The United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency was established by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

in 1953 to investigate the problem of

juvenile delinquency Juvenile delinquency, also known as juvenile offending, is the act of participating in unlawful behavior as a minor or individual younger than the statutory age of majority. In the United States of America, a juvenile delinquent is a person ...

Background

The subcommittee was a unit of the

United States Senate Judiciary Committee The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the Department of Justice (DOJ), consider executive and judicial nominations, ...

and was created by a motion of Senator Robert Hendrickson, a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

from

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. Its initial budget was $44,000. The first members of the subcommittee consisted of Senator Hendrickson, and Senators

Estes Kefauver Carey Estes Kefauver (; July 26, 1903 – August 10, 1963) was an American politician from Tennessee. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1939 to 1949 and in the Senate from 1949 until his d ...

(

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

from

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

), Thomas C. Hennings, Jr. (Democrat from

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

), and

William Langer William "Wild Bill" Langer (September 30, 1886November 8, 1959) was a prominent American lawyer and politician from North Dakota, where he was an infamous character, bouncing back from a scandal that forced him out of the governor's office and ...

(Republican from

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

)."Senators to Hold Teen Age Hearings," ''New York Times'', Sep. 19, 1953, p. 16. Senator Hendrickson was initially the chair of the committee but was later replaced as chair by Senator

Kefauver Carey Estes Kefauver (; July 26, 1903 – August 10, 1963) was an American politician from Tennessee. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served in the U.S. United States House of Representatives, House of ...

1954 comic book hearings

The public hearings took place on April 21, 22, and June 4, 1954, in New York. They focused on particularly graphic "crime and horror"

comic books A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

of the day, and their potential impact on juvenile delinquency. When publisher

William Gaines William Maxwell Gaines (; March 1, 1922 – June 3, 1992), was an American publisher and co-editor of EC Comics. Following a shift in EC's direction in 1950, Gaines presided over what became an artistically influential and historically import ...

contended that he sold only comic books of good taste, Kefauver entered into evidence one of Gaines' comics (''

Crime SuspenStories ''Crime SuspenStories'' was a bi-monthly anthology crime comic published by EC Comics in the early 1950s. The title first arrived on newsstands with its October/November 1950 issue and ceased publication with its February/March 1955 issue, produc ...

'' #22 pril-May 1954, which showed a dismembered woman's head on its cover. The exchange between Gaines and Kefauver led to a front-page story in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' the following day. What none of the senators knew was that Gaines had already cleaned up the cover of this issue. Artist

Johnny Craig John Thomas Alexis Craig (April 25, 1926 – September 13, 2001),John T. Craig
at the ...

's first draft included those very elements which Gaines had said were in "bad taste" and had him clean it up before publication. Because of the unfavorable press coverage resulting from the hearings, the comic book industry adopted the

Comics Code Authority The Comics Code Authority (CCA) was formed in 1954 by the Comics Magazine Association of America as an alternative to government regulation. The CCA allowed the comic publishers to self-regulate the content of comic books in the United States. ...

, a self-regulatory ratings code that was initially adopted by nearly all comic publishers and continued to be used by some comics until 2011. In the immediate aftermath of the hearings, several publishers were forced to revamp their schedules and drastically censor or even cancel many popular long-standing comic series.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* Beaty, Bart (2005). ''Fredric Wertham and the Critique of Mass Culture''. University Press of Mississippi, . * Nyberg, Ami Kiste (1998). ''Seal of Approval: The History of the Comics Code'', University Press of Mississippi, . * ''Juvenile Delinquency (Comic Books) hearings before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee To Investigate Juvenile Delinquency in the U.S., Eighty-Third Congress, second session, on Apr. 21, 22, June 4, 1954''. (OCLC Worldcat link to or )

External links

{{Commons, File:1954 Juvenile Delinquency Testimony.pdf, United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency
1954 Senate Subcommittee Transcripts

* 1955 hearings transcripts: U.S. Congress, Senate, Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency,
Juvenile Delinquency (Obscene and Pornographic Materials): hearings before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee To Investigate Juvenile Delinquency Pursuant to Senate Resolution 62, Investigation of Juvenile Delinquency in the United States
', May 24, 26, 31, June 9 and 18, 1955, 84th Congress, 1st session.