Clairchilde, Barbara

Historical Background

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were tried on charges of conspiracy to commit espionage in 1951. They were convicted when the court determined they had provided information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. In 1953 they were executed for the crime, an event that was and remains controversial.

Barbara Clairchilde, Leslie Hoag and Dudley Knight were associated with KPFK, a politically progressive radio station in the Los Angeles area, in the 1970s. Knight was an actor who became a member of the faculty in the Department of Drama at the University of California, Irvine, in 1981.