Tag: HH_032921
I wanted to share one more quick post this week. I found a file on James McElligott who I could not find much information about, but was very intrigued by the file that Gordon Hall had on him. Hall had two photos taken 6 years apart along with notes on McElligott’s involvement in the American Institute and John Birch Society. It does not seem like McElligott was much of a major player, but it is hard to say. Either way, he is a figure largely forgotten by history. The images show the extent of Gordon Hall’s work. The fact that he kept detailed information about a minor figure (and kept the files organized for 6 years) in the already fringe world of extremism is remarkable.
James McElligott 1961
James McElligott 1967
This week’s item is a flyer printed for a lecture that Gordon Hall gave at East Tennessee State University on May 6, 1969. Hall was able to build his collection and conduct his research mostly from funds raised on the lecture circuit. This flyer also contains comments about Hall from Robert Welch, Gus Hall, George Lincoln Rockwell and Malcolm X all of whom had different ideological world views but were similar in their dislike of Gordon Hall.
East Tennessee State Lecture (May 6, 1969)
In doing his research Gordon Hall would create surveillance files for many extremist groups and extremist group members. He would attend protests, follow people to meetings, attend group meetings and keep detailed notes of his work. This post contains some examples of documents created by Gordon Hall from the 1960s. Many extremist groups would act in secrecy and Gordon Hall went to great lengths to learn more about their inner workings. Some may find Gordon Hall’s actions here extreme and maybe even inappropriate, but it seems that he felt he had to do this in order to learn more about extremism to help inform his work in exposing and describing extremist groups to the public.
Rogelio Reyes (1965)
John Birch Society (1967)
Recently researching for another blog post I cam across at digital collection of Gordon Hall conducted interviews at The Milner Library at Illinois State University in its “Voices of Extremism” collection. Mr. Hall interviews some prominent extremist leaders such as George Lincoln Rockwell and Billy James Hargis who have been topics of earlier blog posts. You can listen to these interviews online with the link below.
GORDON HALL INTERVIEWS
For more information on Mr. Hall himself ISU also has a fairly long and detailed biography written by his son Richard Hall:
GORDON HALL BIOGRAPHY
We have copies of these interviews on reel to reel tape in the Hall-Hoag Collection Part II.
We recently found 20 large political posters that seem to have been used by the Boston Area American Veterans Committee. The poster in this post specifically mentions Gordon Hall. It also highlights Gordon Hall’s unique position in the extremist landscape in that he was vilified by both the right wing and left wing organizations. Many right wing organizations considered him a communist and many left wing groups considered him fascist.
I rencetly found this item in the collection, but it does not have any publication information. Based on other copies of this document in the collection it is most likely attributed to a Stephen Miller, but it has been difficult to pinpoint his associations. The pamphlet also mentions Thomas A. Bresnaham from the State (MA?) Commission to Curb Communism. The item calls into question Gordon Hall’s communist sympathies. Although I do not know much about this item I chose to include it because it illustrates Gordon Hall’s profile in the extremist community. Through his collecting and writing Gordon Hall was a known entity to both left and right wing groups.
Send an email along if you think you might know more about this item.
Last week while finishing rehousing the collection we found a box that contained a few hundred poster sized (16×20) copies of material that Gordon Hall distributed. They contained press about Gordon Hall and also some items that he published. The item highlighted today is a list of Left Wing organizations that Gordon Hall compiled. It contains locations and organizational histories of the following groups: Communist Party, USA, Young Workers Liberation League, Progressive Labor Party, Students for a Democratic Society, Socialist Workers Party, Young Socialist Alliance, Student Mobilization Committee, Youth Against War and Fascism, Old Mole Collective, Peoples Information Center, Black Panther Party and National Committee to Combat Fascism.
Scorecard of the Radical Left (Gordon Hall)ca. 1970
This highlight is a letter from Gordon Hall to Ruth Fisher from 1975. Although there is no great historical significance to Mr. Hall’s relationship to Ruth Fisher (who appears to just be a friend of his), this letter highlights some important aspects of Mr. Hall’s life and gives some background on the collection. First, Hall is writing to inquire if there may be more speaking engagements that he can participate in when he visits Akron. Hall was able to finance a lot of the collecting that he did through lectures like the one he planned for Akron. Through his correspondence and first hand accounts we are able to see that Hall lectured extensively throughout the country and was regarded as an expert on extremism.
Hall found both right wing and left wing groups equally dangerous which is evidenced in this letter, listing right wing and left wing groups that are causing problems in Boston during the “Boston Busing Crisis.” He is alluding to his preference of the “broad, flexible, democratic and moderate middle to the harsh exigencies of the Marxist Left (new or old) and the authoritarian Right.” He was not concerned about a particular group, or type of group, but found all extreme groups dangerous. This letter, from 1975, also shows that collecting this material was the passion of Hall’s life. He had already been collecting this material and lecturing for 30 years by the time that he wrote this letter and still feels as passionately about extremist groups as he did from the beginning.
- Gordon Hall Letter to Ruth Fisher 1975
The quote above is from Gordon Hall’s newsletter “Left Center Right.” Read the complete addition of the newsletter here: Left Center Right 1968
In the letter Hall references the Boston Busing Crisis.