The 1940s Rapp-Coudert Committee Investigating Subversive Activity in the New York School System
Ava Rosenstein, Guest Author
Between 1940-1943, the Rapp-Coudert Committee was a legislative body tasked with investigating subversive activities in the New York State education system. Spearheaded by Assemblyman Herbert A. Rapp and Senator Frederic Coudert Jr., the committee primarily targeted universities and professors who they believed were involved in communist or fascist activities. The committee spent years of their witch hunt at odds with the Teachers Union–leading to many professors being suspended and fired across universities in New York State and City– along with combating protests from the American Student Union.
In the Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library, there is a collection of detailed scrapbooks that provide first hand accounts of the trials and tribulations taken by the Rapp-Coudert Committee in the form of newspaper articles from that time. Articles range from union letters that criticized government actions to statements from the Committee declaring its process and actions.
Teachers were interrogated by the Committee and many of the allegations were proven with witness statements, lesson plans, and admissions of Communist ties. This led to a public backlash and fearmongering of Communism infiltration of the New York State secondary and university school system. The Committee used its position to instill public fear by making students, parents, and non-communist affiliated teachers afraid for their education, children, and careers.
One of the largest cases that arose from the Rapp-Coudert Committee was that of Morris U. Schappes, a teacher at City College accused of giving Communist lectures to his students. Eventually, he admitted to the allegations by the Committee and acknowledged his wrong doings. His confession led to more charges against him, including perjury. After appeals to the United States Supreme Court were denied, Schappes was sentenced to two years of prison time. Schappes’ case became very public, leading him to speak about his experience with the Rapp-Coudert Committee following his release.
During this period, America’s involvement in World War II contributed to omnipresent fears of domestic Fascism and Nazism. The Committee further probed the issue by making the threat of Communism feel just as prevalent. The Committee was regularly presented with instances of Soviet influence efforts in New York classrooms. Evidence shown before the committee included monthly reports that presented the Soviet Union as a utopia where “true democracy can be found”. The collection describes the Committee’s focus on teachers’ travel records. They found that teachers traveled to Moscow with hopes of seeing the benefits of Communism only to realize the actual state of the Soviet Union. Teachers returned to the US and testified about their findings to the Committee.
Despite many extensions, the Committee ended between late 1942 and early 1943. The
Committee released a plan (shown in the image to the right) of a new system they believed would root out Communism in the New York schools. In its proposal, they proposed that the Board of Education and the Superintendent should have the primary power over the secondary school system and smaller divisions under their supervision.
This collection provides insight into World War II domestic politics and serves as a prequel to the controversial investigations into Communism during the McCarthy Era and the Red Scare.
Ava Rosenstein is a senior at Bard High School Early College Queens. Her interest in the misuse of power by government officials stems from two history classes about US politics from eleventh grade. One focused on presidential elections and the other on the Cold War. She learned about the Columbia Archives through class visits from RBML staff and Columbia History PhD students. These Archives provided her with first hand accounts of the Rapp-Coudert Committee and its investigation of subversive activities in the New York State school system during World War II. Ava looks forward to pursuing more research on political events, especially through an analytical and statistical perspective.