A Brief Summary

1917: President A. Lawrence Lowell's Annual Report defines academic freedom with reference to both scholarly and political activity.

1949: Alger Hiss put on trial in New York as a result of an investigation by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. The "subversive" issue becomes prominent in the national consciousness.

1950: Sen. McCarthy, in a speech in Wheeling, W. Va., charges that the State Department is "full of Communists," launching the "McCarthy-Era" investigations of subversive activity in the federal government and higher education.

1952: November--Sen. Jenner's Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security announces plans to investigate Communists in the nation's colleges and universities.

1953: January--President James B. Conant resigns to become United States High Commissioner of Germany. Provost Buck takes over his duties.

Colleges and universities around the country begin to fire or suspend professors who refuse to testify before congressional committies by invoking the fifth amendment.

February--Wendell Furry appears before a congressional committee for the first time. Testifying before the HUAC in Washington he refuses to answer questions, invoking the fifth amendment. The Harvard Corporation faces a crisis; what action should be taken regarding Furry?

March--The Corporation reviews the transcript of Furry's testimony before the Velde Committee (HUAC).

The Senate Internal Security Subcommittee arrives in Boston to question Leon Kamin and Helen Markham about alleged Communist affiliations and activities. They both take the fifth.

April--Furry voluntarily sends an affidavit to Chairman Velde explaining his political activity in the past two years (1951-53) and then appears for the second time before the HUAC in Washington to testify that he has not been a Communist since 1951. He invokes the fifth amendment in refusing to answer all other questions.

May--The Corporation announces that all three Faculty members will remain at Harvard although Furry was guilty of "grave misconduct" and Kamin and Markham of "misconduct."

June--Nathan Marsh Pusey is appointed President by the Corporation. McCarthy attacks the new President, calling him a "rabid, anti-anti-Communist."

November--Sen. McCarthy calls Furry before his committee in New York. Furry, in his third appearance before a Congressional hearing, refuses to answer questions under the protection of the fifth amendment. McCarthy threatens him with contempt of Congress proceedings.

McCarthy accuses Harvard and Pusey of spawning a "Red mess." Pusey defends Harvard and higher education, while criticizing the Wisconsin Senator.

1954: January--Furry, testifying for the fourth time, changes tactics. He does not use the fifth amendment although he refuses to answer some questions. Kamin also refuses to answer questions relating to friends who had been Communists and, like Furry, doesn't take the fifth. McCarthy again threatens proceedings for contempt.

Spring: The Army-McCarthy hearings divert the Senator's energies.

1955: Furry and Kamin are arraigned in Boston in January on contempt charges. Kamin is acquitted and the contempt citation against Furry is dismissed on the Kamin precedent.

1957: McCarthy dies of hepatitis.