The war on books and ideas: the California Library Association and anti-Communist censorship in the 1940s and 1950s - The Role of Professional Associations

Library Trends, Fall, 1997 by Cindy Mediavilla

Despite this final warning, a Burbank Public Library trustee invited Jacoby and Gibbons to the July 1951 library board meeting to discuss their recommendations. As a result, the library trustees passed "a unanimous request that the City Council instruct the City Attorney to draft a resolution to the League of California Cities to approve the labeling of subversive and immoral books in California public libraries" (Smith, 1970, p. 93). On September 4, 1951, the City Council voted unanimously to act on the library board's proposal.

Reaction by Burbank citizens was rapid and heated. At the City Council meeting the following week, local resident Thoburn E. Lyons protested the council's action, saying that "we should watch carefully the methods we use, lest we destroy the very thing we seek to protect" ("Protest Heard on Library Red Screening," 1951). Two days later, Donald C. Skone-Palmer, chair of the local International Association of Machinists' legislative committee, reminded council that the labeling of authors is the "first step toward censorship" ("Council Asked to Reconsider," 1951). Though the mayor admitted that he believed the city librarian should have "the benefit of some formula to assist ... in the choice and rejection of printed materials ... so that, insofar as possible, the reading public may be safeguarded against the insidious poisonings of professional, international propagandists," the council agreed to "maintain status quo" until a statewide investigation could be conducted ("Library `Audit' Plans Dropped," 1951, pt.1 p. 1). No local library censorship committee would be established; however, a resolution to the League of California Cities was submitted requesting a survey of representative jurisdictions to determine how they "resolve the problem of the infiltration of insidious propaganda and other printed material inimical to the American way of life into then public libraries" (pt. 1, p. 2).

As soon as the CLA Committee on Intellectual Freedom heard of the situation, a resolution addressed to the League of California Cities was drafted against the use of labeling in libraries ("San Francisco Conference," 1951, p. 105). Not only was it approved by CLA, but the chair of the committee was directed to attend the league's convention and present CLA's case (Smith, 1970, p. 94). Once the league heard CLA's resolution, they failed to take any action on Burbank's proposal, ending the matter altogether. The threat of censorship had once again been successfully defeated. In their report of the incident to the American Library Association, Smith and Detchon (1952) congratulated CLA for its role in the successful outcome, noting the importance of "the Committee on Intellectual Freedom, to whose chairman all developments in the case were sent, enabling her to present a resolution to the [league's] convention on short notice" (p. 87).

CALIFORNIA SCHOOLS UNDER FIRE

A year later, the CLA adopted yet another resolution, this time supporting "the teaching of UNESCO in the public schools of California and opposing the censorship or elimination of books and materials on subjects relating to UNESCO and world understanding from classrooms and libraries of all types" ("It Happened in Pasadena," 1952, p. 90). The controversy here centered on the teaching of "world understanding," as stated by the goals of the United Nations. While some viewed Unesco as the "means to peaceful progress" (p. 89), others felt threatened by a perceived weakening of American standards. As Benemann (1977) explains: " [I]n 1952 the idea of a world federation was viewed with suspicion ... by a number of Americans. They believed membership [in the United Nations] would require a lessened allegiance to the United States and would, more abhorrently, ask Americans to live in peaceful acceptance of their communist neighbors" (p. 306).