Red Roots, Radical Fruit : Children of the Old Left in the Civil Rights
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RED ROOTS, RADICAL FRUIT: CHILDREN OF THE OLD LEFT IN THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT AND THE NEW LEFT By Elise McCurties A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY History 2011 ABSTRACT RED ROOTS, RADICAL FRUIT: CHILDREN OF THE OLD LEFT IN THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT AND THE NEW LEFT By Elise McCurties Children of the Old Left were leading participants in the Civil Rights Movement and the New Left. During their childhood these individuals often participated in their parents’ political activities and many developed their own organizations to support Old Left causes. Like their parents, young leftists were persecuted for their activism during the McCarthy period. Red Diaper Babies (RDBs), children raised by parents associated with the Communist movement, and their peers from other Old Left organizations were followed by FBI agents, attacked on the playground, and harassed in the classroom. When these young activists entered college in the Sixties, they helped start or joined social movements that supported these Old Left values learned during childhood. These radical youth were instrumental in starting some of the major protest organizations of the decade, most notably Students for a Democratic Society, the Free Speech Movement, and later the Weathermen. In addition to their participation in the New Left, radicals participated at all levels of the Civil Rights Movement in the North and the South. As a result of their childhood experiences, these young activists differed significantly from other white non-leftist volunteers and their experiences help expand historians’ understand of white activism during the Civil Rights Movement. COPYRIGHT BY ELISE MCCURTIES 2011 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks must begin with my main advisor and committee chair, Kirsten Fermaglich. While working on my dissertation Dr. Fermaglich graciously met with me for countless meetings while I lived on campus and also clocked numerous hours on the phone when I moved to a different state. Throughout the entire process of researching and writing she has been an enthusiastic supporter and given invaluable advice. I am most grateful for all her help. I also want to thank Dr. Kenneth Waltzer. Over the past few months Dr. Waltzer has read numerous chapter drafts and pushed me to think more analytically about my research and conclusions. In addition I would like to thank Dr. Lisa Fine and Dr. Pero Dagbovie for agreeing to be on my committee. The classes I took from them helped immensely with my understanding of American History and African American history. I would also like to thank both Dr. Debra Schultz, who sent helpful revision suggestions, and Dr. Tony Michels for agreeing to join my committee and contribute their expertise. I am also grateful to the history department at Michigan State University for its financial support. Furthermore, I’d like to thank all the individuals who agreed to be interviewed for my dissertation. I would also like to thank Principia College and my History colleagues for their support during this process. Most importantly, I would like to thank my parents, Bill and Adele Wagner, for all their love, my siblings, Kanoe Wagner, Eric Wagner, and Eleanor Lee for all their encouragement, and my wonderful husband and best friend, Mark McCurties, for sweetly doing all the house work while I finished my dissertation. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 Introduction………………………………………………………………….1 CHAPTER 2 Historical Foundations and Methods………………………………………..18 CHAPTER 3 Growing Up Left During the Cold War …………………………………….75 CHAPTER 4 Childhood Agency During the Postwar Years...………………………….…157 CHAPTER 5 Children of the Old Left and the Civil Rights Movement…………………..235 CHAPTER 6 Pickets, Protests, and Social Movement Politics .……..……..…………….312 CHAPTER 7 Conclusion……….…………………………………………………………389 APPENDIX Interview Questions…….………………………………………………….398 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………….400 v Chapter One: Introduction The Communist Party initially introduced the term “red diaper baby” (RDB) in the 1920s to disparagingly describe members’ nepotistic reliance on birthright over merit for promotions. Outside the Party, Americans also considered the description RDB negatively, though for different reasons. To most Americans, RDBs were leftist traitors and rabble-rousers. According to Linn Shapiro, an RDB Sixties activist who interviewed and spoke with fellow radicals at several RDB reunions, the events of the Free Speech Movement (FSM) finally changed young leftists’ negative perceptions of this label. In 1964 the John Birch Society sought to suppress political protest at Berkeley by publishing an “RDB list.” Imagine their surprise when, instead of being quelled, activists rallied around the RDB label. The red diaper slur, a form of anti-radical red baiting, united FSM activists who proudly identified themselves as children of the Left and 1 bonded over memories of politicized childhoods. As leaders in FSM, the participation of RDBs was highly visible and numerous conservative groups drew attention to it on campus. The New Guard magazine, published by the Young Americans for Freedom organization, ran an article about the FSM protests entitled, “Behind Campus Youth 2 Turmoil: The Red Diaper Babies Grow Up.” This type of targeting happened on many college campuses across the country. At the University of Wisconsin, Madison, RDBs 1 Linn Shapiro, “Beginning the Exploration: Taking Over the Family Business,” in Red Diaper Babies: Children of the Left, Judy Kaplan and Linn Shapiro, eds. (Washington D.C.: Red Diaper Productions, 1985), 3. 2 Terry Anderson, The Movement and The Sixties (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 109. 1 were daily identified and slandered by a right-wing Madison radio commentator who 3 broadcast RDBs’ names, addresses, and daily activities. The term RDB applies to children whose parents were Communist Party elites, union leaders, rank-and-file members, and fellow travelers. This inclusive definition of RDB corresponds with Kate Weigand’s usage of the term in Red Feminism: American Communism and the Making of Women’s Liberation. Weigand explained, For my purposes, whether or not an individual was actually a member of the Communist Party is not particularly important. The Communist Party was the center of a large progressive movement that encompassed many organizations, and it profoundly influenced thousands of women and men. Many of them read the Party press and participated in formal and informal Party activities without officially joining the organization. This time period was known as the Popular 4 Front. Similar to Weigand’s inclusive definition, in his book The Social Basis of American Communism (1961) Nathan Glazer included individuals who were the children of Communists, those raised in Communist communities, the children of other radicals, and the children of “ordinary run of the liberal-minded Jews…philanthropists, and social 5 workers” in his study of the Party. As Glazer and Weigand showed, the Communist Party’s influence expanded beyond that of its formal membership, extending to a broader movement of radical involvement. Particularly during the 1930s Popular Front era and also in the immediate 3 Elizabeth Ewen, “A Way of Seeing,” in History and the New Left: Madison, Wisconsin, 1950 – 1970, Paul Buhle, ed. (Philadelphia: Temple University, 1990), 152. 4 Kate Weigand, Red Feminism: American Communism and the Making of Women’s Liberation (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2001), 9. 5 Nathan Glazer, The Social Basis of American Communism (New York: Harcourt, race, 1961), 132. 2 aftermath of World War II, the public’s interest in the Party increased and many people joined different organizations affiliated with the Communist movement. This did not necessarily mean people joined the Party, but they were involved in the cultural, political, and educational activities supported or led by its members. While some participants were loosely associated with the organization, the leadership and core membership were devoted to the Party. Glazer wrote in The Social Basis of American Communism that to be a Communist “means, ideally, and in large measure in reality, to be enlisted as a soldier in an organization. One hesitates to call it a ‘cause,’ … Yet it acts on those 6 committed to it as powerfully as any cause, any movement, has in the past.” Obviously not all RDB parents displayed this extreme devotion to the Party. As a result, the parents’ varying degrees of dedication affected RDB experiences during the McCarthy era. Some RDBs had family members in leadership positions at the center of the movement in the Party who were constantly harassed, called before investigatory committees, arrested, imprisoned, or went underground. RDBs from these families had to deal with the very public trials and negative media attacks against their parents and were often targeted by strangers on the streets and neighbors in their communities. Many RDBs in this category were known throughout the Party as Smith Act Victims, named after the legislation by which their parents were charged. Some RDBs had parents in charge of Party-run organizations like unions or civic groups that answered to the Party line and experienced relatively the same treatment. Regardless of their professional status, if these individuals were employed outside the Party or sympathetic organizations, they were often questioned, harassed, and fired from 6 Glazer, The Social Basis of American Communism,