Committee to Secure Justice for Morton Sobell records, 1946-1969.

ArchivalResource

Committee to Secure Justice for Morton Sobell records, 1946-1969.

Records of the national organization formed in 1951 to publicize the cases of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and Morton Sobell. Early efforts of the committee centered on securing clemency for the Rosenbergs; after their execution for communist espionage, efforts concentrated on effecting Sobell's release from prison. After serving 19 years in prison, Sobell was released in January 1969. The records document the committee's activities from its inception to Sobell's release and relate not only to the case itself, but also to the lives of the Sobells during his long imprisonment. The majority of the collection is available in a microfilm edition, The Records of the Committee to Secure Justice for Morton Sobell (Brookhaven Press, 1976). (A copy is available in the SHSW Library.). Subject files containing correspondence arranged by individual, organization, or geographic area form the bulk of the collection. Also incorporated here are correspondence, circulars, and statements of the national committee, scattered information about the Rosenbergs, and personal and committee correspondence of Morton and Helen Sobell. Legal records include correspondence from Marshall Perlin, William Kunstler, and others, and printed and mimeographed legal documents. Smaller sections of the filmed collection include fragmentary financial records and uncopyrighted publications. Since the Brookhaven publication, the committee's clipping file has been microfilmed by the Historical Society. The remainder of the collection consists of photographs, posters, and video and sound recordings of committee members and supporters. Prominent individuals represented in the collection include Dean Acheson, Marian Anderson, Carlton Beals, Cedric Belfrage, Martin Buber, Pablo Casals, Roy M. Cohn, David Dellinger, W.E.B. DuBois, T.S. Eliot, Jules Feiffer, Erich Fromm, J. William Fulbright, Nat Hentoff, Chet Huntley, Homer Jack, Rockwell Kent, Martin Luther King, Jr., Corliss Lamont, William Langer, Doris Lessing, John V. Lindsay, Dwight MacDonald, Albert Maltz, Lewis Mumford, Linus Pauling, Victor Riesel, Eleanor Roosevelt, Bertrand Russell, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Pete Seeger, Upton Sinclair, Gale Sondergaard, I.F. Stone, Rex Stout, Norman Thomas, Arnold Toynbee, Dalton Trumbo, Harold C. Urey, and Mike Wallace. The processed portion is summarized above and is described in the register. Additional accessions are described below.

20.0 c.f. (50 archives boxes),7 reels of microfilm (35 mm),90 tape recordings,3 disc recordings,9 films, and1 filmstrip; plusadditions of 537 photographs,2 negatives,11 pieces of ephemera, and37 tearsheets.

Related Entities

There are 37 Entities related to this resource.

Acheson, Dean, 1893-1971

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6x45pvz (person)

Dean Acheson, U.S. Secretary of State, born Dean Gooderham Acheso, in Middletown, Connecticut, on April 11, 1893. After being educated at Yale University (1912-1915) and Harvard Law School (1915-18) he became private secretary to the Supreme Court Justice, Louis Brandeis from 1919 to 1921. A supporter of the Democratic Party, Acheson worked for a law firm in Washington, D.C., before President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him Under Secretary of the Treasury in 1933. During World War II (1941),...

Anderson, Marian, 1897-1993

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64k16hh (person)

Marian Anderson was born on February 27, 1897 (although throughout much of her life she gave her birth date as February 17, 1902) in south Philadelphia. Her father, John Berkley Anderson, sold ice and coal and her mother Annie Delilah Rucker Anderson was a former schoolmistress. She was the oldest of three sisters. She began singing when she was six, in the church choir, and by eight had become a regular substitute, filling in for absent sopranos, tenors and even bass. She was presented in one c...

Casals, Pablo, 1876-1973

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6dw2b0d (person)

Catalan violoncellist. From the description of Letters, 1952 July 29 - 1971 Sept. 15, to Milly Stanfield. (New York Public Library). WorldCat record id: 122378665 From the guide to the Letters, 1952 July 29 - 1971 Sept. 15, to Milly Stanfield, (The New York Public Library. Music Division.) Catalan cellist, conductor, pianist, and composer. From the description of Autograph note signed on his visiting card, dated : [n.p., Prades?], 6 January 1939, to Mr. ...

Jack, Homer A. (Homer Alexander), 1916-1993

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Homer A. Jack (May 19, 1916 – August 5, 1993) was an American Unitarian Universalist clergyman pacifist and social activist who helped found the Congress of Racial Equality and National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE). Jack was an only child to active socialist and freethinker parents. His grandparents had immigrated from central and eastern Europe to escape oppression and poverty. Like his parents, the child Jack was a radical nature-worshiper who distrusted organized religion. He...

Seeger, Pete, 1919-2014

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Pete Seeger (1919-2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. As a member of the Weavers, Seeger was often heard on the radio in the early 1950s, most notably on their recording of Lead Belly's "Goodnight, Irene". In the 1960s, Seeger re-emerged on the public scene as a prominent singer of protest music in support of international disarmament, civil rights, counterculture, workers' rights, and environmental causes. A prolific songwriter, his best-known songs include "Where Have ...

Schlesinger, Arthur M. (Arthur Meier), Jr., 1917-2007

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Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr. (born Arthur Bancroft Schlesinger; October 15, 1917 – February 28, 2007) was an American historian, social critic, and public intellectual. The son of the influential historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. and a specialist in American history, much of Schlesinger's work explored the history of 20th-century American liberalism. In particular, his work focused on leaders such as Harry S. Truman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy. In the 1952 an...

Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns), 1888-1965

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Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965), a poet, critic, editor, and playwright, was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He received a B. A. in 1909 and an M. A. in 1910 from Harvard, where he also pursued a doctoral degree in philosophy. In 1915, he married Vivienne (Vivien) Haigh-Wood. He completed his dissertation in 1916 while living in England and submitted it to Harvard, but was unable to defend it. He was literary editor of the avant-garde magazine The Egoist. In the Spring 1917, he publishe...

Stout, Rex, 1886-1975

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Rex Stout was an American author best known for his detective fiction. He was born December 1, 1886 in Noblesville, Indiana, the sixth of nine children. In 1887 his parents, John and Lucetta Stout, bought a forty-acre farm south of Topeka, Kansas, where Stout grew up. As a young man, Stout tried several trades, including bookkeeping (with a stint in the Navy as a bookkeeper on Theodore Roosevelt's yacht), ushering at an opera house in Topeka, studying law, and working as a cigar store clerk....

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962

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Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the longest-serving First Lady throughout her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four terms in office (1933-1945). She was an American politician, diplomat, and activist who later served as a United Nations spokeswoman. A shy, awkward child, starved for recognition and love, Eleanor Roosevelt grew into a woman with great sensitivity to the underprivileged of all creeds, races, and nations. Her constant work to improve their lot made her one of the most loved–...

Sinclair, Upton, 1878-1968

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Upton Sinclair was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1878. Sinclair was an American author, novelist, journalist, and political activist who wrote many books in several genres. He is most well-known for his exposé, The Jungle regarding conditions in Chicago's meat packing plants, which influenced the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906. Much of Sinclair's writing was related to the economic and social conditions of the early twentieth century. He was heavily in...

Hentoff, Nat

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Fromm, Erich, 1900-1980

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Erich Fromm (1900-1980) was a psychoanalyst, author, educator, and social philosopher. He was born in Frankfurt, Germany and emigrated to the United States in 1934. In New York Fromm was associated (until 1939) with the International Institute for Social Research. Fromm authored numerous books including Escape from Freedom which won him acclaim as an author of great brilliance and originality. From the guide to the Erich Fromm papers, 1929-1949, 1932-1949, (The New York Public Librar...

Rosenberg, Ethel, 1915-1953

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Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were American citizens who were convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union. The couple were accused of providing top-secret information about radar, sonar, jet propulsion engines, and valuable nuclear weapon designs; at that time the United States was the only country in the world with nuclear weapons. Convicted of espionage in 1951, they were executed by the federal government of the United States in 1953 in the Sing Sing correctional facility in Ossining, New ...

Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963

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W. E. B. Du Bois was an American sociologist, socialist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, writer and editor. Educated at Fisk University, he did graduate work at the University of Berlin and Harvard, where he was the first African American to earn a doctorate. Du Bois became a professor of history, sociology and economics at Atlanta University. Due to his contributions in the African-American community he was seen as a member of a Black elite that supported some aspects ...

Sondergaard, Gale, 1899-1985

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Fulbright, J. William (James William), 1905-1995

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Senator. From the description of Reminiscences of James William Fulbright : oral history, 1982. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 309743979 From the description of Reminiscences of James William Fulbright : oral history, 1957. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 309743991 Epithet: Senator Chairman United States Senate Committee for Foreign Relations British Library Archives and Manuscripts C...

Stone, I. F. 1907-1989.

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Perlin, Marshall, 1920-1998

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Perlin, Marshall, 1920-1998, born in New York, completed Columbia Law School in 1942. He was the trial lawyer of Morton Sobell, the Rosenbergs' co-defendant, then represented Michael and Robert Meeropol, the children of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg after they were sentenced. From the description of Perlin Papers, (1932-1953). (Columbia University Law School, Diamond Law Library). WorldCat record id: 698742344 ...

Committee to Secure Justice for Morton Sobell

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6p61ckn (corporateBody)

Thomas Norman Mattoon, 1884-1968

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Norman Mattoon Thomas (1884-1968), was a leading American socialist, pacifist, author, and six-time presidential candidate on the Socialist Party of America ticket, between 1928 and 1948. Born in Marion, Ohio, he was a graduate of Princeton University, attended Union Theological Seminary, where he became a socialist, and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1911. Thomas opposed the United States' entry into the First World War, a position that earned him the disapproval of many in his soci...

Dellinger, David T., 1915-2004

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Kunstler, William M. (William Moses), 1919-1995

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Toynbee, Arnold, 1889-1975

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Martin Lehfeldt is a 1961 graduate of Haverford College. Arnold Toynbee was the commencement speaker at Haverford in 1961. From the description of Letter : Sarasota, FL , 1965 February 21, to Martin Lehfeldt / Arnold Toynbee. (Haverford College Library). WorldCat record id: 747048583 Epithet: historian British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000210.0x000341 British historian. From the d...

Buber, Martin, 1878-1965

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Buber was a German-Jewish religious philosopher, biblical translator and interpreter, and master of German prose style. Miriam and Naëmah Beer-Hofmann were daughters of the Austrian dramatist and poet Richard Beer-Hofmann and Pauline Lissey. From the description of Letters to Miriam and Naëmah Beer-Hofmann, 1961-1965. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 78544052 Buber was a Jewish philosopher, who taught in Frankfurt, 1924-1933, and Jerusalem, 1938-1951. ...

Wallace, Mike, 1918-2012

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Television newscaster and newspaper columnist. From the description of Mike Wallace papers, 1956-1963. (University of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 34420098 Broadcast journalist; CBS News correspondent; co-founder and correspondent on CBS 60 Minutes news program since 1968. From the description of Mike Wallace CBS/60 Minutes sound recording series, 1939-1990s. (University of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 85778885 From the description of Mike Wallace CB...

Huntley, Chet, 1911-1974

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Montana native and television newscaster. From the description of Chet Huntley press conference, 1970 Feb. 16. (Montana Historical Society Library). WorldCat record id: 70962881 Chester ("Chet") Robert Huntley was a broadcast journalist best known for his work on NBC’s top-rated news show, the "Huntley/Brinkley Report." Born December 10, 1911, in Caldwell, Montana, he began his career in radio, eventually serving three national networks as a newsman, analyst, and commentator...

Feiffer, Jules

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Jules Feiffer, playwright. From the description of Carnal knowledge: typescript, 1988. (New York Public Library). WorldCat record id: 122430742 Scheduled for production at Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, Calif. From the description of Grown ups : a play / by Jules Feiffer. (New York Public Library). WorldCat record id: 740492054 Cartoonist, playwright, author, and illustrator. Born 1929. From the description of Jules Feiffer papers, 1919-1995 ...

Cohn, Roy M.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ft9d5r (person)

Sobell, Helen

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sj1p21 (person)

Helen Sobell was the wife of convicted atomic spy Morton Sobell. From the guide to the Helen Sobell Autobiographical Typescript: "Double Exposure", undated, (Tamiment Library / Wagner Archives) ...

Belfrage, Cedric, 1904-1990

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6wm1c75 (person)

Cedric Belfrage, socialist, author, journalist, translator, and co-founder of the National Guardian, was born in London in 1904. His early career as a film critic began at Cambridge University, where he published his first article in Kinematograph Weekly (1924). In 1927 Belfrage went to Hollywood, where he was hired by the New York Sun and Film Weekly as a correspondent. Belfrage returned to London in 1930 as Sam Goldwyn's press agent. Lord Beaverbrook of the Sunday Express soon hir...

Beals, Carlton.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61c44dg (person)

Russell, Bertrand, 1872-1970

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Russell was an English logician and philosopher. Marsh edited Russell's Logic and knowledge: essays 1901-1950 and wrote about Russell. From the guide to the Letters to Robert C. (Robert Charles) Marsh, 1950-1959., (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University) Russell, British philosopher and mathematician and the 3rd Earl Russell. From the description of [Letter, 19]44 Dec. 8, Trinity College, Cambridge [to] Dear Sir / Bertrand Russell. (Smith C...

Trumbo, Dalton, 1905-1976

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James Dalton Trumbo was born Dec. 9, 1905, in Montrose, CO; attended Univ. of Colorado, UCLA, and USC; worked as a newpaper reporter and editor; started screenwriting in 1935; became one of the Hollywood Ten and was blacklisted by the motion picture industry (1947); served a 10-month jail sentence for contempt of Congress when he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) for his alleged membership in the Communist Party; while serving his sentence at the Federal...

Riesel, Victor

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xw539b (person)

Victor Riesel (1917-1995) was a nationally syndicated labor journalist, and an advisor to labor leaders and politicians. A product of New York's Lower East Side Jewish community, Riesel graduated from City College, and from its progressive political milieu to become a knowledgeable and militantly anti-communist social democrat. After work for a news service and writing for various publications, including a stint as managing editor of the New Leader (a social democratic weekly), in 1946 he began ...

Urey, Harold Clayton, 1893-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6kd204s (person)

Died in 1981. From the description of Oral history interview with Harold Clayton Urey, 1964 March 24. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 84584513 Epithet: US chemist, Nobel laureate British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000561.0x0000b4 Mildred Cohn was a biochemist and biophysicist. She received her Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1938 and was a research associate in biochemistry at several univers...

Rosenberg, Julius, 1918-1953

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6z320p8 (person)

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were American citizens who were convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union. The couple were accused of providing top-secret information about radar, sonar, jet propulsion engines, and valuable nuclear weapon designs; at that time the United States was the only country in the world with nuclear weapons. Convicted of espionage in 1951, they were executed by the federal government of the United States in 1953 in the Sing Sing correctional facility in Ossining, New ...

Sobell, Morton, 1917-2018

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67h29k8 (person)

Morton Sobell (April 11, 1917 – December 26, 2018) was an American engineer who is known for having been convicted of spying for the Soviet Union when it was an ally of the United States during late World War II; he was charged as part of a conspiracy said to include Julius Rosenberg and his wife, and others. Sobell worked on military and government contracts with General Electric and Reeves Electronics in the 1940s, including during World War II. Sobell was tried and convicted of espionage in 1...