Samuel P. Sears' response to communist paranoia leads to Law Day

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, a craze swept the nation years before rock n' roll threatened to corrupt impressionable young minds: Communism was jeopardizing everything America stood for, and vigilance was critical.

No one was above suspicion: federal employees, entertainers and even teachers were required to take loyalty oaths. In 1950, the American Bar Association appointed a committee to investigate communist strategies, and in 1951, a committee of the Massachusetts Legislature proposed that lawyers take a loyalty oath.

Specifically, lawyers would have to "solemnly swear" that they did not belong to any organization seeking the overthrow of the state or federal government. Refusing to do so would prevent new members from being admitted to the bar; current members would be suspended.

The ABA and the Boston Bar Association both assigned committees to investigate the communist threat, and both endorsed the proposed oath in its entirety.

The Massachusetts Bar Association's Executive Committee opposed it, however. MBA President Samuel P. Sears (1950-53) felt the best way to thwart the spread of communism was through education and appreciation for the court system.

"Amidst the rampant fingerpointing and the rhymeless, unreasonable harassment of many innocent people, Sears attempted to find a grassroots solution to what was, in the hearts and minds of Americans of the fifties, a real and frightening problem," Robert J. Brink wrote in Fiat Justitia, A History of the Massachusetts Bar Association 1910-1985.

The MBA sponsored The Good Citizenship Program in March 1952, with the goal of having a prominent lawyer share "the priceless heritage that is theirs in this country's judicial system." with every high school in Massachusetts.

"One of the greatest bulwarks in our fight against Communism is our free legal institutions, because if Communism ever came here, we'd have no legal system. We'd be slaves," Sears said. "I thought high school students should know this - they're the ones who'll run things within a few years. And I thought they should also know - hear from the lips of lawyers, men who are in our courts daily - that the fight for our kind of system did not come easy."

The Good Citizenship Program lasted for just one year, but Sears' successor, Robert W. Bodfish, reintroduced it as the Massachusetts Heritage Program in 1954. It was a wild success. More than 100 lawyers spoke to an estimated 50,000 high school students, media coverage was extensive and Gov. Christian A. Herter proclaimed December 1954 as Massachusetts Heritage Month.

The ABA, which presented the MBA its Award of Merit in recognition of the program's "outstanding and constructive work," ran with the idea in 1958, designating May 1 as Law Day, a national program that continues today.