The Rapp-Coudert Committee was the colloquial name of the

New York State Legislature The New York State Legislature consists of the Bicameralism, two houses that act as the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York: the New York State Senate and the New York State Assem ...

's Joint Legislative Committee to Investigate the Educational System of the State of New York. Between 1940 and 1942, the Rapp-Coudert Committee sought to identify the extent of

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

influence in the

public education A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in part by taxation and operated by the government of the state. State-f ...

system of the

state of New York New York, also called New York State, is a state in the northeastern United States. Bordered by New England to the east, Canada to the north, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey to the south, its territory extends into both the Atlantic Ocean and ...

. Its inquiries led to the dismissal of more than 40 instructors and staff members at the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

, actions the committee's critics regarded as a political "witch-hunt."

Background

The government of the state of New York had a long record of activity in the investigation of alleged

seditious Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech or organization, that tends toward rebellion against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent toward, or insurrection against, establis ...

activities long before the establishment of the Rapp-Coudert Committee in 1940. Two decades earlier, in March 1919, the state had launched a Joint Legislative Committee to Investigate Seditious Activities, headed by Senator Clayton R. Lusk, which had orchestrated raids to seize documents and conducted prosecutions in an effort to publicize and neutralize radical influence in the state. In the halls of

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

, New York Representative

Hamilton Fish III Hamilton Fish III (born Hamilton Stuyvesant Fish and also known as Hamilton Fish Jr.; December 7, 1888 – January 18, 1991) was an American soldier, author, and politician from New York. He represented New York's 26th congressional district ...

had chaired a Congressional investigative committee in 1930 that took and published extensive testimony on

communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...

in America, which Fish deemed "the most important, the most vital, the most far-reaching, and the most dangerous issue in the world."

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, with its massive size and extensive immigrant population, was the headquarters of the

Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA (CPUSA), officially the Communist Party of the United States of America, also referred to as the American Communist Party mainly during the 20th century, is a communist party in the United States. It was established ...

except for a handful of years in the mid-1920s, when the party moved to

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, and a focal point for American communist activity.

Establishment

The abrupt change of the American Communist Party line following the signing of the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939 thrust the role and influence of the roughly 60,000-member organization into the public eye. Within days after the signing of the political agreement between

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

, headed by

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

, and the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, headed by

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

, American Communists moved as one from vocal public opposition to

fascism Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...

as part of a broad Popular Front to advocacy of

non-intervention Non-interventionism or non-intervention is commonly understood as "a foreign policy of political or military non-involvement in foreign relations or in other countries' internal affairs". This is based on the grounds that a state should not inter ...

in the erupting European conflict, characterizing the fight between Germany and Britain as an "imperialist war" of little import to the American working class. The almost instantaneous shift of fundamental policy views of American Communists was seen by many as indicative that the CPUSA was a disciplined organization owing its allegiance to the foreign policy exigencies of an aggressive foreign power, the Soviet Union. With war in Europe now foremost in the public consciousness, the longstanding

anticommunist Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism, communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global ...

orientation of many political leaders gained new urgency and a mini-

Red Scare A Red Scare is a form of moral panic provoked by fear of the rise of left-wing ideologies in a society, especially communism and socialism. Historically, red scares have led to mass political persecution, scapegoating, and the ousting of thos ...

gripped the public. In April 1940, the New York State Legislature voted to establish a new investigative body, the Joint Legislative Committee to Investigate the Educational System of the State of New York, which was given the task of publicizing the Communist Party's influence in the publicly funded higher educational bodies of the state. The committee was patterned after the

House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative United States Congressional committee, committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 19 ...

, a

special committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

chaired by Martin Dies Jr. of

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

.Andrew Hartman, ''Education and the Cold War: The Battle for the American School.'' New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008; pg. 41. The so-called "Dies Committee" was the successor to the Fish Committee of 1930 and forerunner of the House

standing committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

on un-American activities which was to gain fame and notoriety in the years after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The new investigative committee came to be known as the "Rapp-Coudert Committee" after its chairmen, Republican Assemblyman Herbert A. Rapp (1891–1964), of Genesee County, and Republican State Senator

Frederic René Coudert, Jr. Frederic René Coudert Jr. (May 7, 1898 – May 21, 1972) was a member of the United States House of Representatives from New York (state), New York from 1947 to 1959, and a member of the New York State Senate from 1939 to 1946. Prior to serving ...

(1898–1972), a lawyer from New York City. New York was one of four states establishing "little Dies Committees," being joined by

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

, and

in that distinction. In addition, by 1940 some 21 American states had passed legislation requiring

loyalty oath Loyalty is a Fixation (psychology), devotion to a country, philosophy, group, or person. Philosophers disagree on what can be an object of loyalty, as some argue that loyalty is strictly interpersonal and only another human being can be the obj ...

s for teachers.

Activities

The Rapp-Coudert Committee held its hearings from September 1940 to December 1942,Carol Smith et al.
"Rapp-Coudert Committee,"
in "The Struggle for Free Speech at CCNY, 1931-42," page 15, City College of New York. Retrieved June 2, 2010. focusing on New York City's four public universities —

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...

, and

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the New York City borough of Queens. Part of the City University of New York system, Queens College occupies an campus primarily located in Flushing. Queens College was established in 1937 and offe ...

.Leberstein, "Purging the Profs: The Rapp Coudert Committee in New York, 1940-1942," pg. 94. Primary attention was placed on the state of affairs at City College, the oldest, largest, and best known of the four New York schools. In all more than 500 faculty, staff, and students of New York's universities were

subpoena A subpoena (; also subpœna, supenna or subpena) or witness summons is a writ issued by a government agency, most often a court, to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of ...

ed and interrogated during the course of the investigation. The Rapp-Coudert Committee's investigation was carried out by a subcommittee headed by Senator Coudert, making use of the New York City's former corporation counsel, Paul Windels, as committee counsel. The choice of the widely respected and high-profile Windels, himself a partisan Republican, was intended to lend instant legitimacy and credibility to the controversial work of the committee. Those called to give testimony by the committee were interrogated at private hearings. They were not allowed legal counsel, the right to cross-examine other witnesses, or even to maintain transcripts of the proceedings.Leberstein, "Purging the Profs: The Rapp Coudert Committee in New York, 1940-1942," pg. 101. Only one indictment was ever sought by the committee from a

grand jury A grand jury is a jury empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a person to testify. A grand ju ...

, with Morris U. Schappes indicted, tried, and convicted of

perjury Perjury (also known as forswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an insta ...

in 1941 for his testimony before the Rapp-Coudert Committee. While the committee did not itself have the power to terminate instructors implicated as members of the Communist Party in its hearings, it served as an impetus to action for the New York Board of Higher Education, the governing body of the city's public colleges (the predecessor to today's

City University of New York The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...

Board of Trustees). As the committee's work gained increasing public notoriety, the initially resistant Board of Higher Education began to yield to public pressure, resolving itself in November 1940 to fully cooperate with the investigation. Legal advice was sought from the city's current corporation counsel, W.C. Chanler, who advised that faculty and staff members refusing to testify before the committee stood in defiance of the Board's policy directive to cooperate and were thus subject to dismissal.Leberstein, "Purging the Profs: The Rapp Coudert Committee in New York, 1940-1942," pg. 102. After hearing extensive testimony, the Rapp-Coudert Committee made its report in 1942 to the New York State Legislature. The committee boasted that it had "exposed" 69 instructors as Communists and gathered additional evidence implicating as radicals another 434 members of the faculty and staff of New York City's college system.Leberstein, "Purging the Profs: The Rapp Coudert Committee in New York, 1940-1942," pg. 100. While there were no laws banning Americans from membership in the Communist Party, the committee argued that the mere fact of membership indicated that an individual was under the improper discipline of an external conspiratorial power, and thus stood unfit to work in public schools or colleges. In spring 1941, this opinion was given the force of official policy, when the New York Board of Higher Education prohibited membership of teachers and staff in the Communist Party USA. Refusing to testify before the committee was already a firing offense, giving false testimony to the committee made one subject to perjury, and admission of membership in the Communist Party likewise served as grounds for immediate termination. The committee's method was to gather accusations from friendly, cooperating witnesses concentrating on Communist Party membership status. One of the committee's chief informers was William Canning, a former member of the Communist Party who taught history at City College. Avidly anti-communist after leaving the CPUSA, Canning bore witness against 54 others for alleged Communist Party ties. In the wake of the Rapp-Coudert hearings, the Board of Higher Education formed a Conduct Committee that brought charges against faculty and staff members, based on allegations raised in the hearings. Proceedings in the Board of Higher Education trials were led by a three-person committee, composed of members of the Board, that reported its findings and made a recommendation about action to be taken. The charges typically concerned Communist Party membership, with details of related activities, as well as giving false or misleading testimony at the hearings. No charge was ever related to instances of misconduct as a teacher. Historian Stephen Leberstein has neatly summarized the dilemma facing the accused:

Dismissals

By the end of 1942, 19 individuals had been dismissed from City College of New York alone, with another 7 handing in their resignations on their own. Other cases remained pending at the end of the year. Among those affected were

Max Yergan Max Yergan (July 19, 1892 – April 11, 1975) was an African-American activist notable for being a Baptist missionary for the YMCA, then a Communist working with Paul Robeson, and finally a staunch anti-Communist who complimented the government of ...

, the first Black faculty member ever hired at one of New York City's public colleges; the brothers

Philip S. Foner Philip Sheldon Foner (December 14, 1910 – December 13, 1994) was an American labor historian and teacher. Foner was a prolific author and editor of more than 100 books. He is considered a pioneer in his extensive works on the role of radical ...

, Jack D. Foner, Harry Foner, and the English tutor Morris U. Schappes. In all, over 40 teachers and staff members lost their jobs in the early 1940s on account of their political affiliation with the Communist Party or for refusal to co-operate with the legislative inquiry into the same.Leberstein, "Purging the Profs: The Rapp Coudert Committee in New York, 1940-1942," pg. 119.

End of committee and legacy

The first serious academic study of the Rapp-Coudert Committee was conducted in the early 1950s by Lawrence Chamberlain, a political centrist who was granted access to the private papers of Frederic R. Coudert. Chamberlain held those dismissed in high scholarly esteem: In October 1981, more than four decades after the launch of the Rapp-Coudert Committee, the dismissed employees won a small measure of vindication when the City University Board of Trustees passed a resolution expressing "profound regret at the injustice done to former colleagues on the faculty and staff of the university" who were fired or forced to resign for their political affiliations. A reception was held for the surviving victims and their families on December 17, 1981, hosted by City College of New York President Bernard Harleston. Unpublished documents of the Rapp-Coudert Committee reside at the

New York State Archives The New York State Archives is a unit of the Office of Cultural Education within the New York State Education Department, with its main facility located in the Cultural Education Center on Madison Avenue in Albany, New York, United States. The ...

in Albany. Rapp-Coudert Committee counsel Paul Windels left an oral record of his activities with the committee as part of the

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

Oral History Research Project in New York City. Morris Schappes's experiences with the Rapp-Coudert Committee are documented in Schappes's personal papers at the

American Jewish Historical Society The American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS) was founded in 1892 with the mission to foster awareness and appreciation of American Jewish history and to serve as a national scholarly resource for research through the collection, preservation an ...

in New York and the

Tamiment Library The Tamiment Library is a research library at New York University that documents Far left, radical and Left-wing politics, left history, with strengths in the histories of History of communism, communism, History of socialism, socialism, History o ...

of New York University. Materials documenting the trials conducted by the Board of Higher Education subsequent to the Rapp-Coudert hearings are held in the Board of Higher Education of the City of New York Academic Freedom Case Files, also at the Tamiment Library, and in the Records of the Board of Higher Education of the City of New York, at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Digitized materials related to City College of New York are accessible via the CUNY Digital History Archive.

Background

Establishment

Activities

Dismissals

End of committee and legacy

See also

Footnotes

Further reading