page_title: Edward K. Barsky
section_title: Postwar
hierarchical_section_title: Edward K. Barsky / Postwar
caption_attribution_description: English: While newsmen take notes, Chairman Dies of House Committee investigating Un-American activities, proofs &amp; reads his statement replying to Pres. Roosevelt's attack on the Committee, Oct. 26, 1938
context_page_description: Edward K. "Eddie" Barsky was an American surgeon and political activist. Barsky is best remembered as the head of the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee, a Communist Party-sponsored organization which raised funds to aid refugees from the regime of Spanish strongman Francisco Franco in the late 1930s during the Spanish Civil War. In the 1950s Barsky became a cause célèbre as a victim of McCarthyism when he was imprisoned for refusing to provide information to the House Un-American Activities Committee.
context_section_description: Barsky was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) on February 13, 1946, where he refused to turn over the books, ledgers, and other financial documents of the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee, as was demanded. As a result, Barsky was charged with Contempt of Congress and brought to trial for his willful defiance of Congressional subpoena.
  In 1952 he worked on behalf of the American Labor Party and its candidate for President of the United States for the Progressive Party in the 1952 presidential election, Vincent Hallinan. During the 1960s, Barsky was active with the Medical Committee for Human Rights, which provided emergency medical services for civil rights and peace movement workers in the South. He was also affiliated with the New York labor movement, working for many years as a security plan panel physician for District Council 65.
  He died on February 11, 1975 in Manhattan, New York City.
caption: Chairman Dies of HUAC proofs his letter replying to President Roosevelt's attack on the committee, October 26, 1938
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