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Partisanship Within The American Civil Libterties Union: The Board Of Directors, The Struggle With Anti-Communism, And Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Douglas Colin Post

Master's Theses

The American Civil Liberties Union and an overwhelming majority of its historians have maintained that the organization has devoted its efforts solely to the protection of the Bill of Rights. This thesis examines that claim, focusing on the events that culminated in the expulsion of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn from the Union's Board of Directors. Relying primarily on the organization's own publications and archives, as well as several insiders' accounts, the analysis concludes that the issue of communism increasingly polarized the Board and, in a gross violation of its nonpartisan commitment to the defense of civil liberties, led ultimately to the …