Today in Labor History May 13, 1960: San Francisco Police violently attacked university students who were nonviolently protesting HUAC (House Un-American Committee) hearings. After protesters were denied entrance to the meeting, police attacked and swept them out of City Hall's rotunda and down the stairs with fire hoses. 12 people were hospitalized (including eight police, mostly from exhaustion). 64 were arrested. Charges were dropped against all but one, who was acquitted in a jury trial. The hearings began in 1938 and continued through 1969. They would come into union towns like Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle, and issue subpoenas to all the progressives and radicals in the town, especially union leaders, many of whom were communists, or had communist ties. The only defense was to take the Fifth Amendment. The consequence of that was that you would usually lose your job, your name would be plastered in the papers, and your kids would be mistreated in school. Alternatively, you could take the First, like the Hollywood Ten did. For that, you’d be held in contempt of court and sent to prison.
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