This series includes articles and published interviews arranged chronologically, providing a useful overview of Kaufman's career and public appearances. [For publicity about specific events and trials, see also SERIES III. LEGAL PRACTICE and SERIES VI. SPEECHES]. Awards and honors include letters and tributes to Kaufman and other Smith Act defense attorneys, John Abt and Joseph Forer. There are also a few photographs and a few items of memorabilia. There is also a substantial F.B.I. file on Mary Kaufman (see box 1a and 1b).

This series contains personal and other non-professional correspondence. The rest of the correspondence in the collection relates to specific legal cases, organization work, or other activities, and is filed in the appropriate series. This series is arranged in three subseries: Family, Friends and associates, and Legal and financial. Friends and associates, include a General file of personal correspondence arranged chronologically. Included here are congratulatory letters to Kaufman on the establishment of her private practice in 1950, and personal letters from friends and colleagues. After the General file, correspondents are arranged alphabetically. Locations of additional material by and about individuals can be located by checking the Name Index.

This series includes files generated from Kaufman's early work for government labor agencies, her participation in the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, her private practice and consultative work, and Mass Defense Office cases. The series is arranged roughly chronologically, although the Smith Act cases and related appeals, circa 1948-65, are grouped together.

The "General files" at the beginning of the series include materials related to her bar certification and early job applications. These are followed by correspondence, memoranda, and briefs from her tenures with the National Labor Relations Board, the National War Labor Board, and the National Wage Stabilization Board, 1939-46. The Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal files include court documents and briefs providing an overview of the case against the international chemical cartel, I.G. Farben. "The documents involving Nuremberg point to the mechanisms of imperialism, the relationship between big business and government and to the influence of cold war politics on the second tier of war crimes trials…." (from "Description of my files," Sophia Smith Collection). Also included is a small amount of correspondence and notes, and judgements from other Nuremberg tribunals. A set of 120 bound volumes containing the complete I.G. Farben trial transcript and indices was transferred to the Yale University Law Library.

The Smith Act, passed by Congress in 1940, made it a crime to teach or advocate the violent overthrow of the United States government. Kaufman's Smith Act case files document her participation in some of the most significant political trials of the Cold War period. Kaufman served on the defense team of the first Smith Act trial of the C.P.U.S.A. national leaders in U.S. v. Eugene Dennis, et al., in New York City, 1948-49. From 1952 to 1956 she represented several of the same defendants in appellate proceedings and went on to lead the defense teams in the trials of second tier and state-level party leaders in New York, St. Louis, and Denver.

The Smith Act "General" files contain material pertaining to more than one Smith Act case and include correspondence between lawyers handling Smith Act cases around the country, publicity produced by the Defense Committee, and background information on government informers who testified repeatedly in different Smith Act trials. After the General files, the individual Smith Act cases are arranged chronologically.

Filed at the end of the Smith Act cases are the case files of several appeals that emerged out of U.S. v. Dennis, et al. These include Robert Thompson's contempt appeal and appeals for the reinstatement of his veteran's benefits after they were revoked when he was convicted as a Communist. Kaufman also worked on the defense for attorneys Harry Sacher and Abraham Isserman who were found guilty of contempt during the Dennis trial. She also represented the Trustees of the Bail Fund of the Civil Rights Congress of New York in several matters, including their appeal on a contempt charge for refusing to name individuals who had contributed to the fund.

These case files provide important (and often hard to find) primary source material that documents Communism and communists in the U.S., including biographical information, histories of grassroots activities around the country, court transcripts of Party member testimonies, and revealing personal correspondence with state and national party leaders. Some of the people represented are Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Claudia Jones, Robert Thompson, James and Dorothy Forest, and Betty Gannett. Of particular interest within the Smith Act trial records is the extensive correspondence between Kaufman, other attorneys, and various defendants regarding their defense strategies. The Research and preparation files include extensive background information on witnesses, including C.P.U.S.A members turned informants for the government. Also of interest is research material compiled on racial and class compositions of the local communities and used to challenge the make-up of the juries in several cases.

Filed after the Smith Act cases, are materials relating to Kaufman's representation of individuals and organizations brought before the House Un-American Activities Committee (H.U.A.C.) and the Subversive Activities Control Board (S.A.C.B.), between 1950 and 1966. In addition, there is material on Kaufman's defense of individuals threatened with deportation by the Immigration Service, or those who had difficulties obtaining passports because of suspected Communist affiliations.

The remaining cases in the series date from 1950 to 1984 and are arranged chronologically and include other anti-Communist cases, union matters, civil rights cases, and the defense of political activists and prisoners. Among these are materials pertaining to Kaufman's work in 1950-51 on an unsuccessful attempt for a stay of execution for Willie McGee, a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman in Mississippi. Kaufman's Mass Defense Office case files, circa 1968-72, include documentation of her work on an amicus brief for the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression's defense of imprisoned Black Panther Party member David Rice in 1974. Other cases include several class action civil suits on behalf of prisoners in Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan. (For additional materials relating to the Mass Defense Office see SERIES V. ORGANIZATIONS AND CONFERENCES.) Files of the Hickam 3 and Trident cases, 1972-1984, cover Kaufman's work as legal consultant and expert witness on international law in the trials of anti-Vietnam War and anti-nuclear weapons activists. Also included in this series is material relating to her 1974 trip to Greece with other human rights advocates to investigate, and bring international attention to, brutality practiced against hundreds of political prisoners under a fascist rule.

The records of each case are arranged alphabetically by type (or function) as follows: Briefs, Correspondence, Court documents, Publicity, Research and preparation, and Transcripts. Correspondence is generally arranged chronologically unless there is a significant amount with one individual, in which case it is in a separate file. Research and preparation files are arranged alphabetically by subject at the end of each case.

[See Information on Use for restrictions]

This series is arranged in three subseries: Antioch College, Hampshire College, and Course materials. The first two subseries include correspondence and course evaluations written by students and colleagues. The Antioch College subseries also includes materials related to a 1973 campus strike in response to financial aid cuts and the layoff of union workers. Kaufman and other faculty participated in the strike and were dismissed for obstructing the entrance to an administration building. After several months of review procedures and hearings for the terminated faculty, Kaufman was reinstated.

The Course materials include syllabi, lecture notes, and research files for courses taught by Kaufman at both Antioch and Hampshire College. (See also SERIES VIII. RESEARCH for unidentified notes and subject files that may have been used for these courses).

This series documents four decades of Kaufman's involvement in numerous causes, particularly the Civil Rights and peace movements, and international human rights. Materials relating to her participation in several international war crimes tribunals are also included here. The series is arranged alphabetically by name of the organization or conference. See the Name Index for organizations represented in other series.

The largest amount of material in this series relate to Kaufman's work with the National Lawyers' Guild, including her terms on its national executive board and on the board of the New York City chapter. Types of material include correspondence with other Guild members; Guild publications; files on committee work; convention materials; and files on special projects, such as the preparation of amici curiae briefs for a Supreme Court appeal of the C.P.U.S.A. against the Subversive Activities Control Board, circa 1955-61. The Guild's Mass Defense Office (M.D.O.) records include correspondence; histories of the M.D.O.; and publications. Kaufman was director of the M.D.O. office from 1968 to 1971. Cases she worked on during that period are located in SERIES III. LEGAL PRACTICE.

Other organizations represented include the International Association of Democratic Lawyers; the Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy; the Lawyers' Committee on American Policy Towards Vietnam; and the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. Kaufman was invited to take part in several international tribunals investigating U.S. war crimes. In 1967, she represented the National Lawyers' Guild at the International War Crimes Tribunal on American Involvement in Vietnam in Paris, sponsored by the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation. She was a member of an international team of experts invited to Japan to investigate "the full implications of the use of the atom bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki," in 1977. And in 1984, Kaufman served on the International Tribunal on the Reagan Administration's Foreign Policy, sponsored by the International Progress Organization, in Brussels .

This series contains published articles, unpublished drafts, notes, and research materials arranged alphabetically by title or topic. A recurring topic of Kaufman's writings is Nuremberg and the war crimes principles as they relate to the Vietnam War and the nuclear arms race. Other subjects include the Cold War and anti-communism. Writings produced for specific projects, committees, or organizations (such as a history of the Mass Defense Office) are filed in SERIES V. ORGANIZATIONS AND CONFERENCES. Unidentified drafts and notes are filed by subject in SERIES VIII. RESEARCH.

[SEE ALSO SERIES VIII. RESEARCH AND SUBJECT FILES - unidentified drafts]

This series contains speech texts, notes, related correspondence, publicity, and research arranged alphabetically by subject or event name. Subjects include anti-communism, nuclear disarmament, international law, Nuremberg, the Civil Rights movement, and the Vietnam War. Papers and addresses given at conferences, tribunals, and other events that were sponsored by organizations in which Kaufman was active are filed in SERIES V. ORGANIZATIONS AND CONFERENCES. See also SERIES III. LEGAL PRACTICE for testimonies given by Kaufman in the Trident and Hickam 3 cases; course lectures in SERIES IV. TEACHING, and SERIES I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS for clippings publicizing Kaufman's activities, some of which include speaking. Unidentified notes that may also have been used for speeches are filed by subject in SERIES VIII. RESEARCH.

[SEE ALSO SERIES VIII. RESEARCH AND SUBJECT FILES - unidentified drafts]

This series is arranged alphabetically by subject, including five major subject areas: anti-communism, Germany, Nuclear disarmament, Nuremberg and Nazis, and the Vietnam War. There are smaller amounts of material on international law, the Cold War, racism, the Civil Rights movement, U.S. foreign policy, various individuals, and miscellaneous topics. Types of material include articles, legal documents, unpublished writings by others, correspondence, notes and unidentified drafts, newspaper clippings, and printed materials. Kaufman's original file titles have been retained wherever possible.

Most of these files appear to have been Kaufman's working files that were referred to, and added to, repeatedly over many years for a variety of projects, including legal cases, course lectures, articles, and speeches. Research files that were identified by Kaufman for specific purposes are filed in the appropriate series, such as Research and preparation files under each case in SERIES III. LEGAL PRACTICE, and Course materials in SERIES IV. TEACHING.