A Letter to Jo

From Bob McCormick --

Jo: Thank you for your email. Yes, I was very sad indeed today to learn of your dad's death on Monday. I heard about it on NPR and it was also on Democracy Now, (as well as in the NY Times). What an incredible fighter for human rights, especially First Amendment rights! American history will remember Frank for his courageous fight against those abuses and for his contribution to constitutional rights. I will also remember his life-time commitment and fight for equality and economic justice for everyone.

He was a real hero for me when I first began to understand the forces that were at work in our "free and democratic society." His courageous stand against HUAC was an early object lesson for me, a very young, and still "innocent" political novice fresh from Grosse Pointe. I followed both Frank and Carl Braden's courageous stand that earned them a jail sentence, and I read Anne's wonderful, empowering book. That was all just around the time of my first real political action...collecting money with a few socialist friends in Detroit to buy a car to send to Montgomery to support Rosa Park's fledgling bus boycott. I was learning about the suppression of rights and oppression in America. In those days, there were few real public heroes for someone young and new to the struggle like me, still in high school, but your dad was a huge and very important one. I will never forget him for his great courage and contributions to the struggles for human rights...and to my own personal growth.

I know you must be very sad, but it was great that you were able to be with him when he died.

Love to you,

Bobby

Frank on Film...

When I was going to film school at UCLA in 1979, I made a documentary for my master’s thesis about the lack of affordable housing in Los Angeles. I compared Chavez Ravine to Pico Union where they were tearing down low-income housing and using federal funds from the CRA to expand Pep Boys Corporate headquarters. Frank narrates the section about Chavez Ravine, he gave me access to his press clippings to video tape and we shot him sitting on hillside overlooking Dodger Stadium. Consequently Frank helped me get my MFA! As a surprise and a thank you, my father-in-law, Dr. Robert Einstein, rebound all his huge clipping books because they were falling apart when he lent them to me.

Marsha Goodman