| Record Group: | Commission to Investigate Communistic and Un-American Teachings and Activities in Public Schools |
| Series: | Records, 1948-1953 |
| Accession #: | 1985.014 |
| Series #: | SZCOM001 |
| Guide Date: | Pre-1989 (DJ) |
| Volume: | 2 c.f. [4 boxes] |
Content Note | Contents
Institutional History Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 11 was passed by the New Jersey Senate on 31 March 1947, instructing Gov. Alfred E. Driscoll to "appoint a commission to investigate communistic and un-American teachings and activities." The governor appointed a five-member commission, chaired by Nichol H. Memory, Executive Secretary of Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken. Other commissioners were Charles J. McDermott of Madison (commission secretary), Margaret F. Brogley of New Brunswick, Mattie S. Doremus of Paterson, and Joseph G. Carty of Plainfield. The commission was created in response to nationwide public concern about communist influence in public institutions during the late-1940s and early-1950s. The commission's specific purpose was to examine all educational institutions in New Jersey that received public funding, to determine whether any teachers or textbooks sympathetic to communism were present. The commission organized on 7 May 1948 and concluded its work on 2 April 1953. Its findings were published in a report to Governor Driscoll on 26 May 1953. At its 35 sessions the commission met with a variety of New Jersey educators and officials, most of whom requested to meet with the commission to discuss evidence of communist influence in the public educational system. The commission also mailed questionnaires on the subject to all supervising principals (superintendents) and presidents of boards of education, and to all New Jersey Parent-Teacher Association presidents.
The commission's report concluded that New Jersey schools were "generally
manned by loyal and patriotic American citizens," that teaching
in tax-supported schools should emphasize more strongly "the
advantages of living under the American system," and that any
public school and university teacher "who refuse[d] to testify
or answer questions before any legally authorized board of inquiry
on the grounds of self-incrimination should be dismissed from his
post." Still, the commission's findings and recommendations
seem, by comparison with those of some contemporary boards of inquiry
in other states and the federal government, fairly innocuous. Public
response to the final report was registered in the correspondence
of Gov. Alfred E. Driscoll. |
| Bibliography New Jersey,
Legislature, Report of the Commission to Investigate Communistic
and Un-American Teachings Rossiter, Clinton,
Bibliography on the Communist Problem in the United States.
The Fund for the Republic, Inc., Records of
Gov. Alfred E. Driscoll, vol. 1035, "Commission on Communistic
and Un-American Teachings," Records of
Gov. Alfred E. Driscoll, vol. 1037, "Communism," New Jersey
Division of Archives and Records Records of
Gov. Alfred E. Driscoll, unnumbered box of subject files in alphabetical
order (Rutgers - Sal), "Rutgers - |
|
The archives' holdings were deposited unarranged in the New Jersey State Library in Trenton upon the dissolution of the commission in 1953. The series consists of minutes of commission meetings, correspondence, subject files, questionnaires, stenotyped reports of interviews, copies of newspaper clippings, and miscellaneous printed documents collected and used by the commission for reference. |
| Box 1 |
| Minutes, 1948 |
| Minutes, January - May 1949 |
| Minutes, June - December 1949 |
| Minutes, 1950 |
| Minutes, 1951 |
| Minutes, 1952 |
| Minutes, 1953 |
| Correspondence, General, 1948 - 1953 |
| Correspondence, Margaret F. Brogley |
| Correspondence, Joseph G. Carty |
| Box 2 |
| Correspondence, Mattie S. Doremus |
| Correspondence, Governor's Office, 1948 - 1950 |
| Correspondence, Institute for Public Services |
| Correspondence, Nichol H. Memory |
| Correspondence, Persons meeting with commission, 1948 - 1952 |
| Correspondence, Requests for information from other states |
| Correspondence, Society for Constitutional Security |
| Correspondence, Smith Webb |
| Subject Files, Croatian Fraternal Union |
| Subject Files, Englewood Board of Education |
| Subject Files, Heimlich-Finley case, Rutgers |
| Subject Files, Loyalty oaths and school curricula |
| Sample questionnaire and letter to boards of education, and tabulated results |
| Questionnaire responses, A-L |
| Box 3 |
| Questionnaire responses, M-Z |
| Questionnaire correspondence |
| Questionnaire to PTA presidents, tabulated results |
| Questionnaire responses, A-F |
| Questionnaire responses, G-O |
| Questionnaire responses, P-Z and unidentified |
| Questionnaire responses, textbooks used in NJ school districts, A-N |
| Box 4 |
| Questionnaire responses,textbooks used in NJ school districts, O-Z |
| American Textbook Publishers Institute |
| Clippings, re questionnaires, 1947 - 1952 |
| Clippings, Counterattack magazine, 1948 |
| Clippings, Counterattack magazine, 1949 |
| Clippings, Counterattack magazine, 1950 |
| Clippings, Educational Reviewer magazine, 1949 - 1952 |
| Miscellaneous pamphlets, un-American activities, nationwide |
| Miscellaneous pamphlets, un-American activities, New Jersey |
| Pamphlets, subversion in schools and textbooks |
| Clippings, general, 1948 - 1952 |
| Created
April 2004 |
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Relative to research and mail reference services - archives.reference@sos.state.nj.us Relative to records transfers and donations - archives.collections@sos.state.nj.us |
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