The United States Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations (AGLOSO) was a list drawn up on April 3, 1947 at the request of the

United States Attorney General The United States attorney general is the head of the United States Department of Justice and serves as the chief law enforcement officer of the Federal government of the United States, federal government. The attorney general acts as the princi ...

(and later Supreme Court justice)

Tom C. Clark Thomas Campbell Clark (September 23, 1899June 13, 1977) was an American lawyer who served as the 59th United States Attorney General, United States attorney general from 1945 to 1949 and as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United St ...

. The list was intended to be a compilation of organizations seen as "

subversive Subversion () refers to a process by which the values and principles of a system in place are contradicted or reversed in an attempt to sabotage the established social order and its structures of power, authority, tradition, hierarchy, and socia ...

" by the United States government. Among those were: Communist fronts, the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...

and the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

History

Creation

The Attorney General's list was first known as the Biddle list after President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

's Attorney General Francis Biddle began tracking Soviet controlled

front organization A front organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization, such as intelligence agencies, organized crime groups, terrorist organizations, secret societies, banned organizations, religious or political groups, advocacy ...

s in 1941. The original list had only eleven organizations but was greatly expanded by the end of the decade to upwards of 90 organizations. It did not list individuals. Communist groups, which emerged both in the pre-war and the post-war list, are marked by one ". In the meantime, even some trade unions that excluded members of openly communist groups from their membership lists were dissolved, partially also by government resolution. Thousands of Americans with progressive or radical political beliefs signed petitions for, or became members of, these groups without being aware of the Communist ties of the group. Many were later persecuted and suffered personal consequences during the McCarthy era. Some others, though, were found through HUAC investigations and Venona cable intercepts, to be actively involved in Soviet sponsored espionage and related activities.

Biddle list

AGLOSO of 4 December 1947

On December 4, 1947, US Attorney General

released the "Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations" (AGLOSO). As reported by the ''New York Times'' on the same day, the list included groups from the Biddle List plus new groups plus eleven (11) school. Leaders of five groups—the Reverend William H. Melish of the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, Martic Martntz of the Armenian Progressive League of America, Howard Selsam of the Jefferson School of Social Science, Max Yergan of the Council on African Affairs, and Edward Barsky of the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee—denied the government's accusation. The next day, the ''New York Times'' reported a second batch of groups who rejected the government's accusation: William Z. Foster and Eugene Dennis of the

Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA (CPUSA), officially the Communist Party of the United States of America, also referred to as the American Communist Party mainly during the 20th century, is a communist party in the United States. It was established ...

, an unnamed spokesperson for the International Workers Order, an unnamed spokesperson for the Civil Rights Congress, an unnamed spokesperson for American Youth for Democracy, Harrison L. Harley of the Samuel Adams School for Social Studies, and Walter Scott Neff of the Abraham Lincoln School.

Later history

The Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations (AGLOSO) was expanded by President

Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt that year. Subsequen ...

's Executive Order 9835. EO 9835 established the first Federal Employee Loyalty Program designed to root out

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

infiltration of the U.S. government. It allowed for organizations to be listed on the recommendation of certain members of the

House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative United States Congressional committee, committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 19 ...

(HUAC) members, as designated by committee Chairman J. Parnell Thomas. Those he named initially were

John McDowell John Henry McDowell (born 7 March 1942) is a South African philosopher, formerly a fellow of University College, Oxford, and now university professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Although he has written on metaphysics, epistemology, anci ...

, a Pennsylvania Republican, Richard Vail, an Illinois Republican, and John Wood, a Georgia Democrat. They readied their first version of the list for Attorney General

within a few days. It appeared in the ''Federal Register'' on March 20, 1948. Executive Order 10450, issued by President

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...

in April 1953, expanded the Attorney General's List and added the proviso that members of the

United States armed forces The United States Armed Forces are the Military, military forces of the United States. U.S. United States Code, federal law names six armed forces: the United States Army, Army, United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps, United States Navy, Na ...

could not join or associate with any group on the list under threat of discharge from military service.

List as of 1959

* Abraham Lincoln Brigade April 29, 1953 * Abraham Lincoln School for Social Science April 29, 1953 * Action Committee to Free Spain Now April 29, 1953 * Alabama People's Educational Association April 29, 1953 * American Association for Reconstruction in Yugoslavia April 29, 1953 * American Christian Nationalist Party April 29, 1953 * American Committee for European Worker's Relief April 29, 1953 * American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born April 29, 1953 * American Committee for the Settlement of Jews in Birobidzhan Inc September 28, 1953 * American Committee for Yugoslav Relief, Inc. April 29, 1953 * American Committee To Survey Labor Conditions in Europe July 15, 1953 * American Council for a Democratic Greece (formerly known as the Greek American Council; Greek American Committee for National Unity), April 29, 1953 * American Peace Crusade * American Polish League * American Women for Peace January 22, 1954 * American Youth Congress April 29, 1953 * American Youth for Democracy April 29, 1953 * Black Dragon Society * Cervantes Fraternal Society * Committee to Abolish Discrimination in Maryland * Committee to Aid the Fighting South * Committee to Defend the Rights and Freedom of Pittsburgh's Political Prisoners * Committee for a Democratic Far Eastern Policy April 29, 1953 * Committee for Constitutional and Political Freedom * Committee for the Defense of the Pittsburgh Six * Committee for Nationalist Action * Committee for the Negro in the Arts * Committee for Peace and Brotherhood Festival in Philadelphia * Committee for the Protection of the Bill of Rights * Committee for World Youth Friendship and Cultural Exchange * Committee to Defend Marie Richardson * Committee to Uphold the Bill of Rights * Congress of American Revolutionary Writers April 29, 1953 * Congress of American Women April 29, 1953 * Congress of African Women * Dai Nippon Butoku Kai * Daily Worker Press Club * Detroit Youth Assembly * Elsinore Progressive League * Families of the Baltimore Smith Act Victims * Federation of Greek Maritime Unions * Florida Press and Education League * Freedom Stage, Inc. * Friends of the Soviet Union * Garibaldi American Fraternal Society * German American Bund * Harlem Trade Union Council * Hellenic-American Brotherhood * Hungarian Brotherhood * Independent Socialist League *

Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), whose members are nicknamed "Wobblies", is an international labor union founded in Chicago, United States in 1905. The nickname's origin is uncertain. Its ideology combines general unionism with indu ...

* Japanese Association of America * Jeannette Rankin Brigade * Jewish Community of Cortlandt * Jewish Culture Society * Jewish People's Committee * Johnsonites * Knights of the White Camelia *

* Labor Youth League * League of American Writers * Mario Morgantini Circle * Michigan Council for Peace * Michigan School of Social Science * Nanka Teikoku Gunyudan * National Council of Americans of Croatian Descent April 29, 1953 *

National Negro Congress In African-American history, the National Negro Congress (NNC; 1936–ca. 1946) was an African-American organization formed in 1936 at Howard University as a broadly based coalition organization with the goal of fighting for Black liberation; it ...

January 22, 1954 * Nationalist Action League * Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico July 15, 1953 * Nature Friends of America April 29, 1953 * Oklahoma League for Political Education * Peace Information Center September 28, 1953 *

Peace Movement of Ethiopia The Peace Movement of Ethiopia was an African-American organization based in Chicago, Illinois. It was active in the 1930s and 1940s, and promoted the Back-to-Africa movement, repatriation of African Americans to the African continent, especially ...

April 29, 1953 * People's Educational and Press Association of Texas * People's Rights Party April 4, 1955 * Revolutionary Workers League * Russian American Society * Silver Shirt Legion of America * Sakurakai April 29, 1953 * Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade * Virginia League for People's Education * Youth Communist League * Yugoslav Seaman's Club, Inc. January 22, 1954

Abolition

The list went through several revisions until President Richard M. Nixon abolished it in 1974.

Impact

The list's impact was immediate but not all important. Its purpose was to provide a guide for the loyalty boards mandated by EO 9835. The

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

(FBI) began using it immediately, but it was only one of many lists they used. The HUAC maintained its own list. Membership in an organization on any such list was reported to the Justice Department and loyalty boards. The list was quickly adopted by other public and private groups, which used it to discriminate without any notice, charges, or hearing.

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Attorney General's List Of Subversive Organizations 1947 in the United States Anti-communism in the United States Industrial Workers of the World in the United States McCarthyism Political repression in the United States 1947 in American law 1947 documents