On this day in labor history, the year was 1947.
That was the day President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9835.
It is commonly referred to as the ‘loyalty order.’
It required the screening of millions of federal civil servants and applicants.
9835 is considered one of the key preconditions for the rise of the McCarthyite Red Scare.
It established the criteria for investigation, review and dismissal.
These included a Loyalty Review Board, a master index of those investigated and definitions determining alleged disloyalty.
Disloyalty could mean sedition, espionage, or advocating revolution.
It could also mean membership or sympathetic association with movements considered totalitarian, fascist, communist or subversive.
Soon, the Attorney General’s List of Subversive Organizations was published.
It amounted to a black list.
In their book, The Fifties, Douglas Miller and Marion Nowack comment: “Between the launching of his security program in March 1947 and December 1952, some 6.6 million persons were investigated. Not a single case of espionage was uncovered, though about 500 persons were dismissed in dubious cases of ‘questionable loyalty.’ All of this was conducted with secret evidence, secret and often paid informers, and neither judge nor jury. Despite the failure to find subversion, the broad scope of the official Red hunt gave popular credence to the notion that the government was riddled with spies.”
President Dwight Eisenhower would revoke 9835 with his Executive Order 10450.
But this order dismantled the Loyalty Boards by transferring power to federal agencies.
It also expanded investigations to include those engaged in “immoral” or “disgraceful” behavior.
This included what it considered sexual deviance and led to the witch hunting of and discrimination against gays and lesbians in the civil service.
December 28 - Heroes in Space
December 27 - Musicians Fight Back
December 26 - Garment Workers Rise Up
December 25 - Debs Released; Real Gift is His Message
December 24 - A Christmas Eve Beating for Striking Workers
December 23 - The High Cost of Low Wages
December 21 - Red Scare Deportations Begin
December 20 - THE UNION IS DISSOLVED!!!
December 19 - Solidarity Gets the Goods!
December 18 - No More Beer
December 17 - Unraveling Anti-Japanese Hysteria
December 16 - No Justice, No Bagels!
December 15 - Troops Put Down the Mother’s March
December 14 - Another Hard Fought Victory
December 13 - The Beginning of the End of Apartheid
December 12 - We Disaffiliate!
December 11 - Right to Work is a Lie!
December 10 - August Spies is Born
December 9 - The Cordiner Doctrine
December 8 - The American Federation of Labor is Founded
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