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List of members of the House Un-American Activities Committee

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Alabama Democrat Joe Starnes with Chairman Martin Dies and Chief Investigator J. B. Matthews, Aug. 1938.

This list of members of the House Un-American Activities Committee details the names of those members of the United States House of Representatives who served on the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) from its formation as the "Special Committee to Investigate Un-American Activities" in 1938 until the dissolution of the "House Internal Security Committee" in 1975.

New members of the committee marked with bold type.

Special Committee to Investigate Un-American Activities (1938–1944)

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Commonly known as the "Dies Committee." The permanent secretary of the committee was Robert E. Stripling throughout.[1]

75th Congress (1938)

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Conservative Texas Democrat Martin Dies Jr. was chair of the Special Committee to Investigate Un-American Activities for its entire seven-year duration.

76th Congress (1939–1940)

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77th Congress (1941–1942)

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78th Congress (1943–1944)

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Committee on Un-American Activities (1945–1968)

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Effective with the 79th Congress of 1945, the former special committee of the House of Representatives was made permanent, expanded to nine members, and renamed. Permanent secretaries of the committee would be Robert E. Stripling (1945–1948), John W. Carrington (1949–1952), Thomas W. Beale Sr. (1953–1956), Richard Arens (1957–1960), Frank S. Tavenner Jr. (1961–1962), Francis J. McNamara (1963–1968).[2]

79th Congress (1945–1946)

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80th Congress (1947–1948)

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Future U.S. President Richard M. Nixon was a HUAC member from 1947 until election to the U.S. Senate in November 1950

81st Congress (1949–1950)

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82nd Congress (1951–1952)

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83rd Congress (1953–1954)

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84th Congress (1955–1956)

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Pennsylvania Democrat Francis E. Walter, a member of HUAC from 1951, would serve as chairman of the committee from January 1955 until his death in 1963.

85th Congress (1957–1958)

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86th Congress (1959–1960)

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87th Congress (1961–1962)

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88th Congress (1963–1964)

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89th Congress (1965–1966)

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90th Congress (1967–1968)

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Committee on Internal Security

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Chair of the renamed House Committee on Internal Security for its entire 7-year duration was Democrat Richard H. Ichord Jr. of Missouri.

In February 1969 the name of the committee was changed for a second time. The nine-member Committee on Internal Security would remain in existence until 1975. Chief professional staff members of the Committee on Internal Security included Donald G. Sanders (1969–1973),[3] Robert M. Horner (???–1973), and William H. Stapleton (1974–1975).

The House Committee on Internal Security was formally terminated on January 14, 1975, the day of the opening of the 94th Congress.[4] The Committee's files and staff were transferred on that day to the House Judiciary Committee from whence the Internal Security Committee had sprung.[4]

91st Congress (1969–1970)

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92nd Congress (1971–1972)

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93rd Congress (1973–1974)

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See also

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Footnotes

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  1. ^ Eric Bentley, Thirty Years of Treason: Excerpts from Hearings Before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, 1938–1968. New York: The Viking Press 1971; pp. 955-956.
  2. ^ Bentley, Thirty Years of Treason, pp. 956-957.
  3. ^ Bentley, Thirty Years of Treason, pg. 957.
  4. ^ a b Charles E. Schamel, Records of the US House of Representatives, Record Group 233: Records of the House Un-American Activities Committee, 1945–1969 (Renamed the) House Internal Security Committee, 1969–1976. Washington, DC: Center for Legislative Archives, National Archives and Records, July 1995; pg. 4.

Further reading

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  • William F. Buckley, The Committee and Its Critics; a Calm Review of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. New York: Putnam Books, 1962.
  • Robert K. Carr, The House Committee on Un-American Activities. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1952.
  • Frank J. Donner, The Un-Americans. New York: Ballantine Books, 1961.
  • Walter Goodman, The Committee: The Extraordinary Career of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1968.
  • Joseph Litvak, The Un-Americans : Jews, the Blacklist, and Stoolpigeon Culture. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009.
  • Kenneth O'Reilly, Hoover and the Unamericans: The FBI, HUAC, and the Red Menace. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1983.
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