Harold Buchman
Harold Buchman was a 20th-Century American Communist attorney, "the most important communist member" of the Progressive Citizens of America (founded by former vice president Henry A. Wallace, president of the Roosevelt Democratic Party Club, and treasurer for the Screen Writers Guild.
Career
Hollywood blacklist
His name appeared in the earliest Hollywood blacklist: a list of Communist sympathizers along with Dalton Trumbo, Maurice Rapf, Lester Cole, Howard Koch, John Wexley, Ring Lardner Jr., Harold Salemson, Henry Meyers, Theodore Strauss, and John Howard Lawson.On April 17, 1947, Buchman, actress Anne Revere, and writer Sam Moore pled the Fifth Amendment to [the United States Constitution|Fifth Amendment] regarding questions about Communist affiliation.
Progressive Party
In January 1948, Buchman announced the Wallace for President Committee. In February 1948, he became new executive secretary and Maryland state director of the Progressive Party. In Summer 1948, when the Maryland attorney general rejected all filings by Progressive candidates for failure to sign loyalty oaths, Buchman announced he would file a suit.Communist counsel
In June-July 1951, Buchman counseled the follow out of more than 40 people subpoena-ed by HUAC: Joseph Henderson and Philip Gran, Robert W. Lee, Irving Kandel, Sam Fox and Howard Bernard Silverberg, Louis Julius Shub, and Milton Seif and Irving Winker.In March 1952, Buchman defended: Maurice Braverman, George Meyers, Roy Wood, Dorothy Rose Blumberg, Philip Frankfeld, and Regina Frankfeld.
In 1952, Royal Wilbur France, civil liberties activist and president of the National Lawyers Guild, consulted NLG members Joseph Forer and Buchman.
Catonsville Nine
In 1968, Buchman served on the defense council of the Catonsville Nine. Defendants included Jesuit peace advocate Daniel Berrigan.Black Panthers
In 1971, Buchman defended Arthur F. Turco Jr., a New York lawyer charged in connection with the 1969 torture and murder of a suspected Black Panthers police informer.Later career
Buchman defended communist activist Madalyn Murray O'HairLegacy
Barbara Mello, ACLU attorney and law teacher, served as law clerk for Buchman.External sources
Category:20th-century American lawyers
Category:Maryland socialists
Category:Jews from Maryland
Category:Jewish American socialists
Category:Jewish communists
Category:People from Baltimore