The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 80, July 1976 - April, 1977 Page: 165
492 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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McCarthyism in Houston
close of World War II, Ebey served as textbook consultant to the Chico
schools and became active in the liberal American Veterans Committee
(AVC). Founded in 1944 as a progressive alternative to older, more con-
servative veterans' organizations such as the American Legion, the AVC,
at its 1946 national convention, issued a list of positions and goals that
indicated its liberal nature. The AVC called for international control of
atomic energy, cooperation between the United States and the Soviet
Union, a guaranteed annual wage, more Tennessee Valley Authority-type
projects, and an end to discrimination against labor unions, blacks, and
Asian-Americans. The liberal group counted among its members such
people as Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Congressman Jacob Javits, General
of the Army Henry H. Arnold, and actor Ronald Reagan.5
George Ebey's active involvement in the AVC eventually resulted, in
x947, in his election as chairman of the California state organization. As
chairman, Ebey sought to promote the liberal program of the AVC. Speci-
fically, under his guidance the California chapter lobbied for public hous-
ing programs and initiated an anti-discrimination campaign which featured
a "racial and religious cooperation week." In April, i947, Ebey addressed
the National Conference of Social Work in San Francisco. His speech,
later published in the Social Service Review, denounced bigotry and racism
of all kinds, attacked the growing "red mist of hysteria" as a threat to
liberty, and called for a strengthening of the United Nation's police powers
in order to insure world peace."
Ebey's affiliation with such a liberal organization as the AVC and his
own social and political ideas as stated in his address to the social workers
provided the basic elements in the charges made against him by Houston
McCarthyites. That he belonged to liberal organizations and publicly ad-
vocated progressive social programs might have been sufficient grounds
in itself for an attack by Houston's conservative establishment. The es-
sential problem of his involvement in the AVC was compounded by an
internal struggle within the organization between Communist and anti-
ported the Loyalist cause against Franco, Americans who had joined pro-Loyalist
organizations in the 1930s were often accused in the 1950s of being "fellow-travelers."
5General Research Company, "George William Ebey," I, 52; Charles G. Bolt6, "The
New Veteran," Life, XIX (December io, I945), 57, 58, 60, 63, 64, 66; Time XLVII
(June 24, 1946), 23; Houston Post, July 19, 1953. Ebey received the Legion of Merit
by direct command of General Henry Arnold because of the quality of his contributions
to Arnold's staff. Lauris Norstad to Commanding General, Army Air Forces, Personnel
Services Division, Awards Branch, December 15, 1946, Ebey Papers, Box 5, File 15.
6"AVC Regrets," Fortnight, III (September 12, 1947), 16 (first quotation); George
W. Ebey, "The Social Responsibility of the Veteran in a Democracy," The Social Service
Review, XXI (September, 1947), 354-362, 360 (second quotation).165
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 80, July 1976 - April, 1977, periodical, 1976/1977; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101204/m1/197/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.