Persona non-grata: Judge Jane Matilda Bolin and the NAACP, 1930-1950

The Board's response did not neutralize the impact of Bolin's letter. Not only had the newspapers given more coverage to Bolin's letter than the Board's response. They had in some instances published the Board's reply but had, according to Wilkins, continued to "heap praise upon Judge Bolin's calculated attack upon the Association." (62) For example, the Cleveland Call and Post "Down the Big Road" column, which was intended to address the National Office's position, stated in its opening paragraph, "Judge Jane Bolin of the New York City Domestic Relations Court has done a real service to the NAACP by resigning. Her letter of resignation from the national board as one of its twenty vice-presidents brings out into the open, most of the complaints hundreds of other members have been making but have not been able to get into public print as did Judge Bolin." The writer then congratulated Judge Bolin for showing independence and voting her conscience and for having the courage to resent being made a "figurehead or stooge." (63)

Bolin had pierced the veil of this corporate body from the inside out. In the process she had also exposed the weaknesses of an organization that needed to be strong for all African Americans. Many praised her for her courage and commitment, but others condemned her for criticizing the NAACP publicly. In a letter to the Chairman of the Board, one NAACP member from New York City said how grieved he was to read of "Judge Jane M. Bolin's attack on the NAACP," and complained that while he could not pretend to comment on any of the issues involved he felt that "this method of airing differences can be more harmful than helpful." (64) Such condemnation was not uncommon in the Black community. According to scholars of the Black press, throughout the civil rights struggle a price was paid, and sometimes "it was the pain of a race member going 'outside' to air criticisms that most preferred to keep within the ranks." (65) Such was the price and pain of this episode. Yet, there is no easy accounting of that inflicted on Bolin. One memorandum from an NAACP member and self-identified expert witness for the Justice Department on policies, program, activities, teachings, and philosophy of the Communist Party and front organizations since 1937, captures the brunt of what she endured. Addressed to the Editor of the Pittsburgh Courier, the NAACP Acting Secretary Roy Wilkins, and the New York Branch Secretary Charles Levy, the memorandum bade good riddance to Judge Bolin then urged her resignation from the Family Court as well because of what was labeled her penchant for "Commy causes." (66)

Bolin risked more than a Board membership and a vice-presidency in the NAACP in her crusade to expose and hopefully correct the inconsistencies in the Association. In her fight for "participatory democracy" she risked her livelihood and her career. Her 1949 judicial reappointment by Mayor O'Dwyer was a difficult one. She did not need the added attention and "commy" labels during a mayoral administration framed by, what Thomas Kessner reminds us was, the era of the Cold War mentality, the fears that led to the excesses of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), of the new conservatism, and of the passing of insurgency politics. (67) Bolin's outspokenness was, therefore, as out of place and dangerous in the era of the Cold War as it was in the NAACP. Yet, she considered this a small price to pay for "informing the membership of some internal conditions which appeared to me," she said, "to need correction, if our Association is to be the effective and powerful instrument we want and need." (68)