Soldier Given “Undesirable” Discharge for Urban League Membership
The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) on this day protested the “undesirable” discharge from the Army given John Harmon, III of the Bronx based on “derogatory” information about him.
Reportedly the information was the fact that he had been a member of the Detroit Urban League, which was characterized as a “subversive organization,” that he was registered with the American Labor Party, a left-wing political party, and had attended a summer camp that was allegedly “Communist-operated.”
Harmon was a graduate of Bucknell University and planned to attend law school. The NYCLU argued that his discharge violated the First, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments to the Constitution.
Learn more about the Cold War: Ellen Schrecker, Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America (1998)
Learn more about the NYCLU: http://www.nyclu.org/