Americans Battling Communism Inc. (ABC) was an

anti-communist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and th ...

organization created following an October 1947 speech by

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

Judge Blair Gunther that called for an "ABC movement" to educate America about

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society ...

. Chartered in November 1947 by Harry Alan Sherman, a local lawyer active in various anti-communist organizations, the group took part in such activities as

blacklisting Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist (or black list) of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list. If someone is on a blacklist, ...

by disclosing the names of people suspected of being communists. Its members included local judges and lawyers active in the

McCarthy-era McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner. The term origin ...

prosecution of communists.

History

Americans Battling Communism, Inc. (ABC) was conceived in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

when anti-communists in

Western Pennsylvania Western Pennsylvania is a region in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, covering the western third of the state. Pittsburgh is the region's principal city, with a metropolitan area population of about 2.4 million people, and serves as its economic ...

expressed anxiety over what they saw as the infiltration of "Reds" into the Croatian Fraternal Order, a

Croatian American Croatian Americans or Croat Americans ( hr, Američki Hrvati) are Americans who have full or partial Croatian ancestry. In 2012, there were 414,714 American citizens of Croat or Croatian descent living in the United States as per revised 2010 Un ...

society. In October 1947, Blair Gunther, an anti-communist local judge, organized a meeting of fifty prominent locals to discuss ways of campaigning against similar communist infiltration. Gunther spoke of the need to "expose the Reds" through "education" in the form an "ABC movement," which inspired the name.Leab, Daniel J. (2000)
''I Was a Communist for the FBI: The Unhappy Life and Times of Matt Cvetic''.
University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press. pp. 44-47. . ABC was chartered by lawyer Harry Alan Sherman in November 1947 as a "non-profit organization to combat Communism." The charter called for an "aggressive program for enlightening American people as to the purpose, the methods, and the agencies of the Communist organizations to the end that an enlightened and alerted public. . . shall take steps, including. . . security legislation as may be necessary to eliminate the threat posed by Communism to the American way of life." The organization soon began to identify Communists or "left-wing sympathizers," whose names the local newspapers then published. A number of these people were immigrants who were threatened with

deportation Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...

. Others were forced out of their jobs.Weber, Michael P. (1988)
''Don't Call Me Boss: David L. Lawrence, Pittsburgh's Renaissance Mayor''.
Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. p. 283. . When

Matt Cvetic Matthew Cvetic (March 4, 1909 – July 26, 1962) was a Pittsburgh native who was a spy and informant working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation inside the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) during the 1940s. He told his story in a ...

, an

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

informant with a deteriorating relationship with the FBI, approached newspaperman

James Moore James, Jim, or Jimmy Moore may refer to: Authors *James Moore (Cornish author) (1929–2017), author of works on George Gurdjieff *James Moore (biographer) (born 1947), author of biographies of Charles Darwin * James W. Moore (author) (1938–2019 ...

with the offer of telling his anti-communist stories in early 1950, the newsman put him in touch with Gunther and Sherman.Leab, Daniel J. (1992). "'I Was a Communist for the F.B.I'. History and Reality in Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles, and Points In-Between". In Norbert Finzsch & Hermann Wellenreuther (Eds.)
''Liberalitas: Festschrift für Erich Angermann
''.">Erich Angermann">''Liberalitas: Festschrift für Erich Angermann
''.Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag. pp. 472. . ABC came up with financial and other support, with Sherman becoming Cvetic's attorney and manager.Leab, Daniel J. (1992). "'I Was a Communist for the F.B.I'. History and Reality in Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles, and Points In-Between". In Norbert Finzsch & Hermann Wellenreuther (Eds.)
''Liberalitas: Festschrift für Erich Angermann''.
Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag. pp. 472-473. ;
Leab, Daniel J. (2000)
''I Was a Communist for the FBI: The Unhappy Life and Times of Matt Cvetic''.
University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press. pp. 44-47. . Left wing historian Daniel Leab argues that the organization was foremost a tool employed by Sherman for his personal purposes: "for much of its existence Americans Battling Communism was not much more than a façade that Sherman used to enhance his own prestige: thus, a press release would be sent out by Sherman, identifying him as the 'chairman of Americans Battling Communism: who would address the members of (you name it) on 'Communists in Our Midst' (or a similar topic)." The group's membership included several Pennsylvania judges presiding over

trials against communists.Hoerr, John (2005)
''Harry, Tom, and Father Rice: Accusation and Betrayal in America's Cold War''.
Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. p. 134. .

Steven Nelson Steven Nelson (born January 22, 1993) is an American football cornerback for the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Oregon State, and was drafted in the third round of the 2015 NFL Draft by the ...

, one of the communists sent to jail in the McCarthy-era prosecutions, recalled his sedition trial under Judge Harry M. Montgomery, a member of ABC:

References

External links

Blair F. Gunther Papers Finding Aid
University of Pittsburgh Archives Service Center {{Authority control 1947 establishments in the United States Anti-communist organizations in the United States Defunct non-profit organizations based in the United States McCarthyism Conservative organizations in the United States Organizations established in 1947