[1][2] The Abraham Lincoln School for Social Science was founded by prominent civil rights activist and attorney William L. Patterson, who had organized the defense of the Scottsboro Boys.
Robeson's outspoken support of civil rights and the labor movement, and criticism of American foreign policy, had led to government scrutiny and resulting in his blacklisting by many concert halls.
[3] Soon afterwards, the school was accused of being an adjunct of the Communist Party USA by Attorney General Tom C. Clark in December 1947,[4] again in the 1948 by the California Senate Factfinding Subcommittee on Un-American Activities[5] and a target of HUAC during the years leading up to McCarthy Era.
[6] Faculty members included Morris Backall, Michael Baker, Frank Marshall Davis, Horace Davis, David Englestein, Morton Goldsholl, Pat Hoverder, Alfonso Iannelli, Leon Katzen, Ludwig Kruhe, Herschel Meyer, Henry Noyes, William L. Patterson, Fred Ptashne, Eleanore Redwin, Boris M. Revsine, Frank Sokolik, William Rose, Herman Schendel, Bernice Targ, Morris Topchevsky, and Alban Dewes Winspear.
[7] A notice appearing in a catalog of the school stated that "prominent citizens participating in our efforts" include Paul Robeson, Rockwell Kent, Lee Pressman, Howard Fast, Albert E. Kahn, and Henrietta Buckmaster.