Herman Elsas Liveright

Herman Elsas Liveright was the son of noted publisher Horace B. Liveright and wife Lucille Elsas. He was born in New York City on January 11, 1912. He married television personality Betty Fouche and had two children. He was a staunch supporter of civil rights and freedom of speech. He died from heart failure after hip surgery, in Corpus Christi, Texas, on January 19, 2001.

In March of 1956, Herman Liveright was subpoenaed to testify brfore the Senate internal security sub-committee led by Senator James O. Eastland, D-Mississippi. He refused to answer the sub-committee's questions concerning whether he or his wife was or had ever been members of the Communist Party, whether he had held Communist Party meetings in his home and whether he and his wife had been directed by the Communist Party to move to New Orleans.

He did not claim rights of the Fifth Amendment against self incrimination. He stated that the First Amendment protected him in challanging the sub-committee's right to question his activities in his home or place of employment and his or his wife's beliefs. He also stated that: "...I oppose the committee probing into my private affairs. I deny that I've engaged in activities that are unlawful."

He was convicted of contempt of Congress and sentenced to a three month jail term and a fine. Five years of litigation resulted in a Supreme Court decision to overthrow the conviction in 1962, citing a fault in the indictment. Much of his later life was spent championing those he felt were political prisoners of America.

Below are several tributes written at the time of his death.

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• http://amarillo.com/stories/020701/012901/obi_liveright.shtml

Lifelong activist Herman Liveright dies after surgery

Posted: Monday, January 29, 2001, The Associated Press

Herman E. Liveright, a radical and social activist whose refusal to testify during a McCarthy-era investigation got him fired from a New Orleans television station, is dead at the age of 89.

Liveright died Jan. 19 in Corpus Christi, Texas, of complications from surgery.

WDSU-TV, then New Orleans' dominant station, hired him as a director in 1953 and made him program director in 1954. Before that, he was an associate director at ABC-TV in New York, where he gave actress Eva Marie Saint her first on-camera job.

The Senate internal security subcommittee led by Sen. James O. Eastland, D-Miss., subpoenaed Liveright in March 1956.

He refused to answer questions including whether he was or had ever been a member of the Communist Party, whether he held party meetings at his home and whether the party had told him to move to New Orleans.

Unlike many uncooperative witnesses, Liveright did not cite his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Instead, he said the First Amendment protected him from being asked about his beliefs and activities.

"I've no desire to be a martyr, but I oppose the committee probing into my private affairs. I deny that I've engaged in activities that are unlawful," he said at the time.

WDSU fired him the next day. His wife, Betty Fouche Liveright, was fired from her job at Tulane University, where she worked on a TV show called "Tulane Closeup."

WDSU owner Edgar Stern Jr. said his station would never knowingly employ a Communist or anyone who refused to answer questions from a congressional committee.

The New Orleans Item quoted Liveright as saying it was "ridiculous" for anyone to suggest he had ever been a Communist, but an obituary in The Boston Globe said Liveright and his wife joined the Communist Party in 1936, the year they married.

After he was fired, Liveright moved from New Orleans to rural St. Tammany Parish. He later left Louisiana.

Liveright was convicted of contempt of Congress in 1957 and received a three-month jail sentence and fine. A 5-2 Supreme Court ruling in 1962 overturned the conviction, citing a fault in the indictment.

Born in New York in 1912, Liveright was the son of New York publisher Horace B. Liveright, co-founder of the Modern Library.

After studying drama at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Herman Liveright assembled a youthful theatrical revue that performed aboard a showboat on the Ohio River. He also founded a theater company, the Pittsburgh Playhouse, before going into television.

From the 1960s until 1972, he was development director for the Highlander Research and Educational Center in Knoxville, Tenn., which conducted workshops on social and political problems for residents of Appalachia.

He also was among the founding members of Philadelphians for Equal Justice, an organization formed to fight racism in that city.

In recent decades, the Globe reported, Liveright and his wife lived in Lenox, Mass., near the site of the Berkshire Forum, an educational center they founded in 1972. For 20 years the forum sponsored workshops on controversial political issues and causes. Speakers at the workshops included Alger Hiss, Grace Paley, Nora Sayre, Robert Meeropol and Noam Chomsky.

During the past 10 years, Liveright and his wife focused their energies on people they considered political prisoners. They interviewed men and women in state and federal prisons nationwide; "Their Chance to Speak" is a book based on the interviews.

Despite his firm political and social beliefs, family and friends said Liveright had a ready sense of humor and even mischief.

Besides his wife, survivors include a son, Timothy Liveright of Newtown, Pa.; a daughter, Beth Liveright of Oakland, Calif.; a sister, Lucy L. Wilson of Newton, Mass.; and two grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held Feb. 25 at 3 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Pittsfield, Mass.

• http://www.iberkshires.com/community/printerFriendly.php?ob_id=148

Herman E. Liveright

January 19, 2001

Herman Elsas Liveright, 89, of Pittsfield Road died Friday at his winter home in Corpus Christi, Texas, of heart failure following surgery for a hip replacement.

Mr. Liveright and his wife, the former Betty Fouche, in 1972 founded the former Berkshire Forum in Stephentown, N.Y., an educational center that organized weekend workshops on controversial social and political issues.

Born Jan. 11, 1912, in New York City, son of publisher Horace B. Liveright and Lucile Elsas Liveright Emptage, he grew up in New Rochelle, N.Y., where he attended public schools. He also attended Deerfield Academy in Deerfield and majored in drama at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pa.

After college, Mr. Liveright worked at Paramount Pictures in New York City as a screen reader and became director of the Screen Readers' Guild. He was an associate director of ABC-TV in New York City until 1953, when he moved to New Orleans to become a producer at WDSU-TV, an NBC affiliate.

Mr. Liveright became involved in desegregation there and was fired from the station after being indicted for contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions or to cooperate with Mississippi Sen. James Eastland's subcommittee on internal security.

He moved to Philadelphia and did fund raising for nonprofit organizations, then joined Highlander Research and Educational Center in Knoxville, Tenn., as development director. He moved to Lenox in 1972.

He and his wife's desire for a political discussion forum that could promote socialist ideas resulted in the founding of the Berkshire Forum in Hancock. A year later, the internationally recognized forum moved to Stephentown, where it operated for 18 years. The couple also led study trips to Cuba, East Germany and Panama.

The Liverights retired as forum directors in 1990 to work with U.S. political prisoners. They traveled for two years across the country, visiting and interviewing political prisoners at state and federal prisons. The book "Their Chance to Speak" is a compilation of their interviews. In 1994, they published "This Just In," a monthly bulletin containing information contributed by and distributed to political prisoners.

Mr. Liveright was a founding member of Philadelphians for Equal Justice and an American Communist Party member during the 1930s and '40s.

Besides his wife of 65 years, he leaves a son, Dr. Timothy Fouche Liveright of Newtown, Pa.; a daughter, Beth Liveright Matuszak, of Oakland, Calif.; a sister, Lucy L. Wilson of Newton, and two grandchildren.

A memorial service for Herman Liveright will be held Sunday, Feb. 25, at 3 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church, Wendell Avenue, Pittsfield. Mr. Liveright is also survived by two grandchildren, Joshua Aaron Liveright and Elizabeth Stanbury Liveright.

• http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-8631624.html

Herman Elsas Liveright, a lifelong activist for social change, died in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Jan. 19 2001 from complications following surgery. He was 89.

Mr. Liveright and his wife, Betty Fouche Liveright, lived in Lenox, not far from the site of the Berkshire Forum, the educational center they founded in 1972. For 20 years, the forum sponsored workshops on controversial and, sometimes, radical political issues and causes.

The forum was the culmination of more than four decades of work dedicated to social justice and equality, and an embodiment of Mr. Liveright's unpretentious idealism and wry congeniality.

<nowiki>----------</nowiki> Links to additional material:

*http://www.keywiki.org/index.php/Herman_Liveright

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• http://articles.philly.com/2001-01-24/news/25310108_1_neighborhood-...
• http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/06/business/herman-liveright-activis...
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