• Identification00066499
  • TitleDescriptive inventory for the Midwest Committee for Protection of Foreign Born records, 1947-1963, bulk 1950-1958
  • PublisherChicago Historical Society
  • RepositoryChicago History Museum Research Center 1601 North Clark Street Chicago, IL 60614-6038
  • OriginationMidwest Committee for Protection of Foreign Born
  • Date
    • 1947-1963
    • 1950-1958
  • Physical Description6.5 linear feet (14 boxes)
  • LocationMSS Lot M
  • LanguageEnglish

Copyright may be retained by the creators of items, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law, unless otherwise noted.

The records of the Midwest Committee for Protection of Foreign Born were included in the records of the Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights, a gift of the Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights (accession #: M1973.0073, M1978.0039, M1984.23).

Midwest Committee for Protection of Foreign Born [manuscript] (Chicago History Museum) plus a detailed description, date, and box/folder number of a specific item.

A large volume of newsletters, bulletins, and similar publications distributed by the American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born describes the deportee defense cases and legislative lobbying efforts at the national level (Series I). Locally, the Midwest Committee issued its own newsletters and an enormous number of press releases which cover post-1950 dates best (Series II, and most deportee defense cases). Also present is a significant amount of correspondence marking interchanges between the Midwest Committee and the American Committee, as well as communication with other regional offices (Series II). More than thirty deportee defense files provide correspondence directed to the deportees themselves and with their legal counsel. These deportee defense files include a variety of press releases, legal memoranda, newsclippings and publicity. Fundraising and publicity materials issued by both the American and Midwest Committees include recruitment brochures, mailings to potential donors, and flyers announcing rallies, speeches, dinners, and other programs.

The Midwest Committee for Protection of Foreign Born (MCPFB) was established to provide legal defense for non-citizens threatened with deportation and denaturalization by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). It also sought to repeal laws authorizing deportations based on membership in organizations defined by those laws as subversive. Although it defined itself publicly as a separate organization, the MCPFB functioned as a regional branch of the American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born (1933-1982) and shared its objectives.

The MCPFB was founded in 1947 in Chicago, Illinois by civil rights lawyer Pearl M. Hart (1890-1975). Hart chaired the organization until ca.1953 and served as its general counsel beginning in 1951. During most of the organization’s existence, it functioned under the executive directorship of Nathan E. Caldwell, Jr.

The American Committee provided continual policy guidelines and strategy advice to regional committees like the MCPFB, as well as conducting extensive fundraising and deportee defense activities. During the years documented by these records, the American Committee's executive director Abner Green exerted guidance and control over the MCPFB’s activities, and the MCPFB in turn oversaw Chicago area chapters, including South Bend, Gary, and East St. Louis.

In conjunction with the American Committee and other regional committees, the MCPFB arranged legal defense and public support for those facing deportation and raised public awareness of the deportation issue. The organization also lobbied for the repeal of the Smith Alien Registration Act of 1940, the Walter-McCarran Internal Security Acts of 1950-1952, the House Un-American Activities Committee (the Dies Committee), the Subversive Activities Control Board (SACB), and the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS). The MCPFB took many deportation cases as far as the United States Supreme Court; one significant victory was the 1957 George Witkovic case, in which the Court prohibited the INS from questioning alien residents about matters unrelated to their availability for deportation. Other issues addressed in the legal cases involved the denial of bail and imposing of supervisory parole on deportees with no alternative citizenship.

Although the MCPFB and related organizations were considered Communist organizations by politicians and the press, there is no evidence that the organization encountered the anticommunist purges and internal tensions that affected many other civil liberties organizations. The organization kept the Bill of Rights central to its positions and efforts and defended former Communist Party members. By 1960 a new national organization, the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation, was created to extend the work begun by the American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born. In Chicago, this organizational change created the Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights. These successor organizations widened their scope beyond deportations to focus on the protection of Bill of Rights civil liberties.

Related materials at Chicago History Museum Research Center include the Pearl Hart papers and the Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights records.

Originial inventory created support from the U.S. Dept. of Education, Title II-C Program.

  • Subject
    • Citizenship, loss of--United States
    • Civil rights--United States
    • Communism--United States
    • Croatian Americans
    • Czech and Slovak Americans
    • Deportation--United States
    • Emigration and immigration law--United States
    • Hungarian Americans--United States
    • Immigrants--United States
    • Japanese Americans--United States
    • Jews--United States
    • Lithuanian Americans--United States
    • Mexican Americans--United States
    • Political persecution--United States
    • Puerto Ricans--United States
    • Ukrainian Americans--United States
  • Names
    • Barron, Harriet
    • Binford, Jessie
    • Caldwell, Nathan
    • Criley, Richard
    • Goodman, Lillian
    • Green, Abner
    • Hart, Pearl M.
    • Hoffman, Julius J.
    • Hyndman, Katherine
    • Katzen, Leon
    • Rodgers, Tillie Carl
    • Rosen, Rachel
    • Smith, Louise Pettibone
    • Tandaric, Steven
    • Treffman, Mildred
    • American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born
    • Civil Rights Congress
    • International Workers' Order
    • Japanese Gardeners' Association of Southern California
    • Midwest Committee for the Protection of Foreign Born
    • Morning Freiheit Association
    • National Committee on Immigration and Censorship
    • National Lawyers Guild
    • Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers
    • Progressive Party
    • United Electrical Workers
    • United Farm Equipment Workers
  • Geographic Coverage
    • Chicago (Ill.)
    • United States--Constitution--1st-10th Amendments

The collection is arranged two series. Folders are arranged alphabetically within each series. While some folder contents are in chronological order, most folders contain the original assemblage of materials preserved intact.

Series 1. American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born (ACPFB) records, 1947-1959 (box 1-3)

Series 1 contains records created by the American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born, including publications, correpsondence, reports, flyers, clippings, and meeting agendas.

Series 2. Midwest Committee for Protection of Foreign Born (MCPFB) records, 1947-1963 (box 4-12)

Series 2 contains records created and maintained by the Midwest Committee for Protection of Foreign Born, including publications, correpsondence, reports, flyers, clippings, and meeting agendas. The series also contains case files for deportation cases undertaken by the organization and topical files on areas of interest to the MCPFB such as pending legislation and legislative initiatives, other civil liberties and immigration support organizations, other regional Committees for the Protection of Foreign Born, and various committee members such as Pearl Hart, Abner Green, Nathan Caldwell, and Louise Pettibone Smith.