Greg Goldin Collection (Interviews): Blacklisted Teachers in Los Angeles, 1977
Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Goldin, Greg
- Abstract:
- Audio cassettes of interviews with people connected with the McCarthy Era Blacklisting of Los Angeles area teachers.
- Extent:
- 1 box, 15 audio cassettes 1 linear foot
- Language:
- English.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
This collection contains the original interview tapes (15), transcripts of the interviews, copies of the term paper, and background and draft material. The interviewees are Frances Eisenberg, Abe and Libbie Minkus, Vicki Fromkin, Florence Sloat, Arlyne Shepro, Robert Lees, Sam Rosenwein, June Sirell, Seymour and Connie Bennett, Jack Chasson, and Charles Sassoon.
- 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.
CollectionGreg Goldin interviewed several prominent people involved with the McCarthy Era blacklisting of Los Angeles teachers, for a term paper in Humanities at the University of California Berkeley in 1977. Goldin's interest in this subject stemmed, in part, from the personal experience of his parents, Leon and Martha Goldin, with the blacklisting of teachers in Los Angeles. Leon Goldin was a blacklisted teacher. (See Abraham Minkus Papers for information on an appeals case that included Leon Goldin as Defendant and Appellant.)
Access and use
- Location of this collection:
-
6120 S. Vermont AvenueLos Angeles, CA 90044, US
- Contact:
- (323) 759-6063