In 1956 John Ogden Bigelow, attorney and jurist, was nearly denied a position on the board of governors of Rutgers University because as a lawyer he had defended accused Communist schoolteacher Richard Lowenstein; after bitter debate and personal appeals from New Jersey's governor, the state senate finally agreed to confirm Bigelow.

In 1953 Herbert Brownell, Jr., became U.S. attorney general under President Dwight Eisenhower. He served in the post until his resignation in October 1957. During his first year as attorney general, in November 1953, Brownell made headlines by accusing the Harry S Truman administration of promoting known-Communist Harry Dexter White to a highlevel position in the State Department.

In 1954 Roy Cohn, chief counsel for the Senate Permanent Investigations Subcommittee, resigned from the position after facing considerable criticism during that year's army-McCarthy hearings.

Beginning in 1952 Reed Cozart, a pioneer in prison reform, led the effort...