Roger Nash Baldwin (January 21, 1884-August 26, 1981) was one of the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a 501(c)3 tax-exempt Foundation.
After Russia's Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, Communist agitators spread to other countries, including the United States.
Communists began pamphleteering, working as labor and community organizers. Congress attempted to limit Communist influences by passing the Espionage Act of 1917 and Sedition Act of 1918.
In 1919, the Communist Party USA was founded. The same year, the U.S. Treasury Department argued that foundations "formed to disseminate controversial or partisan propaganda" could not be considered "educational" 501(c)3 foundations.
In 1920, a World War I draft-dodger, Roger Baldwin worked with socialist and communist antiwar protesters to found the ACLU 501(c)3 Foundation in 1920 to defend those accused of disloyal activities.
In 1923, Roger Baldwin's colleague, Margaret Sanger, founded a 501(c)3 organization that became Planned Parenthood, supported by the Rockefeller and Carnegie Foundations.
Roger Baldwin served as the executive director of the ACLU until 1950. Roger Baldwin gained notoriety by directing the Scopes Monkey Trial to get evolution taught in schools, eventually leading a ban on the teaching of creation.
Roger Baldwin was friends with Earl Browder, who served as the general secretary of the Communist Party USA from 1930 to its dissolution in 1944. The Communist Party USA was reconstituted in 1945.
Roger Baldwin twice visited the Soviet Union, embraced Vietnamese Communist dictator Ho Chi Minh, and wrote a book, Liberty Under the Soviets (1927), in which he stated:
<I joined. I don't reg ret being a part of the Communist tactic, which increased the effectiveness of a good cause. I knew what I was doing. I was not an innocent liberal. I wanted what the Communists wanted.> 1884RB001
Baldwin's friend Emma Goldman, known as "Red Emma," was deported to the Soviet Union in 1919 for her Communist activities. The on-line exhibit of Emma Goldman's papers claim her career:
<...served as inspiration for Roger Baldwin, a future founder of the American Civil Liberties Union.> 1884RB002
In 1935, Roger Baldwin wrote in the Harvard reunion book on the 30th reunion of his class of 1905:
<I am for socialism, disarmament, and ultimately, for abolishing the state itself as an instrument of violence and compulsion. I seek social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class, and sole control of those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal.> 1884RB003
A co-founder of the ACLU 501(c)3 taxexempt Foundation with Roger Baldwin was William Z. Foster, National Chairman of the Communist Party USA. In 1932, William Z. Foster wrote in Toward Soviet America:
<The establishment of an American Soviet government will involve the confiscation of large landed estates in town and country, and also, the whole body of forests, mineral deposits, lakes, rivers and so on.> 1884RB004
Another co-founder of the ACLU 501(c)3 tax-exempt Foundation was Norman Thomas, who was the six-time Presidential candidate for the Socialist Party, 1928-1948. Norman Thomas stated:
<The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened.> 1884RB005
Earl Browder, general secretary of the Communist Party USA, claimed the ACLU 501(c)3 tax-exempt Foundation was "a transmission belt" to help achieve the goals of Communism for America.
A list of 45 Communist goals, which can be compared with the ACLU agenda further in this chapter, was read into the Congressional Record, January 10, 1963, by Congressman Albert S. Herlong, Jr., of Florida (Vol 109, 88th Congress, 1st Session, Appendix, pp. A34-A35). The list of Communist goals included:
<Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."...
Eliminate laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press...
Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights...
Discredit American culture...
Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and divorce...
Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."...
Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents...
Infiltrate churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion...
Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."..
Discredit the Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
Discredit Founding Fathers.Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."...
Control schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put party line in textbooks...
Control student newspapers...
Infiltrate the press... Control book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions...
Control key positions in radio, TV and motion pictures...
Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio and TV...
Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture."...
Support socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture - education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc...
Transfer some of the power of arrest from the police to social agencies...
Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
Infiltrate and control of more unions. Infiltrate and gain control of big business....
Promote the U.N...Free trade, loans and aid to all nations regardless of
Communist affiliation...
Internationalize the Panama Canal...
Give the World Court jurisdiction...
Do away with loyalty oaths....
Capture one or both of the political parties...
Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities...
Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.> 1884RB006
In 1948, the California Senate Fact Finding Committee on Un- American Activities stated in its report, page 107:
<The ACLU may be definitely classified as a Communist front or transmission belt organization...At least 90 percent of its efforts are on behalf of Communists who come in conflict with the law.> 1884RB007
In 1950, members of the Communist Party USA formed the Mattachine Society, the nation's first homosexual rights organizations. which lobbied to repeal sodomy laws.
On January 17, 1931, the Special House Committee to Investigate Communist Activities issued a report stating:
<The American Civil Liberties Union is closely affiliated with the communist movement in the United States, and fully 90% of its efforts are on behalf of Communists who have come into conflict with the law. It claims to stand for free speech, free press, and free assembly; but it is quite apparent that the main function of the ACLU is to attempt to protect the Communists in their advocacy of force and violence to overthrow the Government, replacing the American flag with a red flag and erecting a Soviet Government in place of the republican form of government guaranteed to each State by the Federal Constitution...Roger N. Baldwin, its guiding spirit, makes no attempt to hide his friendship for the Communists and their principles.> 1884RB008
The 87th Congress Congressional Record, September 20, 1961, recorded remarks of Hon. John H. Rousselot of California, which included the House Committee To Investigate Communist Activities in the United States report 2290, entitled "Investigation of Communist Propaganda":
<The main function of the ACLU is to protect the Communists in their advocacy of force and violence to overthrow the U.S. Government.> 1884RB009
In 1939, Roger Baldwin felt Russia's Communist leader Joseph Stalin had compromised Communism's high ideals by signing a pact with the fascist leader of Nazi Germany, Adolph Hitler. In the 1940's, in an effort to mitigate growing negative public opinion, Roger Baldwin attempted to reinvent his organization's image by distancing himself from visible Communists, though the agenda of the ACLU 501(c)3 tax exempt Foundation remained unchanged.
By examining the total volume of ACLU 501(c)3 tax-exempt Foundation cases, a pattern emerges that is similar to the Communist goals for America. The ACLU 501(c)3 tax exempt Foundation sued to remove: school prayer, Christmas carols, Ten Commandment displays, Boy Scouts, "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, nativity scenes, abstinence education, religious symbols from city seals and veterans memorials, prayer at Naval Academy, and is against private gun ownership and against private rights of conscience for pro- life doctors.
The ACLU 501(c)3 tax-exempt Foundation defended: Communists, Nazis, KKK members, the North American Man Boy Love Association, pornographers, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, abortion, Islamic terrorists, no identification to vote, gay marriage and burning the American Flag.
A notable case took place in 1978 when the ACLU 501(c)3 tax-exempt Foundation defended a group of Nazis who wanted to demonstrate in the largely Jewish community of Skokie, Illinois. This incident was alluded to in the movie The Blues Brothers (1980) with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi driving their Bluesmobile over a Chicago bridge causing Nazi demonstrators to jump into the river.
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1884RB001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Roger Nash Baldwin, 1927, Liberty Under the Soviets.
1884RB002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Roger Nash Baldwin. Emma Goldman online exhibit.
1884RB003. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Roger Baldwin, 1935, note written in the Harvard reunion book on the 30th reunion of his class of 1905.
1884RB004. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). William Z. Foster, 1932, in Toward Soviet America. Baldwin was a co-founder of the ACLU 501(c)3 taxexempt Foundation with Roger Baldwin. Foster was National Chairman of the Communist Party USA.
1884RB005. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Norman Thomas, co-founder of the ACLU 501(c)3 tax-exempt Foundation.
1884RB006. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). List of 45 Communist goals, read into the U.S. Congressional Record, January 10, 1963, by Congressman Albert S. Herlong, Jr., of Florida (Vol 109, 88th Congress, 1st Session, Appendix, pp. A34-A35).
1884RB007. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). California Senate Fact Finding Committee on Un-American Activities, 1948, Report, page 107.
1884RB008. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Special House Committee to Investigate Communist Activities, January 17, 1931, Report.
1884RB009. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). 87th Congress Congressional Record, September 20, 1961, recorded remarks of Hon. John H. Rousselot of California, which included the House Committee To Investigate Communist Activities in the United States report 2290, entitled "Investigation of Communist Propaganda."