Harold Buchman

{{Short description|American Communist attorney}} '''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.<ref name=Pederson> {{cite book | last = Pederson | first = Vernon, L. | title = The Communist Party In Maryland, 1919-1957 | place = Champaign, Illinois | publisher = University of Illinois Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=dXDXcpEjYdoC | pages = 156 (PCA), 157 (Wallace), 158 (PP state director), 172–180 (Bravermen et al.) | date = 2001 | accessdate = 5 August 2017| isbn = 9780252023217 }}</ref><ref> {{cite news | first1 = Gary | last1 = Baum | first2 = Daniel | last2 = Miller | title = The Hollywood Reporter, After 65 Years, Addresses Role in Blacklist | publisher = The Hollywood Reporter | url = http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/blacklist-thr-addresses-role-65-391931 | date = 19 November 2012 | accessdate = 5 August 2017}}</ref>

==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.<ref> {{cite news | first = William R. | last = Wilkerson | title = TradeView: A Vote For Joe Stalin | publisher = The Hollywood Reporter | url = | date = 29 July 1946 }}</ref>

On April 17, 1947, Buchman, actress Anne Revere, and writer Sam Moore pled the Fifth Amendment regarding questions about Communist affiliation.<ref> {{cite web | title = Un-American Activities | publisher = CQ Almanac | url =https://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal51-889-29670-1406809 | date = 1951 | accessdate = 5 August 2017}}</ref>

===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.<ref name=Pederson /><ref> {{cite book | author = Curtis Daniel MacDougall | title = Gideon's Army: The campaign and the vote | publisher = Marzani & Munsell | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=NKFCAAAAIAAJ | page = 583 | date = 1965 | accessdate = 1 August 2024}}</ref>

===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 (June 21, 1951), Robert W. Lee (June 26, 1951), Irving Kandel (June 27, 1951), Sam Fox and Howard Bernard Silverberg (June 28, 1951), Louis Julius Shub (July 12, 1951), and Milton Seif and Irving Winker (July 13, 1951).<ref name=BaltimoreHearings> {{cite book | title = Hearings Relating to Communist Activities in the Defense Area of Baltimore–Part 1 | publisher = US GPO for the Committee on Un-American Activities, U.S. House of Representatives | url = https://archive.org/stream/hearingsrelating0102unit | pages = 812 (Henderson), 822 (Gran), 846 (Lee), 869 (Kandel), 879 (Fox), 900 (Seif), 901 (Winkler), 905 (Silverberg), 940 (Shub) | date = 1951 | accessdate = 5 August 2017}}</ref>

In March 1952, Buchman defended: Maurice Braverman, George Meyers, Roy Wood, Dorothy Rose Blumberg (wife of Albert Blumberg), Philip Frankfeld, and Regina Frankfeld (all members of the Communist Party branch of Maryland and the District of Columbia).<ref name=Pederson />

In 1952, Royal Wilbur France, civil liberties activist and president of the National Lawyers Guild, consulted NLG members Joseph Forer and Buchman.<ref> {{cite book | author = Royal Wilbur France | title = My Native Grounds | publisher = Cameron Associates | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Zv2vdCyHsYQC | page = 111 | date = 1957 | access-date = 1 August 2024}}</ref>

===Catonsville Nine===

In 1968, Buchman served on the defense council of the Catonsville Nine.<ref> {{cite book | author1 = Eric L. Goldstein | author2 = Deborah R. Weiner | title = On Middle Ground: A History of the Jews of Baltimore | publisher = Johns Hopkins University Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=0QNTDwAAQBAJ | page = 294 | date = 2018 | access-date = 1 August 2024}}</ref> Defendants included Jesuit peace advocate Daniel Berrigan.<ref> {{cite book | author = Jim Forest | title = At Play in the Lions' Den: A Biography and Memoir of Daniel Berrigan | publisher = Orbis Books | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=K3E8DwAAQBAJ | page = | date = 2017 | access-date = 1 August 2024}}</ref><ref> {{cite book | author = Shawn Francis Peters | title = The Catonsville Nine: A Story of Faith and Resistance in the Vietnam Era | publisher = Oxford University Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=dNFoAgAAQBAJ | pages = 137-9, 163-4, 218, 232-3, 255-6, 262, 286, 289 | date = 2012 | access-date = 1 August 2024}}</ref>

===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.<ref> {{cite news | title = Prosecutor Says New York Lawyer Ordered the Slaying of Panther | work = New York Times | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1971/06/17/archives/prosecutor-says-new-york-lawyer-ordered-the-slaying-of-panther.html | date = 17 June 1971 | accessdate = 5 August 2017}}</ref><ref> {{cite book | author = Charles Earl Jones | title = The Black Panther Party (reconsidered) | publisher = Black Classic Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=hxpCxS661Q8C | page = 117 (Turco) 125-6, 131 (fn 6 Turco), 132 (fn 22) | date = 1998 | access-date = 1 August 2024}}</ref>

===Later career===

Buchman defended communist activist Madalyn Murray O'Hair<ref>{{cite book |title= My Life without God. |last=Murray |first=William J. |date=1982 |publisher=T. Nelson |pages=21–22 |isbn=0840752563}}</ref><ref> {{cite book | author = Ann Rowe Seaman | title = America's Most Hated Woman: The Life and Gruesome Death of Madalyn Murray O'Hair | publisher = Bloomsbury Publishing | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=RpcyEAAAQBAJ | page = 47 | date = 2005 | accessdate = 1 August 2024}}</ref>

==Legacy==

Barbara Mello, ACLU attorney and law teacher, served as law clerk for Buchman.<ref> {{cite news | title = Barbara Mello, 71, attorney for ACLU and law teacher | publisher = Baltimore Sun | url = https://www.baltimoresun.com/2004/02/18/barbara-mello-71-attorney-for-aclu-and-law-teacher/ | date = 18 February 2004 | accessdate = 1 August 2024}}</ref>

==References==

==External sources== * [https://jewishmuseummd.org/match-point-fighting-racial-discrimination-in-druid-hill-park-pt-1/ Jewish Museum of Maryland]

{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Buchman, Harold}} Category:Members of the Communist Party USA Category:20th-century American lawyers Category:Maryland socialists Category:Jews from Maryland Category:Jewish American socialists Category:Jewish communists Category:People from Baltimore