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"Winter Soldiers - The Story of a Conspiracy Against the Schools"

Published in 1941 by the Committee for Defense of Public Education, a joint committee of the Teachers Union and the College Teachers Union, Winter Soldiers tells the story of the Rapp-Coudert hearings and New York State's efforts to rid its public schools and colleges of "subversive influences" and persons, particularly those with communist ties.

Sympathetic to the dozens of City College teachers that had been suspended or fired because of the hearings, Winter Soldiers features of a mix of story and artwork. It was created to raise money for the legal defense fund for the Rapp-Coudert victims.

The text was written by Louis Lerman, one of CCNY's suspended faculty, and the drawings and graphics were contributed by some of the era's highest regarded activist artists such as Aaron Douglas, Elizabeth Olds, Louis Lozowick, Art Young, and Hugo Gellert. Many of the artists were supported under the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the government-funded Federal Art Project that hired hundreds of artists. The Project was part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's  New Deal during the Great Depression.

Source | Smith, Carol
Creator | Committee for Defense of Public Education
Date Created | 1941
Rights | Obtain From Committee for Defense of Public Education
Item Type | Text (Book (excerpt))
Cite This document | Committee for Defense of Public Education, “"Winter Soldiers - The Story of a Conspiracy Against the Schools",” CUNY Digital History Archive, accessed March 19, 2024, https://cdha.cuny.edu/items/show/4972.

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