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Harold Buchman was a 20th-Century American Communist attorney, "the most important communist member" of the Progressive Citizens of America (founded by former vice president Henry A. Wallace, president of the Roosevelt Democratic Party Club, and treasurer for the Screen Writers Guild.^[1]^[2]

Career

Hollywood blacklist

His name appeared in the earliest Hollywood blacklist: a list of Communist sympathizers along with Dalton Trumbo, Maurice Rapf, Lester Cole, Howard Koch, John Wexley, Ring Lardner Jr., Harold Salemson, Henry Meyers, Theodore Strauss, and John Howard Lawson.^[3]

On April 17, 1947, Buchman, actress Anne Revere, and writer Sam Moore pled the Fifth Amendment regarding questions about Communist affiliation.^[4]

Progressive Party

In January 1948, Buchman announced the Wallace for President Committee. In February 1948, he became new executive secretary and Maryland state director of the Progressive Party. In Summer 1948, when the Maryland attorney general rejected all filings by Progressive candidates for failure to sign loyalty oaths, Buchman announced he would file a suit.^[1]>^[5]

Communist counsel

In June-July 1951, Buchman counseled the follow out of more than 40 people subpoena-ed by HUAC: Joseph Henderson and Philip Gran (June 21, 1951), Robert W. Lee (June 26, 1951), Irving Kandel (June 27, 1951), Sam Fox and Howard Bernard Silverberg (June 28, 1951), Louis Julius Shub (July 12, 1951), and Milton Seif and Irving Winker (July 13, 1951).^[6]

In March 1952, Buchman defended: Maurice Braverman, George Meyers, Roy Wood, Dorothy Rose Blumberg (wife of Albert Blumberg), Philip Frankfeld, and Regina Frankfeld (all members of the Communist Party branch of Maryland and the District of Columbia).^[1]

In 1952, Royal Wilbur France, civil liberties activist and president of the National Lawyers Guild, consulted NLG members Joseph Forer and Buchman.^[7]

Catonsville Nine

In 1968, Buchman served on the defense council of the Catonsville Nine.^[8] Defendants included Jesuit peace advocate Daniel Berrigan.^[9]^[10]

Black Panthers

In 1971, Buchman defended Arthur F. Turco Jr., a New York lawyer charged in connection with the 1969 torture and murder of a suspected Black Panthers police informer.^[11]^[12]

Later career

Buchman defended communist activist Madalyn Murray O'Hair^[13]^[14]

Legacy

Barbara Mello, ACLU attorney and law teacher, served as law clerk for Buchman.^[15]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Pederson, Vernon, L. (2001). The Communist Party In Maryland, 1919-1957. Champaign, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. pp. 156 (PCA), 157 (Wallace), 158 (PP state director), 172–180 (Bravermen et al.). ISBN 9780252023217. Retrieved 5 August 2017.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Baum, Gary; Miller, Daniel (19 November 2012). "The Hollywood Reporter, After 65 Years, Addresses Role in Blacklist". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 5 August 2017.
^ Wilkerson, William R. (29 July 1946). "TradeView: A Vote For Joe Stalin". The Hollywood Reporter.
^ "Un-American Activities". CQ Almanac. 1951. Retrieved 5 August 2017.
^ Curtis Daniel MacDougall (1965). Gideon's Army: The campaign and the vote. Marzani & Munsell. p. 583. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
^ Hearings Relating to Communist Activities in the Defense Area of Baltimore–Part 1. US GPO for the Committee on Un-American Activities, U.S. House of Representatives. 1951. pp. 812 (Henderson), 822 (Gran), 846 (Lee), 869 (Kandel), 879 (Fox), 900 (Seif), 901 (Winkler), 905 (Silverberg), 940 (Shub). Retrieved 5 August 2017.
^ Royal Wilbur France (1957). My Native Grounds. Cameron Associates. p. 111. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
^ Eric L. Goldstein; Deborah R. Weiner (2018). On Middle Ground: A History of the Jews of Baltimore. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 294. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
^ Jim Forest (2017). At Play in the Lions' Den: A Biography and Memoir of Daniel Berrigan. Orbis Books. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
^ Shawn Francis Peters (2012). The Catonsville Nine: A Story of Faith and Resistance in the Vietnam Era. Oxford University Press. pp. 137–9, 163–4, 218, 232–3, 255–6, 262, 286, 289. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
^ "Prosecutor Says New York Lawyer Ordered the Slaying of Panther". New York Times. 17 June 1971. Retrieved 5 August 2017.
^ Charles Earl Jones (1998). The Black Panther Party (reconsidered). Black Classic Press. p. 117 (Turco) 125-6, 131 (fn 6 Turco), 132 (fn 22). Retrieved 1 August 2024.
^ Murray, William J. (1982). My Life without God. T. Nelson. pp. 21–22. ISBN 0840752563.
^ Ann Rowe Seaman (2005). America's Most Hated Woman: The Life and Gruesome Death of Madalyn Murray O'Hair. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 47. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
^ "Barbara Mello, 71, attorney for ACLU and law teacher". Baltimore Sun. 18 February 2004. Retrieved 1 August 2024.