Research Catalog

Title

George Marshall papers, 1933-1955.

Author

Marshall, George, 1904-2000.

Supplementary Content

Finding aid

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Patterson, William L. (William Lorenzo), 1890-1980.
• Barsky, Edward K., 1895-1975.
• Dombrowski, James A. (James Anderson), 1897-1983.
• Eisler, Gerhart.
• Boas, Franz, 1858-1942.
• Knox, Owen A.
• Yergan, Max, 1892-1975.
• Hammett, Dashiell, 1894-1961.
• La Follette, Robert M., Jr. (Robert Marion), 1895-1953.
• Lamont, Corliss, 1902-1995.
• Burnham, Louis E.
• Robeson, Paul, 1898-1976.
• United States. Congress. House. Special Committee on Un-American Activities (1938-1944)
• United States. Congress. House. Committee on Un-American Activities.
• United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation.
• United States. Committee on Fair Employment Practice.
• Civil Rights Congress (U.S.)
• American Civil Liberties Union.
• Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee.
• International Labor Defense.
• Council on African Affairs.
• Robert Marshall Foundation.
• National Federation for Constitutional Liberties.
• American League for Peace and Democracy.
• Contributors' Information Service (New York, N.Y.)
• National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners.
• Southern Negro Youth Congress.
• National Farmers' Union (U.S.)
• Southern School for Workers (Richmond, Va.)
• Citizens Emergency Conference for Interracial Unity (1943 : New York, N.Y.)

Description

13.5 lin. ft. (36 boxes)

Summary

• The collection documents George Marshall's involvement in the 1940s with civil rights issues, his legal defense for a contempt citation from the House Un-American Activities Committee, and his management of the Robert Marshall Foundation's grant-making program. Samplings of his correspondence and writings during that period are grouped under Personal papers. His Contempt of Congress files constitute a densely documented archive on the use of subpoena power and contempt citations, and on legal and political opposition to the House Committee on Un-American Activities. His National Federation for Constitutional Liberties files are organized into 13 subseries: Administrative; Action Letters; Conferences and Testimonial Dinners; Activities, including an emergency campaign, The Menace of the F.B.I.," chaired by Franz Boas (1940), and a campaign in favor of federal legislation for a voting program for absentee soldiers; Fair Employment Practice Committee; Labor; Poll Tax; Legal Cases; Discrimination; Anti-Semitism; HUAC, which subdivides into Dies Committee and Rankin Committee files, Correspondence and Printed Matter; and Publications.
• Marshall's Civil Rights Congress and CRC Bail Fund files comprise the following subseries: Administrative, Conferences, Legal Cases, Subject Files and Printed Matter. Outstanding case files include the Columbia, Tennessee Riot of 1946, the German Communist Gerhart Eisler, Willie McGee, the Martinsville 7 and the Trenton Six. Other organizations in the collection include the International Labor Defense Fund; the American League for Peace and Democracy; the American Committee for Democracy and Intellectual Freedom, chaired by Franz Boas; the National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners; the Contributors' Information Service founded by Corliss Lamont, and the Council on African Affairs. Correspondents include Joseph Gelders, Dashiell Hammett, Max Yergan, Charles Lafollette and Louis Burnham.
• The Robert Marshall Foundation awarded grants to trade-unions and labor advocacy groups, progressive research groups and schools, alternative newspapers and civil rights organizations. Its files consist for the most part of correspondence between George Marshall and the funded groups, grant proposals and grant tracking sheets, activity reports, and general information about the organizations involved.

Subjects

• Bridges, Harry, 1901-1990
• Riots > New York (State) > New York
• Labor movement > United States
• Contempt of legislative bodies > United States
• Trials (Political crimes and offenses) > United States
• Dies, Martin, 1900-1972
• United States > Social conditions > 1933-1945
• Black author
• Gelders, Joseph, 1891-1950
• Lynching > United States
• Communist Party of the United States of America
• Civil Rights Congress (U.S.)
• Riots > Michigan > Detroit
• Civil rights movements > United States
• Discrimination in employment > United States
• Discrimination > United States
• Sleepy Lagoon Trial, Los Angeles, Calif., 1942-1943
• Labor > United States
• Eisler, Gerhart
• Buckhannon, Samuel
• African Americans > Michigan > Detroit
• Mexican American youth > California > Los Angeles
• African Americans > Segregation
• United States > Social conditions > 1945-
• Loyalty oaths > United States
• Yergan, Max, 1892-1975
• Antisemitism > United States
• United States > Politics and government > 1945-1953
• McGee, Willie, 1915-1951
• Trials (Contempt of legislative bodies) > United States
• Intellectual freedom
• Academic freedom > United States
• Civil rights > United States > Societies, etc
• Marshall, George, 1904-2000
• Suffrage > United States
• United States > Congress > House > Committee on Un-American Activities
• Freedom of speech > United States
• Trenton Six Trial, Trenton, N.J., 1948-1951
• United States > Race relations
• Anti-fascist movements > United States
• Mooney, Thomas J., 1882-1942
• Riots > New York (State) > Peekskill
• Trials > New Jersey > Trenton
• Rankin, John E (John Elliott), 1882-1960
• National Federation for Constitutional Liberties

Source (note)

• George Marshall and Nancy Marshall Schultz

Biography (note)

• George Marshall was a leading advocate for the abolition of the Un-American Activities Committee of the United States House of Representatives (HUAC), a noted conservationist, and a pioneer in the U.S. civil rights movement. He chaired the National Federation for Constitutional Liberties (NFCL) between 1941 and 1946 and its successor organization, the Civil Rights Congress, between 1946 and 1950. He was also a trustee and the manager of the Robert Marshall Foundation. He was cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over lists of NFCL contributors to HUAC and served three months in jail in 1950. He died in 2000.
• The National Federation for Constitutional Liberties was founded at a national conference on civil liberties held in Washington, D.C. in June 1940. Its mission was to coordinate the activities of its member organizations toward the realization of greater democratic freedoms. Under Marshall's stewardship, it supported vigorous prosecution of the war effort and made the fight against "native seditionists" and their supporters in Congress one of its chief concerns. It also led numerous anti-lynching, anti-poll tax and anti-discrimination in employment legislative campaigns. Its legal work through hired attorneys and public opinion campaigns encompassed the defense of Communist leaders Harry Bridges and Earl Browder, and victims of Jim Crow justice Samuel Buckhannon and Willie McGee. Its labor advocacy included protection of the Wagner Act against encroachments from anti-New Deal legislative proposals, and the defense of government employees labeled as subversive by the Kerr Committee.
• NFCL merged with the International Labor Defense in 1946 to form the Civil Rights Congress. The Congress continued the Federation's fight against discrimination, and organized the legal defense of victims of Jim Crow justice and advocates of radical causes. It also inherited the enmity of the Wood-Rankin Committee in Congress which labeled it a "Communist front." Marshall was elected CRC chairman at CRC's founding conference in 1946. He was active in the McGee case and in the campaign to save the Trenton Six. William Patterson, CRC National Secretary, called him "one of the outstanding leaders in the fight against Jim Crow." Marshall was also Secretary of the CRC Bail Fund, established in 1946 as a separate body with five trustees responsible for its operation. He resigned from the Bail Fund in September 1949 and from the Civil Rights Congress in June 1950.

Call Number

Sc MG 541

OCLC

433579711

Author

Marshall, George, 1904-2000.

Title

George Marshall papers, 1933-1955.

Biography

George Marshall was a leading advocate for the abolition of the Un-American Activities Committee of the United States House of Representatives (HUAC), a noted conservationist, and a pioneer in the U.S. civil rights movement. He chaired the National Federation for Constitutional Liberties (NFCL) between 1941 and 1946 and its successor organization, the Civil Rights Congress, between 1946 and 1950. He was also a trustee and the manager of the Robert Marshall Foundation. He was cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over lists of NFCL contributors to HUAC and served three months in jail in 1950. He died in 2000.

The National Federation for Constitutional Liberties was founded at a national conference on civil liberties held in Washington, D.C. in June 1940. Its mission was to coordinate the activities of its member organizations toward the realization of greater democratic freedoms. Under Marshall's stewardship, it supported vigorous prosecution of the war effort and made the fight against "native seditionists" and their supporters in Congress one of its chief concerns. It also led numerous anti-lynching, anti-poll tax and anti-discrimination in employment legislative campaigns. Its legal work through hired attorneys and public opinion campaigns encompassed the defense of Communist leaders Harry Bridges and Earl Browder, and victims of Jim Crow justice Samuel Buckhannon and Willie McGee. Its labor advocacy included protection of the Wagner Act against encroachments from anti-New Deal legislative proposals, and the defense of government employees labeled as subversive by the Kerr Committee.

NFCL merged with the International Labor Defense in 1946 to form the Civil Rights Congress. The Congress continued the Federation's fight against discrimination, and organized the legal defense of victims of Jim Crow justice and advocates of radical causes. It also inherited the enmity of the Wood-Rankin Committee in Congress which labeled it a "Communist front." Marshall was elected CRC chairman at CRC's founding conference in 1946. He was active in the McGee case and in the campaign to save the Trenton Six. William Patterson, CRC National Secretary, called him "one of the outstanding leaders in the fight against Jim Crow." Marshall was also Secretary of the CRC Bail Fund, established in 1946 as a separate body with five trustees responsible for its operation. He resigned from the Bail Fund in September 1949 and from the Civil Rights Congress in June 1950.

Connect to:

Finding aid

Local Subject

Black author.

Added Author

Patterson, William L. (William Lorenzo), 1890-1980.

Barsky, Edward K., 1895-1975.

Dombrowski, James A. (James Anderson), 1897-1983.

Eisler, Gerhart.

Boas, Franz, 1858-1942.

Knox, Owen A.

Yergan, Max, 1892-1975.

Hammett, Dashiell, 1894-1961.

La Follette, Robert M., Jr. (Robert Marion), 1895-1953.

Lamont, Corliss, 1902-1995.

Burnham, Louis E.

Robeson, Paul, 1898-1976.

United States. Congress. House. Special Committee on Un-American Activities (1938-1944)

United States. Congress. House. Committee on Un-American Activities.

United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation.

United States. Committee on Fair Employment Practice.

Civil Rights Congress (U.S.)

American Civil Liberties Union.

Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee.

International Labor Defense.

Council on African Affairs.

Robert Marshall Foundation.

National Federation for Constitutional Liberties.

American League for Peace and Democracy.

Contributors' Information Service (New York, N.Y.)

National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners.

Southern Negro Youth Congress.

National Farmers' Union (U.S.)

Southern School for Workers (Richmond, Va.)

Citizens Emergency Conference for Interracial Unity (1943 : New York, N.Y.)

Research Call Number

Sc MG 541