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BACK IN THE DAY - 09/28/2008
(by Bryan La Placa - Web Editor and Argus Managing Editor - October 02, 2008)
Some dangerous American viewpoints
NORTH JERSEY – Here’s a look at what was published in Suburban Trends toward the end of September over the years.
Sept. 22, 1968 – Red scare
“Author, publisher deny Commie slant in textbook” ran the headline for the top story in the Sept. 22, 1968 Suburban Trends.
In West Milford, the school board trustees were investigating whether a high school textbook was too pink. A student’s mother claimed the textbook contained “unlabeled communist articles.”
Acting Superintendent of Schools Edwin Oskamp said information was being gathered for a report that would be presented so the school board could quickly address the matter. That report was to include how the book was selected and recommended for use in the high school social studies curriculum, he said.
Mrs. Rita Mahan made the allegations of communist teachings in the textbook during a school board meeting. She contented that communist essays in the book “Viewpoints, U.S.A.” did not come with something of a warning label identifying them as such.
The book’s cover is Spartan, with only the letters “U.S.A.” and a small silhouette of a dove carrying an olive branch on it.
Mahan also criticized the use of such a book at the sophomore level.
Ed Smith, vice president of the American Book Company, which published “Viewpoints,” said that any known Communist views were clearly labeled as such in the textbook.
After the report was reviewed, Oskamp said that the school board would make “another of its professional decisions” as to whether to allow the book in school.
The teaching method of the book, called “teaching by opinion,” was new to West Milford High School’s first year American History class, but the opinion method had already been in use in the second year history class for several years.
The opinions of W.E.B. Du Bois (one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) in the book were the main focus of Mahan’s red scare.
“He is the author of several books on black people in America, and was the first Negro to receive a doctor of philosophy degree from Harvard University,” explained the source article.
The viewpoints of Swedish thinker Gunnar Myrdal, whose opinions influenced civil rights legislation in the United States, became another target of Mahan’s.
“No study of civil rights can be meaningful without first studying Myrdal,” said an unnamed student.
“Mrs. Mahan has also criticized the use of classroom material by Negro poet Langston Hughes and by S. Doxey Wilkerson, a former American Communist Party spokesman who has been inactive for years. Both are allegedly included in the supplementary reading list for West Milford history students,” reported the source article.
Author’s viewpoint
We contacted one of the authors of the book to find out what he thought of the hubbub.
“I’m amazed!” said Bernard Feder, one of the two authors of “Viewpoints, U.S.A.”
“The only charge which has ever been brought against this book before is that it was TOO conservative,” he said.
Feder, the social studies program coordinator for the School of Education at Hofstra University, told Suburban Trends that his book was positively reviewed by “America’s Future,” a conservative group based in New Rochelle, N.Y.
He added that 30 percent of the book’s sales were to parochial schools. The book had been reviewed by several Roman Catholic dioceses, but the issue of communism had never come up.
“There is nothing in the book on communism,” he declared. “I do quote Du Bois, but in his article, he is speaking about the Negroes during the Reconstruction. Nothing of his communistic views is included.”
The editing done by him and co-author Jack Allen, professor of history at George Peabody College of Teachers, was deleting portions of the articles, but only for length, difficulty of expression and clarity of reading. None of the original intent was altered, according to Feder.
His voice rose to an incredulous pitch when asked if Gunnar Myrdal was a communist.
“Myrdal? Why, in the field of scholars, he is world-known as an anti-communist. He was previously the Swedish minister of commerce, served on an executive economics committee to the United Nations, and holds honors from Harvard, Fisk, Columbia, University of Leeds, Brandies, Edinburgh, to name a few,” said Feder.
“There is no passage in this book which, to my knowledge, contains any communist views,” he said.
Even if the book did contain political leanings, Feder said, “Controversy should be dealt with through to its end. Preparation in school is preparation in life. I depend upon the judgment of the teacher to decide if students are mature enough to handle this book.”
The book, he said, was not written for any specific age group or classroom level. Since he didn’t know which part of the articles the teachers in West Milford were using, he said he could not comment on whether sophomores were able to use the book to its best advantage.
“As I said, I depend upon the judgment of their teachers,” said Feder.
He asked us to send him a clipping of our article about the complaints Mahan had made about his book.
Publisher chimes in
Edward Smith, vice president and editor-in-chief of the American Book Company, which published the book, had a prepared statement concerning the controversy.
Quoting historian Henry Commager, Smith noted, “We won’t guarantee that our children will not be exposed to dangerous ideas or even to controversial ideas, forgetting that all ideas are dangerous and that only by familiarity with ideas can children ever become adults capable of distinguishing between the true and the false…”
Smith added, “The clash of conflicting ideas is inevitable in a pluralistic society. The citizen is bombarded with claims and counterclaims from all sides by groups, each of which is convinced of its truth and righteousness.
“It strikes me,” he said, “as incredibly naive to assume that we can best prepare our youngsters to become sophisticated and critical citizens, competent to deal in a rational manner with all kinds of ideas, by protecting them from ideas during the very years they are being educated. Unless we are to proceed on the assumption that our children, when they shall have become adults, will never have contact with ideas that conflict with those to which they have become accustomed, where better to train them for critical thinking for the rational resolution of value-conflict than in the classroom, under the direction of a trained and mature teacher?
“The only avowed and acknowledged communist who is quoted directly in the book is W.E.B Du Bois, who defends the record of the American Negro during the South’s Reconstruction period. He is also clearly identified as having later become a communist. It was not considered necessary to identify Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko as a communist (in his charge of American atrocities in Vietnam, to which a response by John Steinbeck is also presented),” said Smith.
Our view
We had a short and sweet response to the book controversy in West Milford: “The same problem arose about books in Germany in the 30s. They didn’t merely bug people about them. They burned them.”
Aftermath
After the investigation was concluded, the school board endorsed the book, but Mahan said she would not give up the fight to get the book out of the classroom.
“In deciding on its course of action, the members of the BOE feel that controversial questioning, under the direction of a capable and qualified staff, has an important place in the public school curriculum. By hearing more than one side of a question, students are given experiences that will help them develop techniques for questioning and evaluating necessary for making proper judgments in later life,” stated the acting superintendent in a release.
Sept. 25, 1988 – KKK in Wanaque
The front page of the Sept. 25, 1988 Suburban Trends shows a 1934 photograph of two horsemen of the Ku Klux Klan in Wanaque riding down Ringwood Avenue with the Raymond Dam in the background.
Staff Writer Linda Baldwin told the story of a day in 1934 when “one of the most ominous sights in American society presented itself to residents along Ringwood Avenue in Haskell and Midvale when the robed and hooded members of the Ku Klux Klan paraded through their town.”
One man about 60 years old at the time the source article was published was an eyewitness to the parade when he was 5 years old.
“I was playing with my cousin near a big oak tree when we heard the sound of the horses’ hooves. We looked down Ringwood Avenue, and these figures in white robes were coming north from the Butler Crossroads (Union Avenue). They scared me so I ran and hid behind my father’s legs as they went by. It was deadly silent, and all we could hear was the horses’ hooves on the pavement. Some of the cars on both sides pulled over and let them through. Another time I remember seeing a cross burning, but that memory is vague. The parade I recall as though it were yesterday. I was that scared!” recalled the man.
Baldwin reported that the KKK wasn’t just a Southern thing. It was active nationwide in the 1930s and parts of North Jersey were hubs of Klan activities. Wanaque had several Klan incidents and an area along Black Oak Ridge Road in Wayne was a Klan headquarters.
The photos that ran along with the article shook any doubt that the Klan did operate around here. They were reportedly snapped by an area resident and were “found quite by accident in a drawer. They had not been seen in quite a while, but they will undoubtedly stir the memories of those who stood and watched the Klan that day.”
But the 1934 Klan march depicted in the photographs was not the only time the Klan reared its head in our area.
Former Wanaque Police Chief David Sisco told Baldwin that the Klan was a common sight back then.
“I remember them here many times, not just in the ‘30s. I was a young kid then, but when I was older, I saw them, too. The Klan rode in when I was maybe 10 or 12. A lot of people saw them,” said Sisco. “Unfortunately, a lot of those people (who saw the Klan) have passed away by now.”
“They used to ride in on horseback and then burn crosses on the mountains around here,” one area resident reported. “The Daily News used to cover it, sometimes.”
Various persons recalled that the Klan parades encompassed some 20-25 members.
“A lot of us kids saw the Klansmen ride in. At first, it was scary to a kid, to see the hoods,” Sisco recalled.
Another area resident concurred, adding, “It was scary, but as they kept coming, we kids got used to it. We were curious, but after awhile, we took it all in stride.”
The resident further stated that the sight of the Klansmen undoubtedly made an impression on the minds of the youngsters present.
“My grandfather would tell me how the Klan would burn their crosses around town. They meant business,” Sisco remembered.
An unnamed resident said, “They’d ride up Ringwood Avenue, toward the mountains and then burn at least three or four crosses every time. Fortunately, they don’t do that anymore around here. But, I guess they’re still pretty active.”
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