Alan Barth

Alan Barth (October 21, 1906 – November 20, 1979) was a 20th-century American journalist and author, specializing in civil liberties, best known for his 30-year stint as an editorial writer at The Washington Post as well as his books, particularly The Loyalty of Free Men (1951).

In 1945, Barth denounced a threat by white drivers of buses in Washington, DC, who threatened to strike if the city started to hire black drivers: "To bar men from serving in these jobs because of their race or color is at once to hamper the war program and to subvert the principles for which the war is being waged."

In 1950, he defended the performance Earl Browder (former head of the Communist Party of the USA, by McCarthy's Congressional investigating committee for "refusing to identify and stigmatize certain persons whose names were presented to him."

[1][2] Barth helped change the identity of the Washington Post from conservative to liberal and to an institution dedicated to civil liberties.

[5][6] His best-known book is probably the posthumously published The Rights of Free Men: An Essential Guide to Civil Liberties, a collection of his articles, editorials, speeches, and other material.

Eugene Meyer hired Barth to The Washington Post
March on Washington (August 28, 1963), showing Joseph L. Rauh Jr. (center)–Barth's close friend– with Martin Luther King Jr. (left), Whitney Young, Roy Wilkins, A. Philip Randolph, Walter Reuther , and Sam Weinblatt.