The House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was formed by the US House of Representatives in 1938. It had close ties to Joseph McCarthy’s Senate hearings in his attempt to root out Communism, but HUAC was its own entity. Its mission was to investigate disloyalty and subversive activities by citizens, employees and organizations, specifically as it related to Communism. Democrat Francis Walter of Pennsylvania headed the 9-member Committee from 1955-1963. By 1959, the interest in weeding out Communism had declined. Former President Harry Truman was quoted as saying that the Committee was “the most un-American thing in the country today.”
In June of 1959 subpoenas were issued to Bay Area journalists, college professors and 110 local school teachers. Their names were leaked to the press but, rather than being ostracized as had happened in the past when these subpoenas were issued, there was public outcry. The Committee decided to postpone coming to San Francisco for a year. On May 12-14, 1960 hearings were to take place at San Francisco’s City Hall[1]. On the first day protestors, mostly students and teachers, set up a picket line around City Hall, with many going inside to try and attend the hearing. On the second day more protestors arrived, cramming the interior of City Hall’s rotunda and clogging the main marble staircase that led to the hearing room. Without warning, those on the landing and stairs were attacked by police wielding fire hoses. A dangerous situation: water on marble. Sixty-four arrests were made and 12 people were hospitalized (8 of them police officers). HUAC cancelled the remaining hearings and returned to Washington DC. Mayor George Christopher (who wasn’t in the City that day) tried to justify the police violence, publicly stating that he personally saw known Communists leading the demonstration. But public outrage, now aimed at the San Francisco Police Department, only grew. Charges were ultimately dropped on all but one protestor, who was acquitted at trial.
On May 14th over 5,000 people showed up outside City Hall, including the International Longshoremen and Warehouse Union, led by Harry Bridges[2]. Bridges had had his own hearing before the Committee a decade before. Police Chief Thomas Cahill[3] came to address the crowd and when he was about to speak the crowd began singing the chorale to Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. They then peacefully dispersed. It would be the end of the HUAC hearings, though HUAC was not formally disbanded until January 14, 1975.
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