This article argues that the decline of the public housing program in the early 1950s has an overlooked political dimension—the role of the Red Scare/McCarthyism. Public housing advocates had used social democratic reform to secure the program. After the 1949 Housing Act, public housing foes were able to sequester the expansion of public housing legislation by turning to the local level. Many municipal policy battles attempted to limit the acceptance of federal public housing by means of Red Scare tactics. This is illustrated by the Los Angeles public housing war, one of the most vicious Red Scares of the domestic cold war. The Red Scare was used to cancel the ten-thousand-unit public housing contract with the federal government and to reverse city policy by toppling the pro–public-housing mayoral regime. Public housing's local defeats were circulated back to the national level, resulting in the demise of the program.
Don Parson, “The Burke Incident: Political Belief in Los Angeles' Public Housing during the Domestic Cold War”, Southern California Quarterly84 (Spring 2002): 53–74; and Henry Kraus, In the City Was a Garden: A Housing Project Chronicle (New York, 1951), 187.
2.
“Quonset Pair to be Ousted,”Los Angeles Times, October 5, 1946, II-II, 1-1; “Red Editor Moves to Better City-Owned Project,” Los Angeles Examiner, October 15, 1946, I, 5; Los Angeles City Archives, Resolution by L. E. Timberlake, October 16, 1946, Council File #25298; and ibid., City Clerk to CHA, October 16, 1946.
3.
“Editor's Eviction Protested,”People's World, October 17, 1946, 1-1; Los Angeles City Archives, policy resolution of the National Maritime Union, October 18, 1946, Council File #25298; Los Angeles City Archives, resolution by Ed J. Davenport, October 30, 1946, in Council File #25551; Nicola Giulii to City Council, October 24, 1946 (3 pp.) + attached memorandum to Veterans Advisory Committee, October 23, 1946 (6 pp.), Council File #25298; and Ray L. Chesebro, “Opinion Re: Authority of the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles...Tenant Selection,” November 4, 1946, Council File #25551.
4.
David A. Gold, “The Rise and Decline of the Keynesian Coalition,”Kapitalistate6 (1977): 129–167.
5.
Nathaniel S. Keith, Politics and the Housing Crisis since 1930 (New York, 1973), 29–30; and Timothy McDonnell, The Wagner Housing Act (Chicago, 1957), 62.
6.
McDonnell, Wagner Housing Act; “Housing Act of 1937,” September 1, 1937, 50 United States Statutes at Large, 888–899; “Legislative History of Public Housing Traced through 25 Years,” Journal of Housing 19 (October 15, 1962): 436; Catherine Bauer, “Now, at Last: Housing: The Meaning of the Wagner-Steagall Act,” The New Republic 92 (September 8, 1937), 119–21; and D. Bradford Hunt, “What Went Wrong with Public Housing in Chicago? A History of the Chicago Housing Authority, 1933–1982” (PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 2000), 23.
7.
“Community Facilities (Lanham) Act,”October 14, 1940, 54 United States Statutes at Large, 1125–1128; Philip J. Funigiello, The Challenge to Urban Liberalism: Federal-City Relations During World War II (Knoxville, 1978), chap. 3; Mel Scott, American City Planning Since 1880 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1969), 394–95; and Charles Abrams, The Future of Housing (New York and London, 1946), 297–307.
8.
Helen Fuller, “The Invisible Congress: iii. The Real Estate Lobby,”The New Republic110, no. 14 (April 3, 1944): 463–446; and James Thomas Keane, Fritz B. Burns and the Development of Los Angeles (Los Angeles, 2001), 93–94, 98.
9.
“Why Paint Housing Red?”Los Angeles Daily News, December 5, 1945; “Socialism and Housing,” Los Angeles Sentinel, November 20, 1947, 7; and Jack Young, “Housing? Reds!” People's World, November 20, 1948, 1, 3.
10.
Tris Coffin, “The Slickest Lobby,”The Nation162 (March 23, 1946): 340–342; Mark L. Gelfand, A Nation of Cities: The Federal Government and Urban America, 1933–1965 (New York, 1975), chap. 4; Abrams, Future of Housing, 311; Richard O. Davies, Housing Reform during the Truman Administration (Columbia, 1966), 47.
11.
Davies, Housing Reform, 95-95, 97-97, 100-100, 134-134; and Truman letter in Keith, Politics and the Housing Crisis, 97; “Housing Act of 1949,” July 15, 1949, 63 United States Statutes at Large, 413–44.
12.
Leo Goodman, “What Makes the Real Estate Lobby Tick?”Journal of Housing7 (December 1950): 423–427.
13.
Harry Conn, “Housing: A Vanishing Vision,”The New Republic125 (July 30, 1951): 12–13; Thomas J. Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit (Princeton, 1996); John F. Bauman, Public Housing, Race, and Renewal: Urban Planning in Philadelphia, 1920–1974 (Philadelphia, 1987); Arnold R. Hirsch, Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago, 1940–1960 (Cambridge, 1983); Don Parson, Making a Better World: Public Housing, the Red Scare, and the Direction of Modern Los Angeles (Minneapolis, 2005); “Public Housing ‘Battle’ Hits in Washington, the States, Local Communities,” Journal of Housing 9 (March 1952): 79–80, 94; Leonard Freedman, “Group Opposition to Public Housing” (PhD diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 1959), 334–37, 346–47; and Leonard Freedman, Public Housing: The Politics of Poverty (New York, 1969), 43, 45, 53.
14.
Los Angeles City Archives, Mayor Bowron to City Council, August 8, 1949, Council File #39066 (part 2); ibid, Ordinance #95,222. The Los Angeles CHA had constructed and managed 3,468 units of public housing, located in ten projects, under the 1937 Housing Act; it managed 8,831 units of public warhousing (built by the federal government under the 1940 Lanham Act) in twenty-six projects at the end of World War II and 3,670 units of veterans housing located in five projects. During the immediate postwar years, Los Angeles would face a critical housing shortage because of the expanding population combined with a limited housing stock.
15.
Don Parson, “Los Angeles’ ‘Headline-Happy Public Housing War,’?”Southern California Quarterly65, no. 3 (Fall 1983): 251–285; “Council About-Face Halts Housing Push,” Los Angeles Times, December 4, 1951, Pt. I, 1, 2; Los Angeles City Archives, H. Bock to Ed Davenport, December 15, 1951, Council File #30966 (attachments); “Public Housing Bureaucrats Upset,” Los Angeles Times, December 4, 1951, Pt. II, 4; and “Council Votes to Cancel Public Housing Projects,” Los Angeles Times, December 27, 1951, Pt. I, 1, 4.
16.
Los Angeles City Archives, Bowron to City Council (14 pp.), January 2, 1952, Council File #39066, sup. 1; “Housing Issue on June Ballot,” Los Angeles Sentinel, January 24, 1952, A-1; and Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles v. City of Los Angeles, 38 C.2d 853; 243 P.2d 515, April 1952.
17.
“Housing Foes Protest Mayor's ‘Peace’ Hearing,”Los Angeles Mirror, May 20, 1952, 3-3, 18-18; “Irate Property Owners Barred from Mayor's Housing Hearing,” Los Angeles Times, May 21, 1952, Pt. I, 1, 2; “Background of Housing Claims,” Los Angeles Times, May 27, 1952, Pt. II, 4; “Mayor and Beebe Clash on Housing,” Los Angeles Times, May 31, 1952, Pt. I, 1, 3.
18.
Herbert M. Baus, oral history interview, conducted 1990 by Enid Hart Douglass, Oral History Program, Claremont Graduate School, for the California State Archives State Government Oral History Program, 43; Huntington Library, “Don't Pay Somebody Else's Rent,” Committee against Socialist Housing “No on B” leaflet, Fletcher Bowron Collection, Box 50; California State University, Los Angeles, “Stop Socialist Housing Grab,” “No on B” circular, John Holland Papers, Box 42, Folder 6; and “Figures Reveal Housing Lost in 12 Districts,” Los Angeles Times, June 13, 1952, pt. I, 11.
19.
Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research, transcript of Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles v. Mosier M. Meyer, et. al., Los Angeles County Superior Court No. 584912, August 29, 1952, Frank Wilkinson papers, unprocessed material; and “Housing Aide Defies Quiz, Suspended,” Los Angeles Daily News, August 29, 1952, 2, 4.
20.
“L.A. Housing Aide Suspended as Council Demands Red Quiz,”Los Angeles Examiner, August 30, 1952, 1-1, 5-5; and “Red Probe Asked as Housing Man Shuns L.A. Quiz,” Los Angeles Mirror, August 30, 1952, 3, 10.
21.
“3 CHA Workers Fired in Defying State Red Probe,”Los Angeles Mirror, September 27, 1952, 3-3, 20-20; “Housing Red Plot Told by Probers,” Los Angeles Herald and Express, October 29, 1952, A-3; Carlton Williams, “Public Housing Official Fired When He Dodges Red Query,” Los Angeles Times, October 29, 1952, Pt. I, 1, 2; and Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research, “Statement of Frank Wilkinson,” October 28, 1952, Frank Wilkinson papers.
22.
California Legislature, Seventh Report of the Senate Fact-finding Committee on Un-American Activities (Sacramento, 1953), 111–117; Carlton E. Williams, “Public Housing Official Fired as He Dodges Red Query,” Los Angeles Times, October 29, 1952, pt. I, 1, 2; and “Firing Service Gets Two More,” People's World, October 30, 1952, 3.
23.
“Housing Seen as Red Plan,”Los Angeles Herald and Express, October 30, 1952, A-4-A-4; Senate Fact-finding Committee, 132.
24.
Norris Poulson, “Who Would Have Ever Dreamed?” the memoirs of Norris Poulson, 1966, Oral History Program, UCLA, 158; “Yes for Poulson, No for Housing,” Los Angeles Times, April 1, 1953, pt. II, 4.
25.
United States Congress, House, Special Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, Hearings on Investigation of Public Housing Activities in Los Angeles (Washington, DC, May 13, 18, 19, 20, 21, 27, 1953); “House Committee to Carry Ball for Norrie,” Los Angeles Daily News, May 1, 1953, 34; Art White, “Housing Inquiry Over, but Echoes Due on Tuesday,” Los Angeles Mirror, May 22, 1953, 4, 35; and Huntington Library, Clara Snyder to Bowron, May 23, 1953, Fletcher Bowron Collection, Box 49, Folder: Pub Housing or Annex 4-P-2.
26.
“Strange Case of Mayor Bowron,”Los Angeles Times, May 24, 1953, pt. II, 4-4.
27.
“Poulson Elected,”Los Angeles Times, May 27, 1953, Pt. II, 1-1, 2-2; Poulson, “Who Would Have Ever Dreamed,” 223–25; “Poulson in Washington on Housing Plea,” Los Angeles Mirror, July 14, 1953, 18; “Housing Hassle Ended—Poulson,” Los Angeles Mirror, July 17, 1953, 3; “The Victory over Public Housing,” Los Angeles Times, July 30, 1953, pt. I, 4; and “Poulson Elected,” Los Angeles Times, May 27, 1953, Pt. II, 1, 2.
28.
“Gwinn Amendment,”July 5, 1952, 66 United States Statutes at Large, 403-403.
29.
Records of the ACLU-sponsored litigation against the Gwinn Amendment in Los Angeles are found in the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (hereafter ACLU) Collection, Special Collections, UCLA; Housing Authority v. Cordova, 130 C.A.2d Supp. 883; 279 P.2d 215 (1955).
30.
Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles v. Cordova, et al., certiorari denied, 350 U.S. No. 628 (February 27, 1956); “Gwinn Amendment is Dead,” Journal of Housing 13 (August–September 1956): 279; UCLA, “Staff Counsel Information Report No. 3, Re: Gwinn Amendment,” October 23, 1956, ACLU Collection, Box 6, Folder 11.
31.
Richard M. Freeland, The Truman Doctrine and the Origins of McCarthyism: Foreign Policy, Domestic Politics, and Internal Security, 1946–1948 (New York, 1971); Athan Theoharis, Seeds of Repression: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of McCarthyism (Chicago, 1971); and Alonzo L. Hamby, Beyond the New Deal: Harry S. Truman and American Liberalism (New York and London, 1973), 379.
32.
Freedman, Public Housing, 162, 166; Michael J. Heale, “Metropolitan Malaise: Red Scare Politics in the Cities in the 1940s and 1950s,” American Historical Association Conference (Washington, DC, January, 2004); see also M. J. Heale, McCarthy's Americans: Red Scare Politics in State and Nation, 1935–1965 (Athens, 1998), 282–88. In this sense, the impact of the Korean War on public housing was not to divert money to the war effort but to increase the tension and excitability of anti-Communist elements, and in so doing, it fueled the Red Scare.
33.
Ruth M. Harmer, “Trick Play at City Hall: ‘Socialism’ and the new Los Angeles housing plan,”Frontier6 (February 1955): 11–13.
34.
Ellen Schrecker, The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents (Boston, 1994), 92–93; and Frank Wilkinson interview, July 3, 1996.
35.
Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, 1973–1977 Highlights (Los Angeles, 1977); see Todd Gitlin, The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage (New York, 1987), 81–85; and Wini Breines, Community and Organization in the New Left, 1962–1968: The Great Refusal (New Brunswick and London, 1989), 5, for a discussion of movements to the New Left.
36.
Freedman, Public Housing, 55-55; “Housing Act of 1954,” August 2, 1954, 68 United States Statutes at Large, 590–648; and Keith, Politics and the Housing Crisis, 110ff.
37.
J. Paul Mitchell, “Historical Overview of Direct Federal Housing Assistance,” in J. Paul Mitchell, ed., Federal Housing Policy and Programs: Past and Present (New Brunswick, 1985), 187–206.
