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New Deal Mass Surveillance: The “Black Inquisition Committee,” 1935–1936

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 March 2018

David T. Beito
David T. Beito*
Affiliation:
University of Alabama
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Abstract:

At the behest of the Roosevelt administration in 1935, the U.S. Senate established a special committee to investigate lobbying activities by opponents of the “death sentence” of the Public Utility Holding Company Bill. Chaired by Hugo L. Black (D-Ala.), the “Black Committee” expanded its mission into a more general probe of anti–New Deal organizations and individuals. The committee used highly intrusive methods, notably catch-all dragnet subpoenas, to secure evidence. It worked closely with the IRS for access to tax returns and with the FCC to obtain copies of millions of telegrams. When the telegram search became public information, there was a major backlash from the press, Congress, and the courts. Court rulings in 1936, resulting from suits by William Randolph Hearst and others, not only limited the committee’s powers but provided important checks for future investigators, including Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Keywords

Mass SurveillanceNew DealRoosevelt AdministrationAnti–New DealSenator Hugo Black“Black Commttee”
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Policy History , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , April 2018 , pp. 169 - 201
Copyright
Copyright © Donald Critchlow and Cambridge University Press 2018 

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References

NOTES

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32. “Black Group Gets Wires by the Millions,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 5 March 1936, 1, 8; and Congressional Record, House, 4 March 1936, 3266; and Kenneth W. Vickers, “John Rankin: Democrat and Demagogue” (M.A. thesis, Mississippi State University, 1993), 50–55. Ira Katznelson documents how Southern Democrats (including racists such as Bilbo and Rankin) were instrumental to the creation and implementation of the New Deal. Katznelson, Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origns of Our Time (New York, 2013), 84–91, 163.

33. Congressional Record, Senate, 5 March 1936, 3228, 3330–31.

34. Walter Lippmann, “Today and Tomorrow: Legislative Inquisition,” Los Angeles Times, 7 March 1936, A4; and Ronald Steel, Walter Lippmann and the American Century (Boston, 1980), 167, 216–19, 227–33.

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38. Henning, “New Suit Filed to Halt Black Wire Seizures,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 14 March 1936, 1, 8; and “Hearst Files Suit on Lobby Inquiry,” New York Times, 13 March 1936, 6.

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40. Congressional Record, House, 18 March 1936, 3950; and Black to Western Union Telegraph Company and Kingsbury.

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