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Ellen Chase Verdries Collection (Interviews/Paper): Blacklisted Teachers in Los Angeles, 1992-1996
MSS 043  
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Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Administrative Information
  • Historical Note
  • Scope and Content
  • Related Material at the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Ellen Chase Verdries Collection (Interviews/Paper): Blacklisted Teachers in Los Angeles,
    Date (inclusive): 1992-1996
    Collection number: MSS 043
    Creator: Verdries, Ellen Chase
    Extent: 1 half-box

    1/4 linear foot
    Repository: Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research
    Los Angeles, CA 90044
    Abstract: Oral history interviews with three blacklisted teachers and Ph.D. Dissertation using this material.
    Language: English.

    Administrative Information

    Provenance

    Donated to the Library by Ellen Chase Verdries

    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], Ellen Chase Verdries Collection (Interviews/Paper): Blacklisted Teachers in Los Angeles, Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research, Los Angeles, California.

    Historical Note

    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.

    Collection

    Ellen 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).

    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.

    Arrangement

    The oral histories are arranged alphabetically by interviewee. The dissertation follows.

    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: Abraham Minkus Papers: Blacklisted Teachers in Los Angeles,
    Date: 1945-1983
    Physical Description: 4 boxes
    Title: Florence Sloat Papers: Blacklisted Teachers in Los Angeles,
    Date: 1959-1991
    Physical Description: 1 box
    Title: Greg Goldin Collection (Interviews): Blacklisted Teachers in Los Angeles,
    Date: 1977
    Physical Description: 1 box, 15 audio cassettes
    Title: Thomas Fagan Collection (Interviews): Blacklisted Teachers in Los Angeles,
    Date: 1989-1990
    Physical Description: 3 folders, 5 audio cassettes
    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