FOREIGN RADIO COMMENTARY ON U.S. CIVIL RIGHTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-04864A000100030001-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: R
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 21, 1998
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: June 16, 1947
• Content Type: IR

Approved For Release 1999/0t : -RDP78-04864A000100030001-6
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CENT t.L INTELLIGENCE GROUP
INTELLIGENCE REPORT
COUNTRY Foreign Radio TrenasoitUra
SUBJECT Forel. Radio Cceeentary on
U.S. Civil Rights
ORIGIN ?Melo Radios
EVALUATION OF SOURCE
A TTET9
0
t
F
COMPLEFELY
RELFABLE
USUALLY FAIRLY
RELIABLE RELIABLE
[
fiat! USUALLY
RELIABLE
NOT
RELIABLE
CANNOT BE
JUDGED
DATE:
INFO. 1 May - 16 June xg,
DIST. 8 July 1947
PAGES 2
SUPPLEMENT
EVALUATION OF CONTENT
13
4
56
CONFIRMED P OBAJ3LY
OTHER SOUR. TRUE
POSSIBLY
TRUE
DOUBTFUL
PROBABLY
FALSE
CANNOT BE
JUDGED
SOURCE
Inifoign &Aim
The period '3M eovers broalaasting froalliday 1 to 'dad 16, 1947
The data i therd P.026 the !SIB Daily Reports), the wesoeyFRIS Special
Reports end other Intereepts not included in one or lee',,h of the Reportn.
AIX mailable foreign radio comentary purporting to shoi violations of
Ameriean civil rights originetee on with Soviet or Sovietecoatrolled
tramemittere.
The Soviet treatuent of alleged violation* of the 13th and the 14th
Amendments and the Civil Rights Bills of 1866, 1870 and 1875 is currentle
handled in ter of:
Raw discriminetion:
2. Congressional Committee on Un-Aneriacal Activities:
? Loyalty investigation of Govermaant eelplareas and of
veterans:
4. Freed of speech and press.
In aoma oees single radio item include RAVO than one of the mingle
subjects, obviously since maeh of the material is topically interrelated,
The brak oe Moscow's criticism appsaes to be focueeed on U.S.
diserimiration against Negroes. The lyaehings in southern States afford d
ready vehicle for several ammenteries on the deprivation of the civil
rights of regvo citizens, i.e. the right to fair trial. The well-worked
the is presented in several contexts, aside from the lynching incidents.
The Soviet showing of the Americat play "Deep Axe the Roots," the Americee
system of edueation etich"teechts race discrimination," American motion
pletures Welch "repeated.11rportray the eceepted and degraded position of
the Negro," 'la:ranch" of the Dec:. Cu Klux Elan, Swedish opinion
on U.S. race disneimination, and the "-Voice of America's" treatmant of tbo
lynthings, are all utili2ed aa springbeeeda for Soviet commeetary in this
topical catagore%
CLARSIF! TIoN amPRWIR1FRIPIIIRm
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The Un-American Activitiee Congressional Committee is being given
increasingly greater emphasis by the Soviet radio in its attempt to illustrate
the current "Disavowal" of traditional American civil rights. Moat of the
melltions involving the Committee are in connection with other standard
Soviet approaches: "U.S. Trade Union struggles with domestic reaction,"
Antrican anti-Ocamunisk, the motion picture industry "witchhuntl" Henry
WaIlace$s statements on the "reactionary Congress and its activities in
defasing progressive individuals and organizations."
Constituting more or less of.a corollary then* of the foregoing
are the specific observations on the "loyalty check" to which civil servants
in the employ of the U.S. Federal Government are being subjected, and
Congressional efforts to penalize veterans who" "espouse liberal causes or
win addit to progressive ideals." This category, however, is not directly
tied to the Un-American Activities Committee, but is rather pegged to the
American "anti-Communist campaign." .
The restriction of U.S. press and free speech is a regularly
reviewed topic used by the Soviet radio in "proving the degeneration or
American civil rights." In conveying evidence in this connection, Moscow
employs a variety of material, including the Soviet drama "The Fate of
Reginald Davis" who Is "court-martialed for publicly adhering to old-
fashioned Rooseveltian" democratic opinion," "fabrications" of anti-
Ccuamnist American newspapermen, the "capitalistic control" of the American
press, and the refusal of American radio facilities to "liberal radio
commentators such as Johannes Steel."
s docent cont, 4efernion
at the 4efense of the
United ,, within the meaning of
the Espionage 0 U.S.C. 31 and
32 as amended / salon Or
the revelation of its o. s in any
manner to an authorized pews
prohibited by law,
Approved For Release 1999/09/01 : CIA-RDP78-04864A000100030001-6