Lamont, Corliss (1902-1995)
Item
Title
Lamont, Corliss (1902-1995)
Description
Corliss Lamont was an American socialist and philosopher. He received a degree from Harvard and spent 1924 at Oxford. He received a PhD from Columbia University and taught philosophy there.
During the 1930s he became involved in political activism becoming a board member and eventual director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He wrote several books including The Philosophy of Humanism (1949). He admired the Soviet Union and was the head of the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship (NCASF). He was targeted as a communist by Joe McCarthy but was able to overturn the charges against him. While he supported Marxism, he never joined the Communist Party. In 1952 he ran for senator under the Labor Party and again in 1958 as an Independent-Socialist. In 1964 Lamont sued the Postmaster General for reading and refusing to deliver his mail. The justification was the anti-propaganda law of 1962 that allowed the Postmaster General to destroy possible communist political propaganda. The case went to the Supreme Court and Lamont v. Postmaster General deemed the law unconstitutional.
He married Margaret Hayes Irish on June 8, 1928. After they separated, he married Helen Boyden Lamb in 1962. She passed in 1975. His last marriage was to Beth Keehner. He had four children, Margaret "Margot" Hayes Heap, Florence Parmelee Antonides, Hayes Corliss, and Anne Sterling Jafferis.
During the 1930s he became involved in political activism becoming a board member and eventual director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He wrote several books including The Philosophy of Humanism (1949). He admired the Soviet Union and was the head of the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship (NCASF). He was targeted as a communist by Joe McCarthy but was able to overturn the charges against him. While he supported Marxism, he never joined the Communist Party. In 1952 he ran for senator under the Labor Party and again in 1958 as an Independent-Socialist. In 1964 Lamont sued the Postmaster General for reading and refusing to deliver his mail. The justification was the anti-propaganda law of 1962 that allowed the Postmaster General to destroy possible communist political propaganda. The case went to the Supreme Court and Lamont v. Postmaster General deemed the law unconstitutional.
He married Margaret Hayes Irish on June 8, 1928. After they separated, he married Helen Boyden Lamb in 1962. She passed in 1975. His last marriage was to Beth Keehner. He had four children, Margaret "Margot" Hayes Heap, Florence Parmelee Antonides, Hayes Corliss, and Anne Sterling Jafferis.
Source
"Corliss Lamont in the New York State, Marriage Index, 1881-1967." Ancestry.
"Corliss Lamont in the U.S., Newspapers.com™ Marriage Index, 1800s-current." Ancestry.
“Corliss Lamont (1902-1995).” Find a Grave.
"The honing of a humanist." The Guardian, 19 May 1995, p.14.
“Corliss Lamont.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 25 June 2024.
Rights
Public Domain
Birth Date
1902-03-28
Birthplace
Englewood, New Jersey, USA
Death Date
1995-04-26
Source of File Attached
“Corliss Lamont.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 25 June 2024.
Collection
Citation
“Lamont, Corliss (1902-1995),” Englewood Makes History, accessed October 24, 2024, https://englewoodmakeshistory.org/items/show/195.
