Before the Red Scare or McCarthyism, there was the Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations (AGLOSO).
Though the list fueled the post-World War II Red Scare, it has become a forgotten piece of American history.
"My argument is that, although for reasons I think are essentially related to the fact that documentation about it was classified, AGLOSO has been relatively ignored," said Robert Goldstein, professor emeritus of Political Science at Oakland University.
Goldstein looks to inform the public about AGLOSO in his new book "American Blacklist: The Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations."
Goldstein was at the Kansas City Public Library - Plaza Branch Wednesday to promote and discuss his book.
"Most of these organizations, the only thing subversive they had done was to pass resolutions that were critical of American foreign policy," Goldstein said of the organizations on AGLOSO.
The list originated in 1947 when the Truman administration announced a federal employee screening program. The executive order listed six criteria for determining an employee's loyalty. The list quickly evolved into AGLOSO.
The government began listing organizations associated with communist or subversive organizations.
"Most critically, most of the organizations that were listed were listed without any hearings, any process of any kind, any evidence as to exactly what they had done or any indication of when they were subversive," Goldstein said.
He went on to argue that any organization on the list was effectively blacklisted throughout the nation.
"In the context of the growing domestic Red Scare, to have the Attorney General of the United States announce the following organizations fit one of these categories was effectively to set the execution without trial," he said.
The list virtually ruined any organization on it and made its members targets of communist witch hunts, Goldstein said.
He said one reason the Truman administration created the list was to fend off critics from the right who said they were too soft on communism.
Much of Goldstein's research was conducted at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kan.
tallen@unews.com
