Skip to main content

Government exhibits, 1950s

 File — Box: 373, Folder: 3-5, document: 8984.14
Identifier: Subseries 3.1.2.2:

Scope and Contents

From the Sub-Series:

The files for this case contain correspondence, research material, news clips, notes, and legal documents including motions, memos, briefs, exhibits, and trial transcripts.

Among the correspondence are letters between Leonard and the defendants and their families, correspondence with other lawyers discussing legal strategies, and letters sent to the San Francisco Examiner criticizing the paper's coverage of the case. There is also much correspondence regarding financial matters, especially the difficulties of paying court costs, bail and lawyers' fees. Individual items include a letter discussing Max Silver, a witness at the HUAC hearings, and a letter from Steinberg outlining his views of government's motivations for pursuing the Kremen case.

Other notable items include support material issued by defense committees, such as the Civil Rights Congress, and statements by the defendants about their arrests and jail conditions. The government exhibits include a wide range of information in the form of photostats of notebooks, licenses, receipts, and other items seized form the cabin where the defendants were arrested. Folder 2/02 contains a list of each of the 122 exhibits. Fifteen photographs of the interior of the cabin have been removed from 2/01 and placed in the Archives' photo collection. Folder 2/04 has copies of letters and notes discussing Communist Party affairs and the Party's position on various issues.

Also of interest are: biographical statements on each of the defendants; questions posed to prospective jurors, e.g. inquiries about whether they were members of or knew any members of 22 different groups on the Attorney General's list of subversive organizations; and notes about the credibility of various government witnesses. Within the transcripts to the original trial, there are indexes to the witnesses and exhibits that appeared in the trial. These indexes can be found in Vol. 1, pages 22 and 100, and in the beginning of Vol. 2.

Important individuals connected to this case include:

From the Sub-Series:
  1. Patricia Blau
  2. Samuel Coleman
  3. Richard Gladstein
  4. Shirley Kremen
  5. Norman Leonard
  6. Carl Ross
  7. Sidney Steinberg
  8. Robert Thompson

Major subjects covered in the material include:

From the Sub-Series:
  1. Civil Rights Congress
  2. Communist Party - California
  3. Communist Party - fugitives
  4. Constitutional law
  5. McCarthyism
  6. Cold War

Related cases in the Norman Leonard Collection include:

From the Sub-Series:
  1. Dennis, et al. v. United States
  2. Fugimoto, et al. v. United States
  3. Yates, et al. v. United States

Dates

  • 1950s

Access

Collection is open for research.

Extent

From the Collection: 219.8 Cubic Feet

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Creator

Repository Details

Part of the Labor Archives and Research Center Repository

Contact:
San Francisco State University
J. Paul Leonard Library, Room 460
1630 Holloway Ave
San Francisco 94132-1722 USA
(415) 405-5571