page_title: Ruth A. M. Schmidt
section_title: Washington Cooperative Bookshop
hierarchical_section_title: Ruth A. M. Schmidt / Loyalty hearings / Washington Cooperative Bookshop
caption_attribution_description: English: First page of Executive Order 9835 instituting loyal review programs for all federal employees
context_page_description: Ruth Anna Marie Schmidt was an American geologist and paleontologist who was a pioneer for women scientists. She spent most of her career in Alaska, where she established a United States Geological Survey field office and established the first Department of Geology at the Anchorage Community College, now part of the University of Alaska Anchorage. In 1964, Schmidt directed the initial assessment of the damage done to the city of Anchorage by the Great Alaska Earthquake, the largest earthquake in North American history, and the second largest earthquake ever to be recorded. She worked for the USGS in Washington, DC during the era of McCarthyism and was investigated twice for disloyalty because of her membership in the interracial Washington Cooperative Bookshop. She was cleared both times. She earned a number of awards, honors, and letters of commendation and appreciation. After her death in 2014, she was recognized as a philanthropist.
context_section_description: During the McCarthy era, Schmidt was investigated twice for possible disloyalty to the US government. At issue was her involvement with the Washington Cooperative Bookshop, a retail store in Washington, DC, that sold books, records, magazines, and art. Persons who joined the cooperative as members received a discount on purchases. The Bookshop advocated for racial equality between African Americans (then called Negroes) and whites during a time when Washington was largely racially segregated, and sold books on African American topics, records featuring black musicians, and sponsored lectures, social activities, and concerts for interracial audiences.
  On December 5, 1947, the Washington Post published a list of organizations that Attorney General Tom C. Clark had branded as subversive and/or communistic. The list came to be known as the Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations, or AGLOSO. This was the first time the list was made public, although parts of the original list, compiled in 1943, had previously been leaked. The list was based on secret information, and the organizations listed were not given opportunities to see the evidence that led to their listing, nor were they able to refute the allegations. The list was created after President Harry S. Truman issued Executive Order 9835 that established a loyalty review process to ensure that no one who was disloyal to the US government would be federally employed. The Washington Cooperative Bookshop was included on the 1947 list that was published in the Washington Post; the Bookshop was categorized as Communistic. The reasons given for the listing included sale of communist literature and the fact that the Bookshop hosted speakers thought to be communist or subversive. Of particular concern in Schmidt's case was the sale of the magazines The New Masses; literature associated with the American Youth Congress; pamphlets and other material published by the American Peace Mobilization, and Schmidt's attendance and participation in lectures such as that by Edwin C. Randall about the political implications of atomic energy.
  
  Schmidt said this about why she became a member:
  I became a member of the Washington Cooperative Bookshop in August 1945 ... Since my arrival in Washington during the war (I came in early 1943) I had been disturbed by the segregation of negroes  [sic], and the unequal treatment they received in the capital of our country. I felt that such a situation was bad for this country, particularly when we were waging a war for equal rights, and against discrimination. In 1945, towards the end of this war, I happened to read Richard Wright's BLACK BOY—and this incensed me to the point of wanting to do something besides talk about it. I had heard of the Bookshop, probably from a folder I may have picked up in the store, as I frequently browsed in the bookstores along 17th street on the way to the Virginia buses on K Street. As I have always approved of cooperatives ... I decided to join this cooperative bookshop that claimed to be interracial.
caption: First page of Executive Order 9835, signed by President Harry S. Truman on March 21, 1947
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