chronology

February 1931 First issue of Frontiers, a newsletter published by the Social Problems Club, criticizes military training on campus. City College President Frederick B. Robinson bans the club and suspends eleven of its leaders.

May 23, 1932 Three thousand students at City College, organized by the National Student League, protest a fee increase for evening students. Ten thousand students sign petitions of protest. The NYC Board of Higher Education eliminates the fee.

October 26,1932 President Robinson dismisses instructor Oakley Johnson, the Social Problems Club’s advisor. Over one-thousand students protest. President Robinson calls police to the campus; four students are arrested. An off-campus protest meeting on October 30 leads President Robinson to suspend nineteen student leaders.

November 1932 City College Instructional Staff Association established.

May 29, 1933 “Jingo Day” anti-military protest held on campus. In response, the college administration expels twenty-one students and suspends the Social Problems Club, the Student Forum and the Liberal Club for supporting the protest.

April 13, 1934 First National Student Strike against War. Eight hundred City College students assemble peacefully. Police are called on campus to disperse protesters.

October 9, 1934 President Robinson invites a Young Italian Fascist delegation to a student assembly in the Great Hall. City College students disrupt this event and twenty-one student leaders are expelled.

November 20, 1934 City College students protest fascism. A two-headed effigy of President Robinson and Mussolini is burned.

March 1935 Anti-Fascist Association of City College faculty and staff formed.

March 1935 Teacher and Worker, a monthly newsletter of the City College staff unit of the U.S. Communist Party, begins publication.

May 24, 1935 College Teachers Union established.

April 1936 Thirteen activist City College faculty, including Morris U. Schappes of the English Department, are dismissed. Massive student demonstrations and widespread union support lead to their reinstatement.

February 1940 Distinguished British philosopher Bertrand Russell is appointed to teach at City College, but the funding for the position is rescinded by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in response to pressure from political and religious groups that oppose Russell’s unorthodox views on marriage.

December 2, 1940 The Rapp-Coudert Committee of the NY State legislature begins its investigations of Communist subversion in public schools and colleges. Initial committee hearing held at the New York County Court House at Foley Square.

July 11, 1941 English instructor Morris Schappes is fired a second time. He is sentenced to prison for up to two years on charges he committed perjury during his testimony at the Rapp-Coudert hearings.

1940-42 Rapp-Coudert Committee investigations lead to the dismissal or resignation under pressure of more than fifty City College staff and faculty members, the largest single political purge in the U.S. academic community until the 1950s.

1952-53 The U.S. Senate Internal Security Committee continues the work of the Rapp-Coudert Committee in investigating Communist subversion in higher education. The Board of Higher Education dismisses fourteen faculty and staff members for refusing to cooperate with the Senate committee.

1953-58 The Board of Higher Education creates its own investigation committee to search out and eliminate Communists from college staffs. Over forty faculty and staff members are dismissed or resign under pressure as the result of these internal investigations.

October 1981 The City University of New York Board of Trustees, previously known as the Board of Higher Education, issues a formal apology to faculty and staff dismissed as a result of the Rapp-Coudert Committee investigation. No one is reinstated.