Contents

Collection Overview

Biographical Note

Scope and Contents of the Collection

Organization of the Collection

Search Terms

Mary Metlay Kaufman Papers, 1917-1994

Finding Aid

Finding aid prepared by Margaret Jessup.

Processing of the Mary Metlay Kaufman Papers was made possible by the generous support of the National Endowment for the Humanities and Smith College President Ruth J. Simmons. Encoding funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

2003

Biographical Note

Mary Metlay was born November 9, 1912 in Atlanta, Georgia, the daughter of Nathan and Etta (Kirschner) Metlay who had emigrated from Russia. In 1917, the Metlay family moved to Brooklyn, New York. Kaufman described her family's influence on her social consciousness and activism:

"From early childhood, I was very much attuned to the problems of the poor. Poverty was my economic level up until the time I finished law school. My mother led a rent strike during the early days...on the East Side, and I also participated in things like that and the monumental hunger marches and organization of the unemployed in the 1930s.... The other thing that influenced me greatly since childhood was the fact that in my family women did not play a secondary role.... So that although I grew up in a society where women were generally oppressed, I didn't have to battle my personal environment." (Marlise James, The People's Lawyers, 1973)

Kaufman attended James Madison High School and earned her bachelor's degree in Political Science from Brooklyn College in 1932. For the next four years she studied for her law degree, attending night classes at St. John's University Law School while working for the Remedial Reading Program of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). After being admitted to the New York bar in 1937, she continued her organizing work with WPA legal projects and was involved in the Lawyers' Security League, an organization of lawyers working with the WPA. During this time she also worked for labor lawyer, Frank Scheiner, "representing parties at conferences before the New York State and National Labor Relations Board." She was one of the original members of the progressive National Lawyers' Guild, founded in 1937, and was active on both the national level and in the New York City Chapter into the 1970s.

In 1940, Kaufman moved to Washington, D.C. to work for the National Labor Relations Board as a Review Attorney, analyzing transcripts of hearings, reporting findings to the Board, and writing decisions. That same year she married Frederick Kaufman and a year later returned to New York to raise their son Michael, born September 1941. In 1944 Kaufman moved back to Washington with her son to work for the National War Labor Board, and then the National Wage Stabilization Board until 1947. She and her husband were separated in 1946 and eventually divorced in 1952.

From 1947 to 1948, Kaufman served on the prosecution team of the U.S. Military Tribunal in Nuremburg, Germany, in the case against the international chemical cartel, I.G. Farben (United States v. Krauch). I.G. Farben was a financial supporter of the Nazi regime, and was charged with pillaging the chemical industries of occupied Europe; using slave labor; and manufacturing the gas used in the Nazi death camps. Members of the Board of Directors were charged with crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity - the three categories of war crimes defined at Nuremberg. But cold war politics meant that there was little support for giving them more than light sentences.

Kaufman returned to the U.S. in 1948 in the midst of the domestic cold war. As she later told an interviewer, it was "an atmosphere I hadn't watched develop and was appalled by it. I had been living in the past of the Nazi's rise to power - a rise which began with the elimination of the Communists and the use of anti-communism as a pretext for suspending the constitutional guarantees of the people - and came back to see what appeared to me to be the same development taking place in this country." (James, p. 91) Upon her return she established her private practice in New York City and began her life-long work as a defender of civil liberties and constitutional rights. From 1948 into the early 1960s, her legal work consisted primarily of defending leaders of the Communist Party of the United States (C.P.U.S.A.) who were indicted under the Smith Act in New York, Denver, and St. Louis. During this period she also represented individuals before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and the Subversive Activities Control Board (SACB).

1966 was a turning point in Kaufman's career: "At that time I decided to take stock and consider where to go next. I was terribly troubled by the racism in our society and the war in Vietnam. I spent a long time researching and reviewing the Nuremberg war crimes trials. I was overwhelmed by the similarity of the patterns of the Nazis with our own.... I wrote on the subject. I then traveled to Europe, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and the German Democratic Republic to lecture and to study their legal systems.... When I came back the protests against war, racism and poverty were in full bloom." (James, p. 93-94)

In December 1967, during "Stop the Draft week" hundreds of war protestors were arrested in New York City and the National Lawyers' Guild set up the Mass Defense Committee, chaired by Kaufman, to defend them. It was the first time the Guild was to undertake direct representation of people arrested in political actions. In April 1968, when over a thousand people were arrested during the Columbia University strike, parents of students arrested helped to raise enough money to set up the Mass Defense Office. Kaufman directed the office from 1968 to 1971, supervising over 200 volunteer lawyers, law students, activists, and legal workers, and directing the defense of thousands arrested protesting for civil rights and peace.

Kaufman's development of the theory of the use of the Nuremburg Principles (particularly the principle of individual responsibility) was a guiding force in her defense of political activists. Over the next two decades she researched, spoke, and wrote on the subject of defending civil disobedience in the face of U.S. war crimes against peace and humanity. Kaufman was a legal advisor in the "Hickam 3" case of anti-Vietnam War protestors in Hawaii in 1972. From 1977 to 1983, she testified in a series of civil disobedience cases in defense of protestors of the Trident nuclear submarine based in Bangor, Washington, and she participated in several international tribunals from 1967 to 1984, investigating U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia; the use of atomic weapons against Japan; and the nuclear arms race.

In 1972, Mary Kaufman was hired as a visiting Professor to direct the Undergraduate Legal Studies Program at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She taught courses in McCarthyism; labor law; Nuremberg and international law; racism and the law; and political trials of the 20th Century. After leaving Antioch, Kaufman was hired as a Visiting Professor of Law at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, from 1975 to 1976 and she delivered the Commencement Address there in 1976.

Kaufman retired from legal casework by 1980, but continued to speak and write on issues such as peace and nuclear disarmament, civil rights, and political freedom. She died in New York City in 1995.

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Mary Metlay Kaufman Papers consist of 34 linear feet of material, dating from 1917 to 1994. The bulk of the papers date from 1946 to 1986 and focus on Kaufman's professional life. Types of materials include trial records and research; correspondence; published and unpublished writings; speeches; conference materials; teaching materials; research and subject files (including notes, drafts, newspaper clippings, articles, and printed materials); and a small amount of photographs and personal memorabilia. Wherever possible, Kaufman's original arrangement and folder titles have been retained.

Major themes that run throughout the collection include international law, the Nuremberg Principles, the Cold War, Communism, political trials in the U.S., the anti-Vietnam War and anti-nuclear movements, U.S. war crimes, and international human rights. Kaufman's papers document her life-long advocacy for the oppressed as well as for others who fought poverty, racism, war crimes, and political repression. The wide range of social causes in which she was involved illuminates connections between the Old Left, especially labor reform and C.P.U.S.A. activities, and the New Left's Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam War movements.

The papers also document Kaufman's close associations with other prominent civil rights attorneys and the activities of the National Lawyers' Guild, as well as her involvement in other progressive organizations and in several international war crimes tribunals. Kaufman's research and writings reveal her development and use of the "Nuremberg defense" for those arrested in civil disobedience actions protesting war crimes.

Kaufman's papers reflect her personal battle as a woman attorney, having begun her legal career in the late 1930s. She often had to fight not only the prosecution, but also her own male colleagues for inclusion on defense teams. The financial struggles she had as a single mother are also apparent, in correspondence with clients regarding payment for her services for which she often received little or no compensation.

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Search Terms

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Organization of the Collection

This collection is organized into eight series:

• I. Biographical Material
• II. Correspondence
• III. Legal Practice
• IV. Teaching
• V. Organizations and Conferences
• VI. Writings
• VII. Speeches
• VIII. Research and Subject Files

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SERIES I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS (1924-77) .25 linear ft.

This series includes articles and published interviews arranged chronologically, providing a useful overview of Kaufman's career and public appearances. [For publicity about specific events and trials, see also SERIES III. LEGAL PRACTICE and SERIES VI. SPEECHES]. Awards and honors include letters and tributes to Kaufman and other Smith Act defense attorneys, John Abt and Joseph Forer. There are also a few photographs and a few items of memorabilia. There is also a substantial F.B.I. file on Mary Kaufman (see box 1a and 1b).

SERIES II. CORRESPONDENCE (1940-82) .25 linear ft.

This series contains personal and other non-professional correspondence. The rest of the correspondence in the collection relates to specific legal cases, organization work, or other activities, and is filed in the appropriate series. This series is arranged in three subseries: Family, Friends and associates, and Legal and financial. Friends and associates, include a General file of personal correspondence arranged chronologically. Included here are congratulatory letters to Kaufman on the establishment of her private practice in 1950, and personal letters from friends and colleagues. After the General file, correspondents are arranged alphabetically. Locations of additional material by and about individuals can be located by checking the Name Index.

SERIES III. LEGAL PRACTICE (1937-84) 22 linear ft.

This series includes files generated from Kaufman's early work for government labor agencies, her participation in the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, her private practice and consultative work, and Mass Defense Office cases. The series is arranged roughly chronologically, although the Smith Act cases and related appeals, circa 1948-65, are grouped together.

The "General files" at the beginning of the series include materials related to her bar certification and early job applications. These are followed by correspondence, memoranda, and briefs from her tenures with the National Labor Relations Board, the National War Labor Board, and the National Wage Stabilization Board, 1939-46. The Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal files include court documents and briefs providing an overview of the case against the international chemical cartel, I.G. Farben. "The documents involving Nuremberg point to the mechanisms of imperialism, the relationship between big business and government and to the influence of cold war politics on the second tier of war crimes trials…." (from "Description of my files," Sophia Smith Collection). Also included is a small amount of correspondence and notes, and judgements from other Nuremberg tribunals. A set of 120 bound volumes containing the complete I.G. Farben trial transcript and indices was transferred to the Yale University Law Library.

The Smith Act, passed by Congress in 1940, made it a crime to teach or advocate the violent overthrow of the United States government. Kaufman's Smith Act case files document her participation in some of the most significant political trials of the Cold War period. Kaufman served on the defense team of the first Smith Act trial of the C.P.U.S.A. national leaders in U.S. v. Eugene Dennis, et al., in New York City, 1948-49. From 1952 to 1956 she represented several of the same defendants in appellate proceedings and went on to lead the defense teams in the trials of second tier and state-level party leaders in New York, St. Louis, and Denver.

The Smith Act "General" files contain material pertaining to more than one Smith Act case and include correspondence between lawyers handling Smith Act cases around the country, publicity produced by the Defense Committee, and background information on government informers who testified repeatedly in different Smith Act trials. After the General files, the individual Smith Act cases are arranged chronologically.

Filed at the end of the Smith Act cases are the case files of several appeals that emerged out of U.S. v. Dennis, et al. These include Robert Thompson's contempt appeal and appeals for the reinstatement of his veteran's benefits after they were revoked when he was convicted as a Communist. Kaufman also worked on the defense for attorneys Harry Sacher and Abraham Isserman who were found guilty of contempt during the Dennis trial. She also represented the Trustees of the Bail Fund of the Civil Rights Congress of New York in several matters, including their appeal on a contempt charge for refusing to name individuals who had contributed to the fund.

These case files provide important (and often hard to find) primary source material that documents Communism and communists in the U.S., including biographical information, histories of grassroots activities around the country, court transcripts of Party member testimonies, and revealing personal correspondence with state and national party leaders. Some of the people represented are Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Claudia Jones, Robert Thompson, James and Dorothy Forest, and Betty Gannett. Of particular interest within the Smith Act trial records is the extensive correspondence between Kaufman, other attorneys, and various defendants regarding their defense strategies. The Research and preparation files include extensive background information on witnesses, including C.P.U.S.A members turned informants for the government. Also of interest is research material compiled on racial and class compositions of the local communities and used to challenge the make-up of the juries in several cases.

Filed after the Smith Act cases, are materials relating to Kaufman's representation of individuals and organizations brought before the House Un-American Activities Committee (H.U.A.C.) and the Subversive Activities Control Board (S.A.C.B.), between 1950 and 1966. In addition, there is material on Kaufman's defense of individuals threatened with deportation by the Immigration Service, or those who had difficulties obtaining passports because of suspected Communist affiliations.

The remaining cases in the series date from 1950 to 1984 and are arranged chronologically and include other anti-Communist cases, union matters, civil rights cases, and the defense of political activists and prisoners. Among these are materials pertaining to Kaufman's work in 1950-51 on an unsuccessful attempt for a stay of execution for Willie McGee, a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman in Mississippi. Kaufman's Mass Defense Office case files, circa 1968-72, include documentation of her work on an amicus brief for the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression's defense of imprisoned Black Panther Party member David Rice in 1974. Other cases include several class action civil suits on behalf of prisoners in Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan. (For additional materials relating to the Mass Defense Office see SERIES V. ORGANIZATIONS AND CONFERENCES.) Files of the Hickam 3 and Trident cases, 1972-1984, cover Kaufman's work as legal consultant and expert witness on international law in the trials of anti-Vietnam War and anti-nuclear weapons activists. Also included in this series is material relating to her 1974 trip to Greece with other human rights advocates to investigate, and bring international attention to, brutality practiced against hundreds of political prisoners under a fascist rule.

The records of each case are arranged alphabetically by type (or function) as follows: Briefs, Correspondence, Court documents, Publicity, Research and preparation, and Transcripts. Correspondence is generally arranged chronologically unless there is a significant amount with one individual, in which case it is in a separate file. Research and preparation files are arranged alphabetically by subject at the end of each case.

SERIES IV. TEACHING (1917-76) 1.25 linear feet

This series is arranged in three subseries: Antioch College, Hampshire College, and Course materials. The first two subseries include correspondence and course evaluations written by students and colleagues. The Antioch College subseries also includes materials related to a 1973 campus strike in response to financial aid cuts and the layoff of union workers. Kaufman and other faculty participated in the strike and were dismissed for obstructing the entrance to an administration building. After several months of review procedures and hearings for the terminated faculty, Kaufman was reinstated.

The Course materials include syllabi, lecture notes, and research files for courses taught by Kaufman at both Antioch and Hampshire College. (See also SERIES VIII. RESEARCH for unidentified notes and subject files that may have been used for these courses).

SERIES V. ORGANIZATIONS AND CONFERENCES (1946-88) 5 linear feet

This series documents four decades of Kaufman's involvement in numerous causes, particularly the Civil Rights and peace movements, and international human rights. Materials relating to her participation in several international war crimes tribunals are also included here. The series is arranged alphabetically by name of the organization or conference. See the Name Index for organizations represented in other series.

The largest amount of material in this series relate to Kaufman's work with the National Lawyers' Guild, including her terms on its national executive board and on the board of the New York City chapter. Types of material include correspondence with other Guild members; Guild publications; files on committee work; convention materials; and files on special projects, such as the preparation of amici curiae briefs for a Supreme Court appeal of the C.P.U.S.A. against the Subversive Activities Control Board, circa 1955-61. The Guild's Mass Defense Office (M.D.O.) records include correspondence; histories of the M.D.O.; and publications. Kaufman was director of the M.D.O. office from 1968 to 1971. Cases she worked on during that period are located in SERIES III. LEGAL PRACTICE.

Other organizations represented include the International Association of Democratic Lawyers; the Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy; the Lawyers' Committee on American Policy Towards Vietnam; and the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. Kaufman was invited to take part in several international tribunals investigating U.S. war crimes. In 1967, she represented the National Lawyers' Guild at the International War Crimes Tribunal on American Involvement in Vietnam in Paris, sponsored by the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation. She was a member of an international team of experts invited to Japan to investigate "the full implications of the use of the atom bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki," in 1977. And in 1984, Kaufman served on the International Tribunal on the Reagan Administration's Foreign Policy, sponsored by the International Progress Organization, in Brussels .

SERIES VI. WRITINGS (1966-83) .5 linear ft.

This series contains published articles, unpublished drafts, notes, and research materials arranged alphabetically by title or topic. A recurring topic of Kaufman's writings is Nuremberg and the war crimes principles as they relate to the Vietnam War and the nuclear arms race. Other subjects include the Cold War and anti-communism. Writings produced for specific projects, committees, or organizations (such as a history of the Mass Defense Office) are filed in SERIES V. ORGANIZATIONS AND CONFERENCES. Unidentified drafts and notes are filed by subject in SERIES VIII. RESEARCH.

SERIES VII. SPEECHES (1950-87) 1 linear ft.

This series contains speech texts, notes, related correspondence, publicity, and research arranged alphabetically by subject or event name. Subjects include anti-communism, nuclear disarmament, international law, Nuremberg, the Civil Rights movement, and the Vietnam War. Papers and addresses given at conferences, tribunals, and other events that were sponsored by organizations in which Kaufman was active are filed in SERIES V. ORGANIZATIONS AND CONFERENCES. See also SERIES III. LEGAL PRACTICE for testimonies given by Kaufman in the Trident and Hickam 3 cases; course lectures in SERIES IV. TEACHING, and SERIES I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS for clippings publicizing Kaufman's activities, some of which include speaking. Unidentified notes that may also have been used for speeches are filed by subject in SERIES VIII. RESEARCH.

SERIES VIII. RESEARCH AND SUBJECT FILES (1945-94) 4 linear feet

This series is arranged alphabetically by subject, including five major subject areas: anti-communism, Germany, Nuclear disarmament, Nuremberg and Nazis, and the Vietnam War. There are smaller amounts of material on international law, the Cold War, racism, the Civil Rights movement, U.S. foreign policy, various individuals, and miscellaneous topics. Types of material include articles, legal documents, unpublished writings by others, correspondence, notes and unidentified drafts, newspaper clippings, and printed materials. Kaufman's original file titles have been retained wherever possible.

Most of these files appear to have been Kaufman's working files that were referred to, and added to, repeatedly over many years for a variety of projects, including legal cases, course lectures, articles, and speeches. Research files that were identified by Kaufman for specific purposes are filed in the appropriate series, such as Research and preparation files under each case in SERIES III. LEGAL PRACTICE, and Course materials in SERIES IV. TEACHING.

SERIES I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS

SERIES II. CORRESPONDENCE (1940-82) .25 linear ft.

This series contains personal and other non-professional correspondence. The rest of the correspondence in the collection relates to specific legal cases, organization work, or other activities, and is filed in the appropriate series. This series is arranged in three subseries: Family, Friends and associates, and Legal and financial. Friends and associates, include a General file of personal correspondence arranged chronologically. Included here are congratulatory letters to Kaufman on the establishment of her private practice in 1950, and personal letters from friends and colleagues. After the General file, correspondents are arranged alphabetically. Locations of additional material by and about individuals can be located by checking the Name Index.

SERIES III. LEGAL PRACTICE

SERIES IV. TEACHING

SERIES V. ORGANIZATIONS AND CONFERENCES

SERIES VI. WRITINGS

SERIES VII. SPEECHES

SERIES VIII. RESEARCH AND SUBJECT FILES