The Environmental Defense Fund, founded in 1967 in New York, is a very large and active global environmental not for profit group that current has 700,000 members.  Since the 1960s and moving forward the EDF has taken on various green campaigns including legislation against the use of chemicals like DDT, clean air and water acts, pollution reduction, and global warming initiatives.[1] The EDF probably would not be considered by most an extremist environmental group and even according their own site they “believe economic prosperity and environmental stewardship go hand in hand.” [2] They tend to seek collaborative, “market-based” solutions to environmental issues and even have corporate partnerships with companies like FedEx and McDonalds.

However, looking at the items below, the language like “taking offenders to court” is a much more confrontational than what you see on their website now. It seems like the EDF must have gradually moved away from some of its more radical/militant approaches and rhetoric. The EDF is one of many groups in the collection that probably would not be considered very extreme now, but at the time it was collected would be categorized by Gordon Hall as “dissenting” or “groups that were not yet extremist, but might at some point turn in that direction.”

Environmental Defense Fund (1984 Front)

Environmental Defense Fund (1984 Back)

Environmental Defense Fund (1971 Front)

Environmental Defense Fund (1971 Back)

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_Defense_Fund

[2] http://www.edf.org/about

The Emergency Civil Liberties Committee (later The National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee) was started in 1951 in response to the McCarran Act or the “Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950.” The mission of the organization was to defend the rights of “free speech, religion, travel, and assembly.” [1] The McCarran Act was one of the driving forces behind the “Red Scare” of the 1950s and the rise of McCarthyism. The group was modeled as a more vigorous version of the American Civil Liberties Union and participated directly in the defense of those charged as communists and subversives under the McCarran Act.[1] Throughout the 1950s the NECLC was accused of being a communist front organization because the group was founded and run by people like its chairman Corliss Lamont who were not members of  the Communist Party USA but were known as fellow travelers. [3] Lamont was also previously the director of the ACLU.[4]

The NECLC merged with the Center for Constitution Rights in 1998 but had previously taken cases involving the draft and anti-war protests, child welfare and immigration.[1] They also represented James Peck, a Freedom Rider beaten by the KKK in 1961 who sued the FBI in 1976 for having knowledge of his attack and not acting. The NECLC was run by Edith Tiger from 1968 until 1998.

I have included a reprinting of the Bill of Rights and a few pages from one of their publications about the McCarran Act (and a cartoon that I do not understand at all).

Emergency Civil Liberties Committee Reprint Bill of Rights

Emergency Civil Liberties Committee (March 1963 Cover)

Emergency Civil Liberties Committee (March 1963 Inside)

Emergency Civil Liberties Committee (March 1963 Back Cover)

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Emergency_Civil_Liberties_Committee

[2] http://keywiki.org/National_Emergency_Civil_Liberties_Committee

[3] http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/printgroupProfile.asp?grpid=7022

[4] http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=1860Communist%20Party%20USA

S.O.S.!!!, U.S.A., Ship of State was a publication created by Jozef Mlot-Mroz, a Polish immigrant to the United States. Based out of Salem, Massachusetts, Mlot-Mroz was a very active anti-communist and anti-Semetic extremist. Mlot-Mroz activism was mostly based around the concept that communism was created by Jews to destroy Christianity. Mlot-Mroz was often seen at protests in and around the Boston area[1] and was known for his provocative slogans like “Fight and Destroy Jewish Zionist Conspiracy Today” or burning Israeli flags.[2]  Mlot-Mroz was also heavily involved in other groups such as  The Anti-Communist Confederation of Polish Freedom Fighters in United States of America and The New England Captive Nations Committee.[3]

S.O.S.!!! (March 1969)

S.O.S.!!! Inside (March 1969)

S.O.S.!!! Back Cover (March 1969)

[1] http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1989/4/18/promise-of-a-positive-left-pbabs/

[2] http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/forgive-us-our-trespasses

[3] http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/nazi-war-criminals/

Dr. Benjamin Spock a pediatrician famous for writing the extremely popular book “Baby and Child Care” was born in 1903 and passed away in 1998. [1]  Dr. Spock was also a left wing political activist who even running for president on the People’s Party ticket. [2] In particular Spock became well known as an anti-Vietnam War activist.

In 1968 Dr. Spock was convicted of “conspiring to counsel evasion of the draft” along with four other people from Boston. [3] Throughout 1967 and 1968 Dr. Spock was involved in various protests to the Vietnam War which culminated in an October 16, 1967 event in which a few hundred people burned their draft cards. In January of 1968 Dr. Spock was indicted and in July he was sentenced to federal prison.[4] Later, the two-year sentence was appealed and overturned before he served any time. [5]

The photos below are from a protest in Post Office Square in Boston in  1968 in response to Dr. Spock being indicted.

Dr. Spock Demonstration Post Office Square Boston, MA (1968)

Dr. Spock Demonstration Post Office Square Boston, MA (1968)

Dr. Spock Demonstration Arlington Street Church Boston, MA (1968)

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Spock

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Spock

[3] http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/05/17/specials/spock-guilty.html

[4] http://www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=201

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Spock

Key Records was a conservative record label based out of Los Angeles, California, run by a man named Vick Knight that existed in the 1950s and 1960s. [1] Knight who was born in 1908 and died in 1984 was a songwriter, composers, and record producer among other things although very little information is available about him online. [2] Many of Key Records releases were recordings of speeches by right wing political figures like Robert Welch and Ronald Reagan, but they also released original songs sung by artists such as Wini Beatty such as “Folks Songs For Taxpayers.” Common themes for Key Records recordings include: libertarianism,  small government, anti-communism, anti-liberalism, anti-income tax, and free market capitalism. Although there are numerous catalogs and flyers for Key Records as seen below, there seem to be no actual audio recordings in the Hall Hoag collection. However there are some recordings online. I have included the cover of a catalog from 1966 and a 1962 letter from Vick Knight to Peter Flynn who apparently worked at the WTAG radio station in Massachusetts. In the letter Knight states the purpose of the label to the “gradual but increasingly apparent loss of our sovereignty as a nation.”

Key Records Catalog (1966)

Vick Knight Letter (1962)

[1] http://rateyourmusic.com/label/key_records_f1

[2] http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2012/12/walter-brennans-hes-your-uncle-not-your-dad-part-two-and-vick-knight-and-the-key-records-story.html

Ka Huliau or “The Turning Point” was a left leaning, underground, independent newspaper printed by  Hawaii Education for Social Progress, Inc..[1][2] Published in the 1980s (presumably from 1982-1986) Ka Huliau self-identified as “An independent newspaper focusing on Hawaii and Pacific issues.” These issues included labor strikes, nuclear proliferation, socialism and others primarily in the context of their effect on Hawaiians and other Islanders. The inclusion of Ku Huliau in the collections illustrates (as have some previous posts) that Gordon Hall collected items that really span the entire country. Admittedly items from Hawaii are fairly sparse. There are only a few copies of Ka Huliau in the Hall Hoag collection and I have included the covers of two of them from 1983.

Ka Huliau (1983)

Ka Huliau (1983)

[1] http://vufind.carli.illinois.edu/vf-uiu/Record/uiu_4306676

[2] http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn94023109/

Gordon Hall and his team of volunteers would often write to extremist groups in the guise of someone interested in joining. In return groups would send them recruitment packages usually containing information about the group and some of their publications.

Below are some items from a package sent by the Texas Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. The package includes a few copies of the “White Patriot” newspaper, a hand written note from the grand dragon of the Texas Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Michael Lowe, stickers and a few party balloons.

Stickers

Balloons

Lowe gained some publicity in the mid 90s because he was represented by an African American lawyer, Anthony P. Griffin [1] in a case that involved the harassment and assault of African American residents in Vidor, Texas.[2]

It can be difficult to track the history of all of the different branches of the KKK. This history of the KKK in Texas is similar to other parts of the country in that is was started in the 1860s during reconstruction with an ebb and flow of membership and activity in the decades that followed. The Texas Knights became well known KKK in the 1990s around the time that this package was sent to Gordon Hall and often found themselves in the center of controversy in Texas. Indeed, Lowe proudly writes in his letter that his Klan group is the one the Anti-Defamation League stated “were the one to be concerned about and to watch.”

Hand Written Note from Michael Lowe

Hand Written Note from Michael Lowe Page 2

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/10/news/a-klansman-s-black-lawyer-and-a-principle.html

[2] http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/vek02

Gordon Hall interviewed Richard Bayer, a member of the National Renaissance Party, in June of 1968 about his involvement in the party and the party’s ideology. The National Renaissance Party was founded by James Madole (who was also interview by Gordon Hall) in 1949 and disbanded shortly after his death in 1979.  The NRP was a neo-fascist group based out of New York City known for violent riots in the 1960s and controversial publications.[1] Similar to other fascist groups like the American Nazi Party, the NPR was white supremacist, racist, anti-Semitic, and sought for a dictatorship in America.

Richard Bayer, a native New Yorker, one day became secretary[2] of the NRP, but was 28 years old at the time of this interview.  In the section of the interview below Bayer shares his views on the use of violence to achieve political ends. There are quite a few (~50-100) interviews in the Hall Hoag collection and 60 folders of material from The National Renaissance Party.

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Renaissance_Party_(United_States)#cite_note-panel-3

[2] http://archive.org/stream/foia_NRP-HQ-17/NRP-HQ-17_djvu.txt

Students for a Libertarian Society

Students for a Libertarian Society was founded in 1979 as separate entity from the Libertarian Party which already had a youth section.  The SLS, with a central location in San Francisco, California published pamphlets and a newspaper/magazine titled Liberty. Among a few others Jeffery Freidnman (a Brown grad) served as one of the groups national presidents.  The SLS was fairly short lived having mostly disbaned by 1983. [1] Libertarianism has become more prominent in recent years in American politics, but many politicans associated with the ideology are not actually offiliated with the Libertarian Party.

In the post today there is an undated pamphlet, which provides basic information about the group and the positions they hold. In general the SLS promoted small government and individual rights.

Students for a Libertarian Society

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Students_for_a_Libertarian_Society

Review of the News was published by Robert Welch who was a co-founder of the John Birch Society and also published American Opinion. Review of the News was a weekly publication that covered similar themes to American Opinion (a monthly magazine) but on a more frequent basis and more closely followed the breaking news of the week. Similar to Welch’s other publications The Review of the News had similar themes of small government and anti-communism. Review of the News also contained the writing of Dan Smoot  who had previously written the Dan Smoot Report which was similarly anti-communist.

The issue shared in this post contains a profile of Joe Bidden from 1984 when he was a U.S. senator and outlines his voting record.

Review of the News (August 22, 1984)

For a previous post about the John Birch Society follow this link: http://blogs.brown.edu/hallhoag/2013/01/28/john-birch-society/