“He had to, in the height of the Red Scare, to deny he was a member of the communist party, and went on to give an impassioned statement about how American negroes are patriotic,” Johnson said at a conference...”
He “had to”?
Why not, “my father was happy to testify he was not a member of the communist party etc...”
In the state of GA, the oath of office by state law for just about everyone, including local officials, still includes the assertion that the oath taker is not a member of the Communist Party.
I like that.
A tiny fraction of one percent of American adults were called to testify during the “Red Scare” (as he calls it). What had his grandfather been doing to give the impression that he was a Communist? They weren’t hauling people in off the street at random to testify.