Series IV: Political Activities, 1957-1979, inclusive

Johnson's legislative and public relations activities for the communist party are documented through speeches and clippings, and his runs for office in New York mainly through clippings. There is interesting documentation of Johnson's trips to communist countries in Europe and to the Soviet Union; folders 7-9 and 15-17 provide insights into these travels both through Johnson's notes and his correspondence with Aurelia. There is little other background material, clippings for example, to further document these trips. Also of interest is the material relating to Johnson's refusal to register as a member of communist party under the McCarran Act in 1962, and his refusal to respond to the subpoena issued by the House Committee on Internal Security in 1970 (which was investigating the group New Mobilization Against the War in Vietnam). Both these incidents, which were never brought to trial, indicate Johnson's continued resoluteness in his beliefs in the freedom of speech. The folder of letters from Lee Harvey Oswald, mostly requesting basic information about the Communist Party, but also providing some description of Oswald's time spent in the Soviet Union and his interest in the Cuban cause, are worthy of note. Other principal correspondents include William Z. Foster and Eugene Dennis (box 4, folder 3, two brief letters).