Frank Wilkinson, destroyer of HUAC, has died.

[WilliamPitt]

No link available yet, no details.

Earl Warren Award

Honoree Frank Wilkinson, introduced by former ACLU-NC legal director and KQED Newsroom reporter Marshal Krause, launched the National Committee to Abolish HUAC during the heyday of McCarthyism. The First Amendment was under heavy assault from witch hunting committees modeled on the House UnAmerican Activities Committee. As Wilkinson's longtime friend and colleague Dick Criley recalled, "In the spring of 1961, Frank concluded a speech to five thousand students on the Berkeley Campus with the words, "We will not save free speech if we are not prepared to go to jail in its defense. I am prepared to pay that price.' Frank was on his way to Atlanta to serve a year sentence for contempt of Congress. A month earlier the U.S. Supreme Court had rejected the appeal of his conviction for refusing to answer questions before HUAC in a First Amendment test case undertaken by the ACLU," Criley recalled in a moving tribute to Wilkinson.

But Wilkinson's year in jail did not stop him. He carried on his efforts to halt the witch hunts and, in 1975, succeeded in getting Congress, with the leadership of northern California Phil Burton and Don Edwards, to abolish HUAC.

Wilkinson continued to monitor and oppose dangerous laws, leading the renamed National Committee Against Repressive Legislation. His work against government secrecy and political repression is legendary -- his FBI file, finally released by the government under the Freedom of Information Act in 1983 following an ACLU lawsuit, totals almost 5,000 pages.

ACLU-NC Executive Director Dorothy Ehrlich noted that "Frank Wilkinson's great history reminds us that while we fight the good fight day in and day out, we generally do it from the safety of our somewhat comfortable offices or somewhat safe court rooms -- but we almost never live in fear that our work will send us to jail. So today we should remember that the reason we can do this is because of the brave heroes that have gone before us who paved the way for us to continue to carry out the fight for freedom, and they restore our hope."

http://www.aclunc.org/aclunews/news198/rights-day.html

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"Frank Wilkinson was another target of the government's red-baiting during this period. In the heyday of McCarthyism, Wilkinson formed The National Committee to Abolish HUAC which ultimately succeeded in its goal. Wilkinson, who went to jail for a year for refusing to testify before HUAC, said of Jencks: "Clint's heartfelt contributions to building a better world are forever enshrined in the history of people fighting for peace and justice."

http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/cohn311205.html

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[DBoon]

1. He was amazing

He played a major role in a Los Angeles public housing initiative, and was red-baited into oblivion. The land that was cleared to make public housing became Dodger Stadium.

Culture Clash did a theatrical piece on this story a couple of years ago that was excellent:

http://www.curtainup.com/chavezravine.html

quoting from the review:

It turns out that Chavez Ravine was named not for Cesar Chavez but for Julian Chavez who lived in the 1840s. A hundred odd years later, the Los Angeles City Council approved a public housing project for 11 sites --one of which was Chavez Ravine. In 1950, a year after its founding, the City Housing Authority informed the twon residents of the housing plan. Eminent domain proceedings began. Henry Ruiz (Salinas), his sister Maria (Eileen Galindo) and their mother (Montoya) have differing needs. The mother wants the comfort of the familiar. The sister is propelled into activism that will shape her future. The war veteran son feels a need to go beyond the narrow confines of this ravine.

The site manager Frank Wilkinson (Montoya) fervently believes in public housing, but in the paranoid 1950s, this sounds suspiciously like communism. In 1952, he is forced to testify before the California Senate Committee of Un-American Activities. He refuses to answer questions, is fired and subsequently supports his family by working as a janitor, the only work he could find. It was not until 1957 that Chavez Ravine was considered as the possible site for Dodger Stadium but by then only a few families remained in the ravine to resist the eminent domain orders.

[Dancing_Dave]

2. We sure need guys like him right now!

B-)

[DBoon]

3. Kick

for this great man and his cause

[welshTerrier2]

4. who, today, will stand in his shoes?

are there warriors who will take up his battle position?

will the Democratic Party rise as one to push back against the tyranny??

or is it just too late and nobody cares anyway???