Editing Alan Lomax (section)

==FBI investigations==
From 1942 to 1979, Lomax repeatedly was investigated and interviewed by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (FBI), but nothing incriminating was discovered, and the investigation was abandoned. Scholar and jazz pianist [[Ted Gioia]] uncovered and published extracts from Alan Lomax's 800-page FBI files.<ref name=TedGioia>{{cite web |first=Ted |last=Gioia |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-apr-23-ca-lomax23-story.html |title=The Red-rumor blues |website=Los Angeles Times |date=April 23, 2006 |access-date=September 24, 2022 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220903015953/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-apr-23-ca-lomax23-story.html |archive-date=September 3, 2022}}</ref> The investigation appears to have started when an anonymous informant reported overhearing Lomax's father telling guests in 1941 about what he considered his son's [[communism|communist]] sympathies. Looking for leads, the FBI seized on the fact that, at the age of 17 in 1932 while attending Harvard University for a year, Lomax had been arrested in Boston, Massachusetts in connection with a political demonstration. In 1942 the FBI sent agents to interview students at Harvard's freshman dormitory about Lomax's participation in a demonstration that had occurred at Harvard ten years earlier in support of the immigration rights of one Edith Berkman, a Jewish woman, dubbed the "red flame" for her [[Trade union|labor organizing]] activities among the textile workers of Lawrence, Massachusetts, and threatened with deportation as an alleged "Communist agitator".<ref>See the Ann Burlak papers at the [http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss189_bioghist.html Archives of Smith College]. Miss Berkman was defended by a lawyer from the International Labor Defense, the same organization that later defended the [[Scottsboro Boys]]. See  "Edith Berkman Will Fight Deportation", [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1928&dat=19310729&id=ojYjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=wGoFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4498,2325885 ''Lewiston Daily Sun'' clip] for July 29, 1931.</ref> Lomax had been charged with disturbing the peace and fined $25. Berkman, however, had been cleared of all accusations against her and was not deported. Nor had Lomax's Harvard academic record been affected in any way by his activities in her defense. Nevertheless, the bureau continued trying vainly to show that in 1932 Lomax had either distributed communist literature or made public speeches in support of the Communist Party.

According to Ted Gioia:

<blockquote>Lomax must have felt it necessary to address the suspicions. He gave a sworn statement to an FBI agent on April 3, 1942, denying both of these charges. He also explained his arrest while at Harvard as the result of police overreaction. He was, he claimed, 15 at the time – he was actually 17 and a college student – and he said he had intended to participate in a peaceful demonstration. Lomax said he and his colleagues agreed to stop their protest when police asked them to, but that he was grabbed by a couple of policemen as he was walking away. "That is pretty much the story there, except that it distressed my father very, very much", Lomax told the FBI. "I had to defend my righteous position, and he couldn't understand me and I couldn't understand him. It has made a lot of unhappiness for the two of us because he loved Harvard and wanted me to be a great success there." Lomax transferred to the University of Texas the following year.<ref name=TedGioia/></blockquote>

Lomax left Harvard, after having spent his sophomore year there, to join John A. Lomax and John Lomax, Jr. in collecting folk songs for the Library of Congress and to assist his father in writing his books. In withdrawing him (in addition to not being able to afford the tuition), the elder Lomax had probably wanted to separate his son from new political associates that he considered undesirable. But Alan had also not been happy there and probably also wanted to be nearer his bereaved{{citation needed|date=May 2016|reason=Why "bereaved"?}} father and young sister, [[Bess Lomax Hawes|Bess]], and to return to the close friends he had made during his first year at the University of Texas.

In June 1942 the FBI approached the Librarian of Congress, [[Archibald McLeish]], in an attempt to have Lomax fired as Assistant in Charge of the Library's Archive of American Folk Song. At the time, Lomax was preparing for a field trip to the [[Mississippi Delta]] on behalf of the Library, where he made landmark recordings of Muddy Waters, [[Son House]], and [[David "Honeyboy" Edwards]], among others. McLeish wrote to Hoover, defending Lomax: "I have studied the findings of these reports very carefully. I do not find positive evidence that Mr. Lomax has been engaged in subversive activities and I am therefore taking no disciplinary action toward him." Nevertheless, according to Gioia:

<blockquote>Yet what the probe failed to find in terms of prosecutable evidence, it made up for in speculation about his character. An FBI report dated July 23, 1943, describes Lomax as possessing "an erratic, artistic temperament" and a "bohemian attitude". It says: "He has a tendency to neglect his work over a period of time and then just before a deadline he produces excellent results." The file quotes one informant who said that "Lomax was a very peculiar individual, that he seemed to be very absent-minded and that he paid practically no attention to his personal appearance." This same source adds that he suspected Lomax's peculiarity and poor grooming habits came from associating with the "[[hillbillies]]" who provided him with folk tunes.</blockquote>

Lomax, who was a founding member of [[People's Songs]], was in charge of campaign music for [[Henry A. Wallace]]'s 1948 Presidential run on the [[Progressive Party (United States, 1948)|Progressive Party]] ticket on a platform opposing the arms race and supporting [[civil rights]] for Jews and African Americans. Subsequently, Lomax was one of the performers listed in the publication [[Red Channels]] as a possible Communist sympathizer and was consequently blacklisted from working in U.S. entertainment industries.

A 2007 BBC news article revealed that in the early 1950s, the British [[MI5]] had placed Lomax under surveillance as a suspected Communist. Its report concluded that although Lomax undoubtedly held "left wing" views, there was no evidence he was a Communist. Released September 4, 2007 (File ref KV 2/2701), a summary of his MI5 file reads as follows:

<blockquote>Noted American folk music archivist and collector Alan Lomax first attracted the attention of the Security Service when it was noted that he had made contact with the Romanian press attaché in London while he was working on a series of folk music broadcasts for the BBC in 1952. Correspondence ensued with the American authorities as to Lomax' suspected membership of the Communist Party, though no positive proof is found on this file. The Service took the view that Lomax' work compiling his collections of world folk music gave him a legitimate reason to contact the attaché, and that while his views (as demonstrated by his choice of songs and singers) were undoubtedly left wing, there was no need for any specific action against him.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The file contains a partial record of Lomax' movements, contacts and activities while in Britain, and includes for example a police report of the "Songs of the Iron Road" concert at St Pancras in December 1953. His association with [blacklisted American] film director [[Joseph Losey]] is also mentioned (serial 30a).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mi5.gov.uk/output/communists-and-suspected-communists-3.html |title=4 September 2007 releases: Communists and suspected Communists |website=Security Services M15 |access-date=September 24, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090207040944/http://www.mi5.gov.uk/output/communists-and-suspected-communists-3.html |archive-date=February 7, 2009}}</ref></blockquote>

The FBI again investigated Lomax in 1956 and sent a 68-page report to the CIA and the Attorney General's office. However, William Tompkins, assistant attorney general, wrote to Hoover that the investigation had failed to disclose sufficient evidence to warrant prosecution or the suspension of Lomax's passport.

Then, as late as 1979, an FBI report suggested that Lomax had recently impersonated an FBI agent. The report appears to have been based on mistaken identity. The person who reported the incident to the FBI said that the man in question was around 43, about 5 feet 9&nbsp;inches and 190 pounds. The FBI file notes that Lomax stood {{convert|6|ft|m}} tall, weighed 240 pounds and was 64 at the time:

<blockquote>Lomax resisted the FBI's attempts to interview him about the impersonation charges, but he finally met with agents at his home in November 1979. He denied that he'd been involved in the matter but did note that he'd been in New Hampshire in July 1979, visiting a film editor about a documentary. The FBI's report concluded that "Lomax made no secret of the fact that he disliked the FBI and disliked being interviewed by the FBI. Lomax was extremely nervous throughout the interview."<ref name=TedGioia/></blockquote>

The FBI investigation was concluded the following year, shortly after Lomax's 65th birthday.