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Civil defence in the city: federal policy meets local resistance in Baltimore, 1957–1964

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 September 2015

ERIC S. SINGER
ERIC S. SINGER*
Affiliation:
619 Ray Dr. Silver Spring, MD 20910, USA
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Abstract:

Between 1950 and 1964, as a result of slight federal policy shifts, Cold War civil defence went from a pro-urban policy dedicated to the preservation of communities to an anti-urban policy focused on social control in the wake of an attack. Civil defence volunteers in Baltimore along with some of the city's civil defence paid staff, who had bought the federal message that they could protect themselves and their communities for nuclear war, allied with anti-nuclear activists against an increasingly militarized programme – one that by 1961 prioritized post-attack policing and de-emphasized the imperative to preserve urban neighbourhoods.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 42 , Issue 4 , November 2015 , pp. 547 - 563
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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References

1 Garrison, D., Bracing for Armageddon: Why Civil Defence Never Worked (Oxford, 2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Knowles, S., ‘Defending Philadelphia: a historical case study of civil defence in the early Cold War’, Public Works Management and Policy, 11 (2007), 217–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Krugler, D., This Is Only a Test: How Washington, D.C. Prepared for Nuclear War (New York, 2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Rose, K., One Nation Underground: The Fallout Shelter in American Culture (New York, 2004)Google Scholar.

5 Oakes, G., The Imaginary War: Civil Defence and American Cold War Culture (Oxford, 1995)Google Scholar; Grossman, A., Neither Dead nor Red: Civil Defence and American Political Development during the Early Cold War (New York, 2001)Google Scholar; Monteyne, D., Fallout Shelter: Designing for Civil Defence in the Cold War (Minneapolis, 2011)Google Scholar; McEnaney, L., Civil Defence Begins at Home: Militarization Meets Everyday Life in the Fifties (Princeton, 2000)Google Scholar. See Oakes and Grossman for discussions about how American Cold War civil defence authorities attempted to convert the public's nuclear terror into a milder and, thus, more manageable nuclear fear. See Monteyne for a thorough analysis of the impact of civil defence on American architecture and urban planning in the 1950s, 1960s and beyond.

6 J.W. Sundstrom to J.R. Nichols, 3 Jan. 1951, ‘City X’; Records of the Office of Civil and Defence Mobilization (OCDM), Record Group 304, Entry 31: A, ‘Records relating to civil defence, 1949–1953’, stack area 650, row 39, compartment 11, shelf 5, box 12, folder E4–27 ‘Interim CD Plans General’; National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD.

7 McEnaney, Civil Defence Begins at Home, 7–8.

8 www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB139/index.htm accessed 15 Aug. 2012.

9 McEnaney, Civil Defence Begins at Home, 58.

10 www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB139/nitze02.pdf accessed 15 Aug. 2012.

11 Ibid., 4.

12 Wittner, L.S., Resisting the Bomb (Stanford, 1997), 149Google Scholar.

13 http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/edu/docs/HistoricalInterest/Office%20of%20Civil%20and%20Defense%20Mobilization%20-%201959%20-%20Annual%20Rep.pdf, 1, accessed 15 Aug. 2012.

14 Ibid., 3–4.

15 Ibid., 20.

16 Ibid., 23.

17 Baltimore City Archives (BCA), 1960 Auxiliary Police RG38 S2 Box 1, ‘Emergency police reserve re-organization’, 18 Jan. 1960.

18 Ibid.

19 Ibid.

20 Ibid.

21 ‘Robinson urges Hepbron to quit’, Sun, 12 Mar. 1957, 40.

22 For beating, see ‘Probe is set in reported beating case’, Sun, 25 Jun. 1957, 38; ‘19 witnesses to appear in police-beating case’, 6 Jul. 1957, 26; for saluting and firing of black officer, see ‘Race question enters hearing’, Sun, 27 Jun. 1957, 38.

23 Report, ‘Emergency police reserve re-organization’, Baltimore City Police Department, Office of the Commissioner, Grady-Goodman Adm. File Civil Defence Advisory Committee, RG 9 S24 box 324, BCA, Baltimore, MD.

24 Ibid.

25 Ibid.

26 Brigadier General Thomas B. Catron to Mr John Edwards, 24 Mar. 1960, 1960 Auxiliary Police RG38 S2 box 1, BCA, Baltimore, MD.

27 ‘Army names 2 Marylanders’, Sun, 26 Jan. 1945, 8.

28 ‘2 named directors of Amoss Agency’, Sun, 29 Jun. 1953, 7.

29 Smith, R.H., OSS: The Secret History of America's First Central Intelligence Agency (Guilford, CT, 2005), 339–40Google Scholar.

30 ‘Notes of a meeting of the sub-committee of the Mayor's Civil Defence Advisory Committee’, 5 Apr. 1960, RG38 S2 box 1, 1960 Auxiliary Police, BCA, Baltimore, MD.

31 Ibid.

32 ‘Notes of a meeting of the sub-committee of the Mayor's Civil Defence Advisory Committee’, 9 Jun. 1960, RG 38 S2 box 1, 1960 Auxiliary Police, BCA, Baltimore, MD.

33 ‘Emergency police reserve re-organization’, 18 Jan. 1960, 1960 Auxiliary Police, RG 38, S2, box 1, BCA, Baltimore, MD, 5.

34 Chester A. Peyronnin to Captain Walter U. Messner, 23 Mar. 1960, 1960 Auxiliary Police, 38 S2 box 1, BCA, Baltimore, MD.

35 ‘Emergency police force to be set up’, Sun, 23 Aug. 1961.

36 Ibid.

37 ‘Volunteers in dispute with Shreve’, Sun, 31 Aug. 1961.

38 ‘Civil defence volunteers ask hearing’, Sun, 29 Sep. 1961.

39 ‘Schaefer asks probe of CD rift’, News-Post, 12 Oct. 1961.

40 No title, Afro-American, 21 Oct. 1961.

41 Ibid.

42 ‘Council drops CD inquiry’, News-Post, 25 Jan. 1962.

43 Ibid.

44 ‘Baltimore in ’61: a look back’, Sun, 1 Jan. 1962.

45 Ibid.

46 ‘Gen. Prather paid tribute’, Sun, 7 Jul. 1961, 10.

47 ‘Gen. Prather to head city civil defence’, Sun, 10 Dec. 1961, 40.

48 No title, News-Post, 25 Jan. 1962.

49 Jensen, J.M., Army Surveillance in America, 1775–1980 (New Haven, 1991), 238Google Scholar.

50 ‘Civil defence volunteers balk at lack of support’, Afro-American, 23 Jun. 1962.

51 Ibid.

52 Ibid.

53 ‘Two large areas without protection’, Afro-American, 7 Jul. 1962.

54 ‘Child injured as Baltimore mob attacks Negro boys leaving pool’, Washington Post, 25 Aug. 1962.

55 ‘Police role at scene of race incidents hit’, Washington Post, 13 Sep. 1962.

56 ‘Baltimore racial progress cited to counter talk of any disorder’, Washington Post, 4 Sep. 1964.

57 ‘Protests rise on city civil defence setup’, News-Post, 24 Nov. 1962.

58 Ibid.

59 ‘Civil defence on the defensive’, Sunday American, 23 Dec. 1962.

60 ‘Civil defence faces study’, Sun, 30 Jan. 1963.

61 Editorial ‘Civil defence’, Sun, 28 Jul. 1963

62 ‘Pressman calls for CD end’, Sun, 30 Aug. 1963.

63 Letter to the Editor, ‘Urges abolition of local CD unit’, News-Post, 5 Sep. 1963.

64 Letter to the Editor, ‘Civil defence “hoax”’, Sun, 7 Sep. 1963.

65 Letters to the Editor, Mr Benjamin Stoler to Mayor Theodore McKeldin, Sun, 4 Oct. 1963; Leon Shapiro to Mayor Theodore McKeldin, Sun, 4 Oct. 1963; Lloyd D. Haag to Mayor Theodore McKeldin, Sun, 26 Sep. 1963; Anne W. Niles to Mayor Theodore McKeldin, Sun, 24 Sep. 1963.

66 Letter to the Editor, Denny R. Colbert to Mayor Theodore McKeldin, 15 Oct. 1963.

67 ‘McKeldin to cut civil defence by 60 per cent in ’64’, Sunday American, 27 Oct. 1963.

68 Ibid.

69 ‘City abolishes CD and saves $102,000’, Evening Sun, 6 Nov. 1963.