Frank Wilkinson, Anti-HUAC Activist, Refuses to Answer HUAC Questions
Civil liberties activist Frank Wilkinson, who had been leading the campaign to abolish HUAC, refused to answer the committee’s questions about his political associations on this day. As a result, he was convicted of contempt of Congress and sentenced to prison on May 1, 1961.
Wilkinson had lost his job with the Los Angeles Housing Authority on October 28, 1952 because of his political views, and he then became a lifelong political activist, focusing on the abolition of HUAC. In 1960, he organized and led the National Committee to Abolish HUAC, which organized a major anti-HUAC demonstration in San Francisco on May 12, 1960. His organization later became the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation (NCARL).
It is believed that Wilkinson’s 132,000 page FBI file is the largest file on any single individual. Wilkinson died on January 2, 2006.
Contempt of Congress indictments became a heavy weapon against alleged subversives during the Cold War. While it had rarely been used before World War II, HUAC issued 21 contempt citations in 1946, 14 in 1947, and 56 in 1950. All other House Committees in those years issued a total of only 6 contempt citations.
Read a biography of Wilkinson: Robert Sherrill, First Amendment Felon: The Story of Frank Wilkinson, His 132,000 Page FBI File and His Epic Fight for Civil Rights and Liberties (2005)
Watch an interview with Wilkinson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZoMUgatxrM
Learn more about HUAC: http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/huac
Frank Wilkinson’s work lives on at the Defending Dissent Foundation: http://www.defendingdissent.org/now/