Oscar Shaftel Papers

McCarthyism, named after Senator Joseph McCarthy, was a period of intense anti-communism in the United States (roughly 1948 to 1956) when the government of the United States actively persecuted the Communist Party USA, its leadership, and others suspected of being communists. As chair of the Senate Permanent Investigations Subcommittee from 1953–1954, McCarthy conducted a series of wide-ranging and controversial investigations. Members of the State Department, the armed services, civil service, Hollywood, academia, and many others were persecuted. National television coverage of McCarthy's aggressive behavior led to his censure by the Senate in 1954, but many continued to be investigated after that date.

In 1949, the New York Legislature passed the statute known as the Feinberg Law, which authorized employers to dismiss anyone who taught or advocated the subversion of government, or was knowingly a member of an organization which taught or advocated the overthrow of the government. In a Supreme Court case challenging the constitutionality of the Feinberg Law, the Supreme Court first mentioned the term “academic freedom” in Adler v. Board of Education (1952), in the dissent of Justice Douglas.

Oscar Shaftel was one of the original faculty members when Queens College first opened its doors in 1937, hired to teach English. He served in the United States Air Force from 1942-1946, and was awarded the PCS Award for meritorious service. He served as chairman of the Queens Chapter of the College Teachers Union, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers. As a faculty member at Queens College, he served as an advisor to the student newspaper The Crown.

Along with professors Dudley Straus and Vera Shlakman, Shaftel was fired in 1953 after he cited the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer questions about Communist affiliation in academia before the Senate Internal Security Committee. The Board of Higher Education (now Board of Trustees of CUNY) cited New York City Charter, § 903 – which was adopted in 1936 and took effect in 1938 – as grounds for dismissal. The charter was designed to eliminate from public employment individuals who refused to answer legally authorized inquiries as to the "official conduct of any officer or employee of the city . . . on the ground that his answer would tend to incriminate him." Shaftel appealed the decision in 1959, but was unsuccessful.

After he was fired from Queens College in 1953, Shaftel worked as a freelance writer until he was hired by the Pratt Institute in 1963. He returned to Queens College in 1973 as an adjunct professor. In 1982, he and several other teachers won a settlement against CUNY to reinstate their pensions. Dr. Shaftel continued as an adjunct at Queens College until 1994. He passed away on May 10, 2000 at the age of 88.

The Supreme Court found the Feinberg Law unconstitutional in 1967 in Keyishian v. Board of Regents. Section 903 of New York City Charter was declared unconstitutional in 1969.