[2] Founding members included: George T. Delacorte, Jr., founder of Dell Publishing, which included Dell Comics, served as president,[1] and Manhattan attorney Henry E. Schultz, president of the board of Queens College and a member of the New York City Board of Higher Education, as executive director.
[3] The ACMP was formed after "accusations from several fronts charged comic books with contributing to the rising rates of juvenile delinquency",[1] and city and county ordinances had banned some publications[4] though these were effectively overturned with a March 29, 1948, United States Supreme Court ruling that a 64-year-old New York State law outlawing publications with "pictures and stories of deeds of bloodshed, lust or crime" was unconstitutional.
[5] Regardless, the uproar increased upon the publication of two articles: Spencer, West Virginia held a comic-book burning on October 26, 1948.
Like the Production Code, it forbid portrayals of crime that might "throw sympathy against the law" or "weaken respect for established authority," and prohibited "ridicule or attack on any religious or racial group."
Describing the situation in 1954 at a comic book hearing conducted by the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, Director Schultz said: "The association, I would say, is out of business and so is the code.
"[14] In 1954, a mounting tide of criticism, including a new book by Wertham — Seduction of the Innocent — and congressional hearings, spurred the formation of the ACMP's successor, the Comics Magazine Association of America (CMAA).