Jack Tenney
Encyclopedia
Jack B. Tenney was an American politician who was noted for leading anti-communist investigations in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 in the 1940s and early 1950s. Tenney was also the composer of several well-known songs, most notably "Mexicali Rose
Mexicali Rose
"Mexicali Rose" is a popular song with music by Jack Tenney and lyrics by Helen Stone, published in 1923. The song is a love story of a man who must leave his love for a while. The chorus:...

".

Early career

Tenney was born in 1898 in St. Louis, Missouri, but moved to California in 1909. After serving in the Army during World War I, he returned home and worked his way through law school. While a young attorney, he turned to songwriting and wrote such songs as "Mexicali Rose
Mexicali Rose
"Mexicali Rose" is a popular song with music by Jack Tenney and lyrics by Helen Stone, published in 1923. The song is a love story of a man who must leave his love for a while. The chorus:...

" and "On the Banks of the Old Merced".

Tenney ran for the California State Assembly
California State Assembly
The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature. There are 80 members in the Assembly, representing an approximately equal number of constituents, with each district having a population of at least 420,000...

 as a Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 in 1936 and won. In 1940, he also served as one of California's electors, casting his vote for Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...

. In 1942, Tenney ran for the State Senate
California State Senate
The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature. There are 40 state senators. The state legislature meets in the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The Lieutenant Governor is the ex officio President of the Senate and may break a tied vote...

 as a Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

, and served three four-year terms there.

The Tenney Committee

Tenney made his name in the State Senate as a foe of communism, and was chair of the California Committee on Un-American Activities from 1941 to 1949. He stated, "You can no more coexist with communism than you can coexist with a nest of rattlesnakes." The chairman of the Senate's Fact Finding Committee on Un-American Activities, which investigated alleged communists in California, Tenney "vigorously attacked everyone he believed to be a Communist or to have Communist sympathies". Those investigated by Tenney's committee included:
  • singer, actor and activist Paul Robeson
    Paul Robeson
    Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...

  • writer Carey McWilliams
    Carey McWilliams (journalist)
    Carey McWilliams was an American author, editor, and lawyer. He is best known for his writings about social issues in California, including the condition of migrant farm workers and the internment of Japanese Americans in concentration camps during World War II...

     and other members of the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee
    Sleepy Lagoon murder
    Sleepy Lagoon murder was the name that newspapers and radio commentators used to describe the alleged murder of Jose Diaz, whose body was found on the Williams Ranch near a lagoon in southeast Los Angeles, California, on August 2, 1942...

  • housing expert Catherine Bauer Wurster
    Catherine Bauer Wurster
    Catherine Krause Bauer Wurster was a leading member of a small group of idealists who called themselves "housers" because of their commitment to improving housing for low-income families...

    , who successfully defended herself and her husband William Wurster
    William Wurster
    William Wilson Wurster was an American architect and architectural teacher at the University of California, Berkeley and at MIT, best known for his residential designs in California. - Biography :...

  • Guatemala
    Guatemala
    Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

    n-born labor organizer Luisa Moreno
    Luisa Moreno
    Luisa Moreno was a leader in the United States labor movement and a social activist. She unionized workers, led strikes, wrote pamphlets in English and Spanish, and convened the 1939 Congreso de Pueblos de Habla Española, the "first national Latino civil rights assembly", before "voluntarily"...

    .
  • actor Edward G. Robinson
    Edward G. Robinson
    Edward G. Robinson was a Romanian-born American actor. A popular star during Hollywood's Golden Age, he is best remembered for his roles as gangsters, such as Rico in his star-making film Little Caesar and as Rocco in Key Largo...

    , who Tenney denounced in 1949 as being "frequently involved in Communist fronts and causes"

Loyalty Oath

Tenney was instrumental in forcing the University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...

 to implement loyalty oaths on its faculty when he introduced legislation requiring such oaths. In 1949, as the head of the Un-American Activities, Tenney drafted legislation that would introduce a constitutional amendment
Constitutional amendment
A constitutional amendment is a formal change to the text of the written constitution of a nation or state.Most constitutions require that amendments cannot be enacted unless they have passed a special procedure that is more stringent than that required of ordinary legislation...

 to be placed on the state ballot that would give the state legislature authority over the university in matters of loyalty. Tenney's Senate Bill 130 would have forbidden the teaching of un-American subjects in the public schools of California, which would require to teach "Americanism."

The University's representative at the legislature, Comptroller James H. Corley, who served as the University's chief lobbyist, was alarmed as he felt that Tenney represented a political movement that was bound to succeed. After Corley consulted with Tenney, the loyalty oath program was implemented without recourse to the ballot, apparently without consulting with University chancellor Robert Gordon Sproul
Robert Gordon Sproul
Robert Gordon Sproul was eleventh President of the University of California serving from 1930 to 1958....

.
Ironically, Corley overestimated Tenney's power. He was ousted as the chair of the Un-American Activities Committe that year.

Other Political Activity

Tenney ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in 1944 and in 1949, the year he was removed from the chairmanship of his committee in 1949, he ran for mayor of Los Angeles, placing fifth. The conduct of the hearings, by a later account, "egregiously violated due process" and of the hundreds of people subpoenaed and interrogated in its eight years, not a single one had been indicted, much less convicted, of any sort of subversion.

In 1952, Tenney sought to move to the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

, accepting the help of anti-Semite Gerald L. K. Smith
Gerald L. K. Smith
Gerald Lyman Kenneth Smith was an American clergyman and political organizer, who became a leader of the Share Our Wealth movement during the Great Depression and later the Christian Nationalist Crusade...

. He lost to Joseph F. Holt
Joseph F. Holt
Joseph Franklin Holt, III was a U.S. Representative from California.Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, Holt moved to Los Angeles, California, with his parents when one year of age.He attended the public schools....

, who won the general election. Tenney also produced a number of anti-semitic books, one called Anti-Gentile Activity in America, another called Zionist Network from 1953.

Tenney ran for Vice President on the 1952 Christian National Party ticket headed by Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the...

. MacArthur had been "drafted" by the CNP (as well as the America First Party
America First Party
The America First Party is the name of multiple United States political parties:*America First Party , an isolationist political party in 1944*America First Party , formed by disgruntled members of the United States Reform Party in April, 2002...

 without his consent. The CNP ticket gained few votes. In 1954, the head of the state Republican committee pointed to this race as a reason to oppose Tenney for renomination.

In an April 1954 debate with Mildred Younger, who was challenging him for the Republican nomination for th 38th Senate District (which comprised Los Angeles County), Tenney denied under direct questioning from Younger that he had any knowledge of Gerald L.K. Smith, despite his having run as Vice President for Smith's party and for having appeared on the cover of Smith's The Cross and the Flag the month before the debate. Younger beat lost the general election to the Democratic candidate. The New York Times saw his defeat as part of the ending for McCarthyism.

Later life

Tenney moved to Banning, California
Banning, California
-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Banning had a population of 29,603. The population density was 1,281.6 people per square mile . The racial makeup of Banning was 19,164 White, 2,165 African American, 641 Native American, 1,549 Asian, 39 Pacific Islander, 4,604 from other...

 in 1959, and worked as a part-time city attorney in nearby Cabazon, California
Cabazon, California
Cabazon is a census-designated place in Riverside County, California, United States. The population was 2,535 at the 2010 census, up from 2,229 at the 2000 census.-History:...

. He ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1962. He died in 1970, survived by his wife and two children.
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