Charles Hendley Protesting the Rapp-Coudert Committee

This photograph shows Charles Hendley, president of the Teachers Union, addressing over 2,000 to protest the Rapp-Coudert Committee at the Manhattan Center on November 10, 1940.

The Rapp-Coudert Committee, a New York State initiative, was organized in June 1940 to investigate and identify "subversive activities" and persons in New York's public schools and colleges. Various teachers' unions, including the one led by Hendley, were especially targeted in the initial stages of the investigation as their membership rolls were comprised in no small part by far left sympathizers who had previously worked to reform education in the city and state.

The committee's creation was driven largely by rising anti-communist sentiment following the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939; as a consequence, state officials sought to rid publicly funded schools of undesired "red" influence. Holding private hearings from September 1940 through December 1941, the group issued subpoenas to and interrogated more than 500 faculty, staff, and students. City College, in particular, became a target of the committee with dozens of faculty and staff called to public hearings. The committee demanded that they name other Communist sympathizers in the schools. By the close of the committee, more than fifty faculty and staff at CCNY were without jobs.

Unknown

Reference Center for Marxist Studies

November 10, 1940

Smith, Carol

Obtained from Contributor - Copyright Unknown

Photograph

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