Title: Henry C. Hart Papers

Date/Date Range :   1939-2002 (bulk 1939-1947)

Extent: 3.0 linear feet

Abstract:

The following collection contains the correspondence, official statements, and newspaper clippings collected by Hart during the years surrounding the David E. Lilienthal and Gordon R. Clapp hearings and investigation into Communist activity within the Tennessee Valley Authority. The materials also include the transcript and tapes from a 2002 interview with Hart at his home in Madison, Wisconsin.

Call number: MS-2575

Repository: University of Tennessee Special Collections Library, Knoxville, TN

Aquisition Information:

This collection is a gift from Henry C. Hart.

Access Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Copyright:

The copyright interests in this collection remain with the creator. For more information, contact the Special Collections Library.

Preferred Citation:

[Identification of Item], Henry C. Hart Papers, MS-2575. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Special Collections Library.

Collection consists of two boxes divided into four series: Correspondence; Official Statements; Oral History Interview with Aaron Purcell; and Newspaper Clippings.

Henry C. Hart, Jr. is a retired professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He was born in India in 1916 where his father was a secretary for the YMCA. He graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1936, found employment as a mail clerk at the Tennessee Valley Authority, and worked for TVA for the next seven years. During this time, he was called before the Dies Committee to testify about his involvement in the Communist Party of Knoxville and its connection to TVA. Hart left TVA in 1943 to join the military, and upon finishing his service, began graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin. In 1947 his testimony became pivotal in the Senate Public Works Committee's investigation into the Communist affiliations of David E. Lilienthal, Chairman of TVA and recent appointee as Director of the U.S. Atomic Commission, and in the confirmation hearings of Gordon R. Clapp, general manager of TVA and interim appointee as Chairman of TVA. In 1950, Hart finished his PhD work on the political and social development of the Missouri River basin and received a Fulbright Fellowship to research in India for several years. Shortly after his return, Hart gained tenure at the University of Wisconsin where he taught until his retirement in 1982.

The Henry C. Hart, Jr. collection contains correspondence between friends, mentors, former Communist Party members, and Tennessee Valley Authority officials in regard to the official statements he made before the Senate and the Dies Committee investigating Un-American Activity in the 1930s and 1940s. Included are drafts and copies of those official statements made to the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy and the Senate Public Works Committee. Much of the collection consists of newspaper clippings collected from a variety of national and local papers following the confirmation hearings of David E. Lilienthal as Chairman of the U.S. Atomic Commission and Gordon R. Clapp as TVA Chairman. Numerous clippings refer to an alleged "Henry Hart letter" written to a Secretary of the Communist Party, confirming Communist activity in TVA and Communist sympathy among TVA officials. The collection also contains an interview with Henry C. Hart, Jr. regarding his experiences working in TVA, his involvement in the AFGE (American Federation of Government Employees), the CIO, the Communist Party of Knoxville, and his impressions of his colleagues, fellow Communist Party members, and TVA officials.

• Hart, Henry C. Jr., 1916-.
• Tennessee Valley Authority.
• Communist Party of the United States of America -- History.
• United States. Congress. House. Special Committee on Un-American Activities (1938-1944).