Article 4: Attacking Communists as Commissioner: The Role of Earl J. McGrath in the Red Scare of the 1950s

Following World War II, fear rooted in Communist paranoia gripped America. This distress seeped into all aspects of American culture, including education. The American people became increasingly worried that Communist influences would infiltrate the schools and pervert the minds of children (Carlton 1985). At the forefront of this quagmire was Dr. Earl James McGrath, the U.S. Commissioner of Education from 1949 until 1953. Although McGrath’s role in the early 1950s hysteria over Communist influence has been explored in some respects by educational historian Stuart Foster of the University of London, we argue in this paper that McGrath played a more significant role than Foster describes in Red Alert! (Foster 2000). To argue this point, this study concentrates on McGrath by investigating his role in spreading anti-Communist sentiment through American education. He was, after all, America’s chief education officer during the height of the Cold War in the 1950s.