Joseph P. Kamp

Joseph P. Kamp (May 3, 1900 – June 7, 1993)[1] was an American political activist from New York who ran the Constitutional Educational League and was jailed in 1950 for contempt of Congress.

[4] In 1942 and 1943, two federal grand juries issues indictments against people and organizations conspiring against US involvement in World War II; the League appeared both times.

[4] During the 1944 presidential campaign, the Constitutional Educational League published a brochure, Vote CIO and Get A Soviet America.

A federal grand jury, investigating 1944 campaign expenditures, sought to find out who the League's financial backers, as requested by a congressional subpoena; Kamp refused to answer.

[2] Others who also defied Congress over similar issues include: Edward A. Rumely of the Committee for Constitutional Government and Merwin K. Hart of the National Economic Council, Inc.[2]

Kamp was tried another time for congressional defiance in 1951, when he failed to produce records for the House Lobby Investigating Committee.

He went as far as to imply that President Dwight D. Eisenhower was worse than Adolf Hitler for using federal troops to enforce the Brown v. Board ruling.

Kamp was associated with Alfred Kohlberg, Merwin K. Hart, Edward A. Rumely, J.B. Matthews, and William F. Buckley Jr.[15] He also associated with Elizabeth Dilling, author of The Red Network—A Who's Who and Handbook of Radicalism for Patriots (1934).

[3] Gerald L. K. Smith (1898–1976) far-right clergyman and leader of the Christian Nationalist Crusade called Kamp a "well-informed and fearless patriot.