Seven things to know about the Kentucky Un-American Activities Committee

After World War II, Congress and many of the states created special legislative committees to hunt for communists among individuals and groups who were considered — for whatever reasons — to be suspicious.

Kentucky came late to the game, launching the Kentucky Un-American Activities Committee in 1968.

The group, known by many as KUAC, was only an interim committee, authorized to meet until the next legislative session in 1970. But it made plenty of headlines with investigations of civil rights activists and anti-poverty workers who protested conditions around the state.

Some politicians in Frankfort said these protests were dangerously subversive.

Here are seven things to know about KUAC.

1. Who created it?

The General Assembly established the Kentucky Un-American Activities Commission (KUAC) during its 1968 session.

But Republican Gov. Louie Nunn, a staunch conservative, picked the 10 legislators who sat on it, even pressuring a few skeptical men who privately hoped to avoid it. Nunn also provided KUAC with a $50,000 budget from his own office so it wouldn’t have to compete with other legislative committees for money.

2. Who were the members?

• Sen. Scott Miller Jr., R-Louisville, was chairman.

• Rep. Lloyd Clapp, D-Wingo, vice chairman.

• Sen. Lawrence Wetherby, D-Frankfort, who was governor from 1950 to 1955.

• Sen. Carl Hadden Sr., D-Elkton.

• Sen. Clifford Latta, D-Prestonsburg.

• Sen. Charles Upton, R-Williamsburg.

• House Majority Leader Fred Morgan, D-Paducah.

• Rep. George Massey Jr., D-Bowling Green.

• Rep. Harold DeMarcus, R-Stanford.

• Rep. Theron Kessinger, R-Cromwell.

3. What was KUAC’s mission?

To look for dangerous “subversives” who were making trouble in Kentucky under the orders of our communist Cold War adversaries, the Soviet Union and China.

Under House Resolution 84, KUAC was charged with investigating anyone “known to be or suspected of being dominated or controlled by a power seeking to impose a foreign political theory upon the government.”

KUAC was authorized to meet until the 1970 session of the General Assembly, when it would issue a final report.

4. Did anyone challenge it?

Yes.

A collection of the state’s civil rights and civil liberties groups filed two lawsuits in U.S. District Court, both of which were unsuccessful. The groups said an investigation by KUAC was likely to violate Kentuckians’ rights to free speech and free association. Their appeals went as high as the U.S. Supreme Court before KUAC could begin its work.

5. What did KUAC investigate?

The committee held two sets of hearings. The first, in Frankfort, looked into the deadly riots that took place in Louisville’s mostly Black West End neighborhoods in May 1968. The second, in Pikeville, examined the Appalachian Volunteers and other anti-poverty groups operating in Eastern Kentucky in cooperation with Pikeville College.

In both Louisville and Pikeville, the committee suspected that subversive elements operating among the groups were responsible for plotting against the forces of law and order.

6. Did KUAC find any communists?

No.

Although communists were referenced in ominous warnings by KUAC members and in newspaper headlines about the committee, it uncovered no actual communists in Kentucky.

7. What were the results?

KUAC issued a set of conclusions.

It blamed the Louisville riots at least in part on Black men who spoke at a May 27, 1968, rally protesting police misconduct and racial injustice. KUAC said those speakers incited the crowd with talk of Black power.

It also called on Nunn to order the Appalachian Volunteers out of Eastern Kentucky, saying the group’s community organizers were agitators who created problems while serving no legitimate purpose.

A criminal conspiracy case followed in Louisville against the so-called “Black Six,” although it would get tossed out of court by a judge for lack of evidence. Many years later, the city of Louisville apologized for the prosecution.

In Eastern Kentucky, the Appalachian Volunteers lost their public funding and closed. Their local ally, the liberal young president of Pikeville College, who was criticized at KUAC’s hearings, was ousted and left Kentucky.

And somebody — no arrests were ever made — bombed the Pike County home where anti-poverty workers Alan and Margaret McSurely lived with their 1-year-old son, shortly after KUAC witnesses accused them of sedition.

KUAC called for several new laws, some eventually enacted and others not, such as stronger penalties for arson, interfering with firefighters and felons carrying guns, a ban on explosive “Molotov cocktails” and greater curfew powers for local officials.

Finally, KUAC said it should get to continue permanently under a new name, the Internal Security Investigative Committee. But a vote on that measure failed in the 1970 legislature.