Education vs.,
1953-1954
Box-folder 3/9
vs. Los Angeles City Board of Education,
1953, 1977
Box-folder 3/10
Retirement,
1974-1975, n.d.
Box-folder 3/11
Miscellaneous [Includes Wills for Serril and Lillian],
1976-1979
Box-folder 3/12
Harry Shepro -- Biography,
1954
Box-folder 3/13
Los Angeles Board of Education vs. June Sirell,
1953-1955
Box-folder 3/14
Jean B. Wilkinson -- History of Case,
[1954?]
Series 3.
Other Documents,
1947-1982
Physical Description:
16 folders
Scope and Content Note
This series includes subject and background files related to the
blacklisting and court cases as well as two issues of the
L.A. Teacher, newspaper clippings, and materials on a
teacher blacklisting case from Hawaii (John Reinecke and Aiko Reinecke vs.
State of Hawaii).
Box-folder 3/15
Assembly Bills,
1959-1978
Box-folder 3/16
Code of Civil Procedure,
n.d.
Box-folder 3/17
Communist Party,
1953-1959
Box-folder 3/18
Compensation Cases,
1975-1976, n.d.
Box-folder 4/1
Employee Rights,
1961, n.d.
Box-folder 4/2
Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education,
1954-1980, n.d.
Box-folder 4/3
Loyalty Oaths,
1948, 1953, n.d.
Box-folder 4/6
Reinecke vs. State of Hawaii,
1976-1978
Box-folder 4/7-4/8
Miscellaneous Cases [2 folders],
1945-1976, n.d.
Box-folder 4/10-4/12
Clippings [3 folders],
1947-1982
