I Decline to Testify on the Basis of My Fifth Amendment Right
While this teacher's viewpoint may be in the minority, it is worth remembering what McCarthyism was and why it frightened so many millions of people.
One way is to read the transcripts of the McCarthy hearings (1953-54), which were made available this past spring. HNN asked Mr. Ritchie, the editor of the transcripts, to recommend a representative selection. He pointed us toward the 1953 transcript printed below, which featured questioning by Henry Scoop Jackson, Democrat of Washington State. (Shortly afterward, in June 1953, Jackson and the other Democrats on the committee resigned. Click here for an explanation.)
Note by Donald Ritchie
Naphtali Lewis was a professor of classical studies at the City University of New York, teaching also at Columbia, Yale, and Boston universities. He specialized in deciphering and interpreting the oldest Greek manuscripts, called papyri, and was president of the International Association of Papyrologists. In April 1953, Lewis received a U.S. Educational Exchange Award, or Fulbright scholarship, to study ancient manuscripts in Florence. He testified in public session on June 10, and again with his wife, Helen Lewis, on June 19, 1953.
During their public testimony, Helen Lewis invoked the Fifth Amendment, after which Senator McCarthy announced: ‘‘Dr. Lewis, we have just been notified by the State Department that your job in Italy has been canceled; that you are not being sent there. I think that is an excellent idea.’’ In a written statement that he filed with the committee, Professor Lewis asserted: ‘‘Senator McCarthy has not inquired concerning my qualification as a scholar for a scholarly assignment. He appears to be interested in my Fulbright award only to the extent of inquiring into my political opinions and, what is even more astonishing, into my wife’s politics, past as well as present. This inquisition, if it has its way, establishes a novel and singularly un- American principle; namely, that before a man is permitted to pursue a career of research—even in ancient manuscripts—he must have the stamp of approval of a congressional subcommittee on himself and his family.’’
The TranscriptMay 20, 2003
TESTIMONY OF NAPHTALI LEWIS
Senator JACKSON. Will you rise and be sworn, please?
Raise your right hand.
Do you solemnly swear the testimony you are about to give shall
be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help
you God?
Mr. LEWIS. I do.
Mr. COHN. Would you give us your full name?
Mr. LEWIS. My full name is Naphtali Lewis.
Mr. COHN. How do you spell that first name?
Mr. LEWIS. N-a-p-h-t-a-l-i.
Mr. COHN. Mr. Lewis, have you ever been a Communist?
Mr. LEWIS. Well, you are barking up the wrong tree, mister. The
answer is ‘‘no.’’
Senator JACKSON. Before we proceed any further, you understand
you have a right to counsel if you so desire.
Mr. LEWIS. Mr. Cohn explained that to me.
Senator JACKSON. I just wanted to make the record clear.
Mr. LEWIS. But since no one indicated, in summoning me here,
that I was to be accused of anything, it never occurred to me.
Senator JACKSON. Do you desire to have counsel?
Mr. LEWIS. I don’t think I need one, no, sir. I have nothing but
simple answers to simple questions, if that is all that