Date of Award

11-1995

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

History

First Advisor

Barry Westin

Second Advisor

Ernest Bolt

Third Advisor

Rober C. Kenzer

Abstract

The American Civil Liberties Union and an overwhelming majority of its historians have maintained that the organization has devoted its efforts solely to the protection of the Bill of Rights. This thesis examines that claim, focusing on the events that culminated in the expulsion of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn from the Union's Board of Directors. Relying primarily on the organization's own publications and archives, as well as several insiders' accounts, the analysis concludes that the issue of communism increasingly polarized the Board and, in a gross violation of its nonpartisan commitment to the defense of civil liberties, led ultimately to the Communist Flynn's removal.

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History Commons

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