Rose Chernin (September 14, 1901 – September 8, 1995)California Death Index
/ref> was a Russian-born naturalized U.S. citizen. She was a member of the Communist Party and became notable for her

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

activism which eventually led to her arrest in 1951. She was charged with forming a conspiracy to overthrow the government under the Smith Act of 1940 and spent a year in jail. The

Immigration and Naturalization Service The United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor from 1933 to 1940 and the U.S. Department of Justice from 1940 to 2003. Referred to by some as former INS and by others as legacy INS, ...

attempted to deport her, but their efforts were preempted by the 1957 ruling by the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

that the Smith Act was unconstitutional.

Personal life

Rose Chernin was born as Rochelle Chernin in Chasnik,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, in 1901. She and three younger sisters migrated to Waterbury, Connecticut with her mother, Perle, in 1913. After finishing grade school, Rose entered Crosby Preparatory School, where she encountered socialist ideas in an activist newspaper. She later attended

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

, but dropped out to participate in political activism through the Russian Club. She married Paul Kusnitz in 1925, and moved to

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

where they had their first child, Nina, who would die of Hodgkin's disease in 1944. In 1940, Rose Chernin had her second daughter,

Kim Chernin Kim Chernin (May 7, 1940 – December 17, 2020) was an American feminist writer, poet, and memoirist. Biography Chernin was born on May 7, 1940, in the Bronx, New York. Her parents, Rose Chernin and Paul Kusnitz, were Russian-born Jewish im ...

. Paul Kusnitz died in 1967. Rose Chernin died in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

in 1995.

Political activities

Rose was active in local socialist causes including tenant advocacy and

rent strikes Rent may refer to: Economics *Renting, an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property *Economic rent, any payment in excess of the cost of production *Rent-seeking, attempting to increase one's share of e ...

. After becoming a US citizen in 1929, she joined the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

in 1932, and her family briefly moved to

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, where she worked in publishing. She returned to America in 1934 after witnessing the arrest of fourteen communist activists under anti-organizing laws. The family returned to the Bronx. After the death of Nina, the family moved to California. In Los Angeles, Chernin began another round of tenant advocacy and other activist work, such as protesting the deportation of British communist writer

Henry Carlisle Henry Coffin Carlisle (September 14, 1926 – July 11, 2011) was a translator, novelist, and anti-censorship activist. Carlisle, with his wife Olga Andreyeva Carlisle, was notable for translating Alexander Solzhenitsyn's work into English. Altho ...

. She would first be threatened with deportation after being accused of participation in the Young Communist League. She also participated in actions on behalf of migrant agricultural workers.

Arrest and release

Rose Chernin founded the Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born in 1950. In July 1951 she was arrested for conspiracy to overthrow the government with bail set to $100,000. Under the Smith Act of 1940, advocacy for

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

Leninism Leninism is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the Dictatorship of the proletariat#Vladimir Lenin, dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary Vanguardis ...

was equated with advocating for the overthrow of the US government. She and other communists were arrested under the law. Chernin was sentenced five years in prison, and subpoenaed to identify conspirators to the House Un-American Committee, which she refused. She was threatened with

denaturalization Denaturalization is the loss of citizenship against the will of the person concerned. Denaturalization is often applied to ethnic minorities and political dissidents. Denaturalization can be a penalty for actions considered criminal by the state ...

and deportation by the

, but the process was abandoned for lack of evidence. In 1957, the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

overturned Chernin's conviction, deeming the Smith Act of 1940 unconstitutional.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chernin, Rose 1901 births 1995 deaths Socialism in the United States American left-wing activists Communism in the United States American Marxists Naturalized citizens of the United States Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States