Scope and Content Note
The papers of Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. (1911-1992), span the years 1913-2008, with the majority of the items concentrated between 1950 and 1984. The bulk of the papers documents Rauh's career as a public interest lawyer who handled cases pertaining chiefly to civil rights, civil liberties, and labor disputes. Also interfiled throughout the collection are a few papers of his law partners, John Silard and Elliott C. Lichtman. There are five parts and a restricted portion.
Part I of the Rauh Papers consist of eight series: Personal Correspondence, General Correspondence, Americans for Democratic Action File, Hubert H. Humphrey Campaign File, Subject File, Legal File, Appointment Books, and Miscellany.
Papers in the Personal Correspondence series, 1938-1988, and General Correspondence series, 1949-1980, consist of incoming and outgoing correspondence pertaining to Rauh's legal cases and to social and political issues that interested him, particularly civil rights, civil liberties, and labor. The General Correspondence pertains mostly to Rauh's legal cases, while the Personal Correspondence relates principally to his private interests. There is a great deal of similar material in both series, however, since he supported several causes both publicly and privately. Because the two series overlap, some of the same correspondents and many of the same topics appear in both. Each series includes correspondence between Rauh and his family, friends, acquaintances, and the general public, although family correspondence is limited and appears mostly in the early years of the Personal Correspondence series. Personal Correspondence files from 1946 to 1949 have indexes appearing at the beginning of each folder which list correspondents and, at times, topics. General Correspondence from 1973 to 1980 consists primarily of outgoing letters. The correspondence is filed in the same arrangement in which it was transferred to the Library.
The Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) File, 1949-1976, documents Rauh's activities as a member and officeholder of this political advocacy group. The papers document Rauh's activities as an organizer, public speaker, and fund-raiser. In addition, he testified about a wide variety of issues on ADA's behalf before many congressional committees. The papers further document Rauh's and the organization's position on civil rights, foreign and domestic policy, government loyalty/security measures, communism, civil liberties, national political campaigns, and other issues. Rauh and the ADA worked to defeat the attempt by Henry Wallace and his Progressive Party to assume the leadership of American liberalism in 1948. Rauh and the ADA were also active in moving civil rights to the center of the liberal agenda and in inserting a civil rights plank into the platform of the Democratic party. Rauh was also one of the first to object to the tactics used by Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee. The ADA files further reflect Rauh's efforts in behalf of civil rights and encouraging an anti-Vietnam War position within the Democratic party in 1967. Additional ADA-related correspondence appears in the Personal and General Correspondence files.
The Hubert H. Humphrey Campaign File, 1956-1963, pertains to Humphrey's unsuccessful 1960 presidential campaign. Rauh, vice chairman of the Democratic Central Committee in the District of Columbia in 1959-1960 and a close friend of Humphrey, campaigned actively on the senator's behalf. The papers relate primarily to Rauh's fund-raising activities and plans for campaign strategy.
Papers in the Subject File, 1944-1988, document Rauh's activities and interests in affirmative action, civil rights, civil liberties, labor issues, union democracy, politics, and other issues. The papers show Rauh's active support in the Democratic party for civil rights and party reform. In addition, they reflect his role in the formulation and enactment of civil rights legislation. There are files containing correspondence and material that Rauh used to oppose the Supreme Court nominations of Clement F. Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell. Also included are files pertaining to Rauh's unsuccessful fight against William H. Rehnquist's nomination to the Court and his subsequent elevation to chief justice. These papers also document Rauh's participation in attempts, 1950-1975, to curb the use of the filibuster in the Senate. Papers related to his support for home rule in the District of Columbia are located in the District of Columbia, Democratic Central Committee files.
The Legal File, 1948-1986, constitutes the majority of the collection and consist chiefly of case files of Rauh's clients. Many of these cases are public service ones in which Rauh defended underrepresented groups and interests. Most of the cases pertain to civil rights, rights of trade unions, such as the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and the United Auto Workers, abuses of the federal loyalty/security programs, and other civil liberties issues. Two of Rauh's notable clients were Lillian Hellman, whom he represented before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and the members of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. For the latter he won a symbolic offer of two seats for the Freedom Party at the 1964 Democratic National Convention, thereby ending the seating of segregated delegations. A letter to Rauh from Arthur Miller in which Miller describes his reaction to Marilyn Monroe's death is located in Jacobo Muchnik's file. A large miscellany subseries is composed of briefs, writs, and congressional committee prints concerning cases that Rauh handled.
The final two series include Appointment Books, 1955-1986, and Miscellany, 1913-1988. The Appointment Books series consist of calendars recording Rauh's personal and business engagements. Papers in the Miscellany series are chiefly speeches, writings, interviews, and Rauh's letters to newspaper and magazine editors concerning his positions on various legal, political, and social issues.
Part II, a 1989 addition to the Rauh Papers, consists chiefly of correspondence and legal papers relating to Orlikow v. United States, a case in which Rauh represented Velma Orlikow and eight other defendants who were brainwashed without their knowledge or consent at the Allan Memorial Institute in Montreal, Canada. Experiments were performed on the patients by psychiatrist Ewen Cameron, who was funded from 1958 until 1960 by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Part III, a 1994 addition complementing Rauh's papers received in previous installments, includes personal correspondence, subject files, legal files, speeches, and writings. The subject files document Rauh's activities and interests in civil rights, politics, and the Supreme Court. Almost all of the legal files relate to Orlikow v. United States.
Part IV, a 1999 addition, also supplements previous installments of the Rauh Papers and includes personal correspondence, subject files, legal files, oral history interviews, speeches, writings, and letters of condolence to Rauh's wife upon his death in 1992. The subject files relate primarily to Rauh's interest in civil rights and the Supreme Court. Wage and hour legislation files from 1939 to 1942 chronicle Rauh's service as counsel to the Department of Labor. Prominent correspondents in Part IV include Benjamin N. Cardozo, Benjamin V. Cohen, and Felix Frankfurter.
Part V , a 2015 addition, features some topics and time periods common to other parts of the Rauh Papers. It includes correspondence, legal files, speeches and writings, family papers, oral history interviews, press and magazine articles about Rauh, and files relating to his death. The majority of the addition relates to correspondence and legal papers pertaining to Rauh's client, William Walter Remington. Rauh defended Remington against charges of perjury resulting from his denial under oath that he had participated in a Soviet espionage ring and that he had been a member of the Communist Party. Remington was convicted of perjury and murdered in prison. The correspondence also includes some letters to Rauh's wife Olie.
Other prominent and frequent correspondents in the collection include Carl A. Auerbach, William J. Brennan (1906-1997), Paul H. Douglas, Felix Frankfurter, Jack Greenberg, Aaron Henry, Edward D. Hollander, Hubert H. Humphrey, Lyndon B. Johnson, Edward M. Kennedy, James I. Loeb, Eugene J. McCarthy, Walter Reuther, Eleanor Roosevelt, Arthur Meier Schlesinger (1917- ), James A. Wechsler, Roy Wilkins, and Joseph Yablonski.