Harold Buchman was a 20th-Century American Communist attorney, "the most important communist member" of the

Progressive Citizens of America Progressive Citizens of America (PCA) was a social-democratic and democratic socialist American political organization formed in December 1946 that advocated progressive policies, which worked with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) ...

(founded by former vice president

Henry A. Wallace Henry Agard Wallace (October 7, 1888 – November 18, 1965) was the 33rd vice president of the United States, serving from 1941 to 1945, under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He served as the 11th U.S. secretary of agriculture and the 10th U.S ...

, president of the Roosevelt Democratic Party Club, and treasurer for the

Screen Writers Guild The Screen Writers Guild was an organization of Hollywood screenplay authors, formed as a union in 1933. A rival organisation, Screen Playwrights, Inc., was established by the AMPP, film studios and producers, but after an appeal to the National ...

Career

Hollywood blacklist

His name appeared in the earliest

Hollywood blacklist The Hollywood blacklist was the mid-20th century banning of suspected Communists from working in the United States entertainment industry. The blacklisting, blacklist began at the onset of the Cold War and Red Scare#Second Red Scare (1947–1957 ...

: a list of Communist sympathizers along with

Dalton Trumbo James Dalton Trumbo (December 9, 1905 – September 10, 1976) was an American screenwriter who scripted many award-winning films, including ''Roman Holiday'' (1953), '' Exodus'', ''Spartacus'' (both 1960), and '' Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo'' (194 ...

Maurice Rapf Maurice Harry Rapf (May 19, 1914 – April 15, 2003) was an American screenwriter and professor of film studies. His work includes the screenplays for early Disney live-action features ''Song of the South'' (1946) and '' So Dear to My Heart'' (19 ...

Lester Cole Lester Cole (June 19, 1904 – August 15, 1985) was an American screenwriter. He was one of the Hollywood Ten, a group of screenwriters and directors who were cited for contempt of Congress and blacklisted for their refusal to testify regarding t ...

, Howard Koch, John Wexley, Ring Lardner Jr., Harold Salemson, Henry Meyers,

Theodore Strauss Theodore Strauss (December 27, 1912 – October 30, 2009) was an American writer and filmmaker. Biography Strauss was born in Oklahoma on December 27, 1912."In memoriam". ''Writers Guild of America West Journal''. Vol. 14, Iss. 1. p. 56. He w ...

, and

John Howard Lawson John Howard Lawson (September 25, 1894 – August 11, 1977) was an American playwright, screenwriter, arts critic, and cultural historian. After enjoying a relatively successful career writing plays that were staged on and off Broadway in the 192 ...

. On April 17, 1947, Buchman, actress

Anne Revere Anne Revere (June 25, 1903 – December 18, 1990) was an American actress and a liberal member of the board of the Screen Actors' Guild. She was best known for her work on Broadway and her portrayals of mothers in a series of critically accla ...

, and writer Sam Moore pled the Fifth Amendment regarding questions about Communist affiliation.

Progressive Party

In January 1948, Buchman announced the Wallace for President Committee. In February 1948, he became new executive secretary and Maryland state director of the Progressive Party. In Summer 1948, when the Maryland attorney general rejected all filings by Progressive candidates for failure to sign loyalty oaths, Buchman announced he would file a suit.>

Communist counsel

In June-July 1951, Buchman counseled the follow out of more than 40 people subpoena-ed by

HUAC The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty an ...

: Joseph Henderson and Philip Gran (June 21, 1951), Robert W. Lee (June 26, 1951), Irving Kandel (June 27, 1951), Sam Fox and Howard Bernard Silverberg (June 28, 1951), Louis Julius Shub (July 12, 1951), and Milton Seif and Irving Winker (July 13, 1951). In March 1952, Buchman defended: Maurice Braverman, George Meyers, Roy Wood, Dorothy Rose Blumberg (wife of Albert Blumberg), Philip Frankfeld, and Regina Frankfeld (all members of the Communist Party branch of Maryland and the District of Columbia). In 1952, Royal Wilbur France, civil liberties activist and president of the National Lawyers Guild, consulted NLG members

Joseph Forer Joseph Forer (1911 – 20 June 1986) was a 20th-century American attorney who, with partner David Rein, supported Progressive Era, Progressive causes, including discriminated communists and African-Americans. Forer was one of the founders of the N ...

and Buchman.

Catonsville Nine

In 1968, Buchman served on the defense council of the

Catonsville Nine The Catonsville Nine were nine Catholic activists who burned draft files to protest the Vietnam War. On May 17, 1968, they took 378 draft files from the draft board office in Catonsville, Maryland, and burned them in the parking lot. List of th ...

. Defendants included Jesuit peace advocate

Daniel Berrigan Daniel Joseph Berrigan (May 9, 1921 – April 30, 2016) was an American Jesuit priest, anti-war activist, Christian pacifist, playwright, poet, and author. Berrigan's protests against the Vietnam War earned him both scorn and admiratio ...

Black Panthers

In 1971, Buchman defended Arthur F. Turco Jr., a New York lawyer charged in connection with the 1969 torture and murder of a suspected

Black Panthers The Black Panther Party (originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a Marxist–Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, California ...

police informer.

Later career

Buchman defended communist activist

Madalyn Murray O'Hair Madalyn Murray O'Hair ( Mays; April 13, 1919 – September 29, 1995) was an American activist supporting atheism, separation of church and state, feminism, and Holocaust denial. In 1963, she founded American Atheists and served as its president ...

Legacy

Barbara Mello, ACLU attorney and law teacher, served as law clerk for Buchman.

References

External sources

Jewish Museum of Maryland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buchman, Harold Members of the Communist Party USA American lawyers Maryland socialists