The Ed and Jean Yellin HUAC Papers (1948-2019) consist of materials relating to the Yellins' legal battles against the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). The materials detail the effects on the Yellins' lives during and after their battle to defend Ed's First Amendment rights, and their later decision to publish a memoir about their experiences. The collection consists of five series: Correspondence, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Files, Newspaper Clippings, Research Files, and In Contempt Manuscript Drafts and Notes.
The Correspondence series consists of detailed correspondence between Ed Yellin and various parties. The bulk of the correspondence is from 1957-1965, beginning with Yellin's HUAC hearing in Gary, Indiana. The series includes correspondence with attorney Victor Rabinowitz, letters regarding Yellin's suspension from the University of Illinois and revocation of his NSF grant and subsequent academic reinstatement, correspondence with supporters and other First Amendment defendants, graduate fellowship and postdoctoral applications, correspondence with Johns Hopkins University, support from previous professors, and correspondence with organizations such as the ACLU and the New York Council to Abolish HUAC.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Files series consists of records the FBI compiled on Ed and Jean Yellin. There are files specifically for Jean Fagan Yellin and Ed Yellin, as well as some combined files. These records document the FBI's surveillance of the Yellins as early as 1950. The records were obtained by a Freedom of Information Privacy Act request in the 1980s. Some documents have redacted information.
The Newspaper Clippings series consists of original newspaper articles, primarily from 1958-1963, that relate to Ed Yellin, his legal battles with HUAC, and with the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the University of Illinois over his academic suspension. There are also articles detailing other HUAC and First Amendment cases and anti-HUAC sentiment.
The Research Files series consists of documents collected by Ed Yellin in the course of his contempt of Congress trial, subsequent appeals, and battle for academic reinstatement. These documents are case notes and briefs, court transcripts, press releases, publications by the ACLU and other organizations, anti-HUAC newsletters and pamphlets, journal articles, and notes about his defense.
The In Contempt Manuscript Drafts and Notes series consists of materials relating to the Yellins' process of publishing a memoir of their experiences in the 1950s and 1960s against HUAC. The materials begin with the genesis of the idea of publishing a book, early interview transcripts, and other information gathering, and progress to chapter drafts, revisions, notes, archival material requests, illustrations, and chronologies.
Ed and Jean Yellin wrote a self-published memoir, In Contempt: Defending Free Speech, Defeating HUAC, that is being published by the University of Michigan Press in 2022. The book describes Ed Yellin's refusal to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1958 and the effect of the case on the Yellin family in the following years.
Edward Leon Yellin was born in New York, New York, on July 2, 1927. He was raised there and attended the College of the City of New York before transferring to the University of Michigan. Jean Fagan Yellin (1930-) was raised in East Lansing, Michigan, and attended the University of Michigan, earning a Bachelor of Arts at Roosevelt University and a Master of Arts and PhD from the University of Illinois. Jean is a historian and literary scholar, and is Distinguished Professor Emerita of English at Pace University, New York.
Upon marrying, Jean and Ed moved to Gary, Indiana, in 1948 so that Ed could work in the steel mills. They started a family and remained in Gary until 1956. Ed left the Communist Party in 1956, and the Yellins moved to Fort Collins, Colorado, where Ed returned to college at Colorado State University. He received a subpoena in 1958 to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee to be questioned about his involvement in Communist Party "colonization" in the Gary mills. Yellin refused to answer questions on the basis of the First Amendment and was subsequently convicted of contempt of Congress. This began a years-long legal battle with appeals going to the Supreme Court. Yellin was represented by lawyer Victor Rabinowitz.
Ed completed his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering at Colorado State University in 1959. He was accepted into a graduate program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to continue his study of mechanical engineering. During his graduate study, Yellin obtained fellowships from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute for Health (NIH), but these were revoked when knowledge of his conviction arose. His NSF fellowship was eventually reinstated. The Supreme Court overturned his contempt conviction in 1963, but Yellin continued to face harassment and discrimination in the academic and professional worlds. He went on to have a distinguished career in biomedical engineering at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, becoming Professor Emeritus of Physiology and Biophysics, and Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery. Ed Yellin died in January 2020.