The Library of Congress and Federal Loyalty Programs, 1947-1956: No "Communists or Cocksuckers"

Abstract

During the late 1940s and early 1950s, as the American Library Association (ALA) debated its Resolution on Loyalty Programs, the leadership of the Library of Congress found itself in a politically difficult situation. In an effort to maintain relations with a hostile Congress, the Library voluntarily placed itself under the 1947 Federal Loyalty Program. It opposed the resolution first adopted by ALA that condemned of loyalty investigations and instead urged an amendment condemning their abuse, finally agreeing to, but never making use of, the compromise resolution. This article explores the Loyalty and Loyalty-Security Programs at the Library of Congress during the 1947-56 tenure of Verner Clapp as Chief Assistant Librarian in an attempt to discover the impact of the Library's loyalty program, for good or for ill, on both the investigated and the investigator. It also examines how the position of the Library of Congress affected ALA's stance on loyalty probes.