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Weeding Out the Undesirables: the Red Scare in Texas Higher Education, 1936-1958

When the national Democratic Party began to transform to progressive era politics because of the New Deal, conservative reactionaries turned against the social welfare programs and used red scare tactics to discredit liberal and progressive New Deal Democrat professors in higher education. This process continued during the Second World War, when the conservatives in Texas lumped fascism and communism in order to anchor support and fire and threaten professors and administrators for advocating or teaching “subversive doctrine.” In 1948 Texas joined other southern states and followed the Dixiecrat movement designed to return the Democratic Party to its original pro-business and segregationist philosophy. Conservatives who wanted to bolster their Cold Warrior status in Texas also played upon the fears of spreading communism during the Cold War, and passed several repressive laws intended to silence unruly students and entrap professors by claiming they advocated communist doctrine. The fight culminated during the Civil Rights movement, when conservatives in the state attributed subversive or communist behavior to civil rights organizations, and targeted higher education to protect segregated universities. In order to return the national Democratic Party to the pro-business, segregationist philosophy established at the early twentieth century, conservatives used redbaiting tactics to thwart the progressivism in the state’s higher education facilities.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc699918
Date08 1900
CreatorsBynum, Katherine E.
ContributorsMoye, J. Todd, Campbell, Randolph B., 1940-, Torget, Andrew J., 1978-
PublisherUniversity of North Texas
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
Formativ, 109 pages, Text
CoverageUnited States - Texas, 1936-1958
RightsPublic, Bynum, Katherine E., Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved.

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