Aptheker and Samarin at Yale

Still waters are not immobile. Like most colleges these days, Yale is calm. Yet two incidents within the last year involving professors show in what direction the hidden currents are running.

Herbert Aptheker is a member of the central committee of the Communist Party, U.S.A., and its candidate for the Senate in New York. He is also a historian, and his connection with Yale began last fall when a group of students invited him to teach a one-term course on the life and thoughts of W. E. B. DuBois. Aptheker accepted, and the proposed course was passing routinely through the usual channels when it was unexpectedly vetoed by the History Department, on the grounds that Aptheker lacked the necessary scholarly integrity to teach at Yale. There followed an intricate procedural ballet—students trying to circumvent professors—which caused more excitement than anything since the Shockley-Rusher debates. The Political Science Department came to Aptheker’s support; there were modest rallies and a petition collecting 2,200 signatures; Aptheker himself came to speak on campus. In April, after a sixmonth struggle, the seminar was finally approved.

About the Author

Richard Brookhiser

Historian Richard Brookhiser is a senior editor of National Review and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute.

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Still waters are not immobile. Like most colleges these days, Yale is calm. Yet two incidents within the last year involving professors show in what direction the hidden currents are running.

Herbert Aptheker is a member of the central committee of the Communist Party, U.S.A., and its candidate for the Senate in New York. He is also a historian, and his connection with Yale began last fall when a group of students invited him to teach a one-term course on the life and thoughts of W. E. B. DuBois. Aptheker accepted, and the proposed course was passing routinely through the usual channels when it was unexpectedly vetoed by the History Department, on the grounds that Aptheker lacked the necessary scholarly integrity to teach at Yale. There followed an intricate procedural ballet—students trying to circumvent professors—which caused more excitement than anything since the Shockley-Rusher debates. The Political Science Department came to Aptheker’s support; there were modest rallies and a petition collecting 2,200 signatures; Aptheker himself came to speak on campus. In April, after a sixmonth struggle, the seminar was finally approved.