Wilkinson, Defiant Figure of Red Scare, Dies at 91

NYT ^ | 1/4/05 | Rick Lyman

[Borges]

Frank Wilkinson, a Los Angeles housing official who lost his job in the Red Scare of the early 1950's and later became one of the last two people jailed for refusing to tell the House Un-American Activities Committee whether he was a Communist, died Monday in Los Angeles. He was 91.

Mr. Wilkinson, whose experiences inspired a half-century campaign against government spying, had been ill for several months and was recovering from surgery and a fall, said Donna Wilkinson, his wife of 40 years. "It was just the complications of old age, " Mrs. Wilkinson said.

[Borges]

[manglor]

Say hello to Stalin and Lenin for us when you get to hell.

[socal_parrot]

whose experiences inspired a half-century campaign against government spying

Nice how the NYSlimes tries to tie it all together.

[speedy]

Better dead than Red. And now this guy is both.

[nonliberal]

Hell is filling up quickly.

[auto power]

....let's pray that Castro isn't far behind...

[headstamp]

They're pathetic aren't they?

[Servant of the 9]

In 1952, when Mr. Wilkinson was head of the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, he spearheaded a project to replace the sprawling Mexican-American neighborhood of Chavez Ravine, home to 300 families and roamed by goats and other livestock, with thousands of public-housing units.

Real estate interests that viewed public housing as a form of socialism accused Mr. Wilkinson of being a Communist.

Communist or not, the idea was profoundly stupid.
Almost every large public housing project in the US has been torn down and the rest will be. They do nothing but breed crime and chronic unemployment.

So9

[Malesherbes]

How nice that he lived long enough to see the collapse of the Soviet Union.

[End Times Sentinel]

Frank Wilkinson, a Los Angeles housing official who lost his job in the Red Scare of the early 1950's and later became one of the last two people jailed for refusing to tell the House Un-American Activities Committee whether he was a Communist

So what if he attended a bunch of communist meetings and was fingered as the hatchet man for the ECLC, that don't mean he was a commie.  Heck, the NYT doesn't even acknowledge the Venona project.

Owl_Eagle

(If what I just wrote makes you sad or angry,

 it was probably sarcasm)

[Physicist]

jailed for refusing to tell the House Un-American Activities Committee whether he was a Communist,

Same old mind-control spin. HUAC didn't ask whether anyone was a communist. That has always been a matter of free conscience. They asked whether individuals were members of the Communist Party, a criminal organization under the direction of an enemy government.

It's like the difference between "are you a Muslim" and "are you a member of Al Qaeda", although the press is already engaged in a campaign to blur that distinction, too.

[Mad_as_heck]

Rich white people mildly incoviencanced because they served Stalin: The NYT's favorite minority group.

[auto power]

....let's pray that Castro isn't far behind...

[Long Distance Rider]

Summ-a-gun
One less Communist
one less Democrat

[Chode]

100 kronigs says he still votes in the 2006/2008 elections...

[cynicom]

Red scare? Have to love that tag.

[NYCVirago]

Mr. Wilkinson consistently refused to testify about his political beliefs. He had, in fact, joined the Communist Party in 1942, according to "First Amendment Felon," a 2005 biography by Robert Sherrill. He left the party in 1975.

The Times tells us all sorts of minutia about this guy's life, but doesn't even answer the question -- why did he leave the party in 1975?