In late 1955, the American Legion John Jacob Fisher Post in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, attacked the local library in their newsletter and in a letter presented to the borough council. The catalyst for this attack was the adoption of the Library Bill of Rights by Punxsutawney Free Library’s board.
In the December 1955 issue of the Legion News published by the John Jacob Fisher Post, Legion member Pete Wehrle wrote an editorial attacking ALA as a communist front. The editorial questioned if the American Legion Post would stand for the library board to “tie up with a Red Front organization” such as the ALA, to which it said no. The editorial used combative language against the library board, saying: “In short folks we are going to do a job on this matter. We will pick the field and the time and place of the fray. We will also pick the method – these things are always the prerogative of the assult (sic) force.”[1]
The letter written to the borough council removed much of the aggressive language but still accused ALA of being a communist organization and of the library holding communist materials. “We are not in accord with their policy of permitting Communist slanted literature on their shelves nor are we in accord with their adoption of the Library Bill of Rights … We have reason to believe that the ALA is not in accord with what we judge to be the best interests of our American way of life.”[2]
Mildred Harlan, librarian at the Punxsutawney Free Library, wrote to the Intellectual Freedom Committee to bring the issue to ALA’s attention. She forwarded the letter to be read to the borough council and asked for an official statement from ALA against the charges of communism, as she said the Legion was not inclined to believe her. She noted that, “It seems that the situation is going to become more serious that (sic) we had expected.”[3]
Paul Bixler, secretary of the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee, was rather incredulous in his response to Harlan over the accusation, noting “the gross misrepresentation” of ALA by the American Legion Post. Bixler brought up the appointment of L. Quincy Mumford as the Librarian of Congress less than two years before. Mumford was a former ALA President and then member of the ALA’s Executive Board, and Senator Joseph McCarthy had served on the committee that considered Mumford’s nomination. In his response to Harlan, Bixler posed the question, “Do the Legionnaires of Punxsutawney believe that Senator McCarthy … would have allowed a librarian who was President of the American Library Association to become Librarian of Congress if there was any suspicion that the American Library Association was a Communist front?”[4]
The Legion later walked back the editorial after the library board protested the “scurrilous attacks” on its members and being exposed to a legal liability. The Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom, a publication of the Intellectual Freedom Committee, announced the apology, writing that “The legal dangers of Editor Wehrle’s attack having been pointed out to the Post’s members, they not only issued a letter of apology to the Board for the editor’s remarks, but recalled a letter sent to the Borough Council asking changes in the Board’s membership.”[5]
Blog post adapted from: Cara Bertram, “The Freedom to Read: Stories of the Fight Against Library Censorship in the 1950s.” Caxtonian 33, no. 5 (September/October 2025): 6-9.
[1] “Legionnaire ‘Assults’ Public Library,” Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom 4, no. 2, January 1956, p. 4.
[2] Donald White to Punxsutawney City Council, January 3, 1956. Correspondence File, Record Series 69/1/5, Box 2, Folder: HA-HZ Correspondence, 1952-1956, American Library Association Archives.
[3] Mildred Harlan to Paul Bixler, January 7, 1956. Correspondence File, Record Series 69/1/5, Box 2, Folder: HA-HZ Correspondence, 1952-1956, American Library Association Archives.
[4] Paul Bixler to Mildred Harlan, January 10, 1956. Correspondence File, Record Series 69/1/5, Box 2, Folder: HA-HZ Correspondence, 1952-1956, American Library Association Archives.
[5] “Legion Post Apologizes,” Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom 4, no. 3 (April 1956): 1.