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Harvard's secret court : the savage 1920 purge of campus homosexuals
- Author
- Wright, William, 1930-2016.
- Title
- Harvard's secret court : the savage 1920 purge of campus homosexuals / William Wright.
- Format
- Book
- Edition
- 1st ed.
- Published
- New York : St. Martin's Press, ©2005.
- Description
- 294 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
- URL
- <Contributor biographical information> http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0624/2005047702-b.html <Publisher description> http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0624/2005047702-d.html
- Notes
- Includes bibliographical references pages (283-284) and index. Paperback.
- Contents
-
- Prologue: A dark place
- The students. A death on high street
- Shaken Harvard
- A walk along the Charles
- A rare outbreak of evil
- Harvard and the homosexual
- America's gay dossier
- A party in Perkins
- The court in session
- The cunning and the damned
- Farce to tragedy
- Enduring wrath
- Surviving Harvard. Settling dust
- The Kenneth Day story
- The Joe Lumbard story
- The Keith Smerage story
- Survival struggles
- The Nathaniel Wollf story
- The Lester Wilcox story
- Homophobia's long march
- Loose ends
- Epilogue: Discovering secrets.
- Summary
- In 2002, a researcher for The Harvard Crimson came across a restricted archive labeled "Secret Court Files, 1920." The mystery he uncovered involved a tragic scandal in which Harvard University secretly put a dozen students on trial for homosexuality and then systematically and persistently tried to ruin their lives. In May of 1920, a freshman suspended from Harvard committed suicide. The note he left behind revealed his secret life as part of a circle of homosexual students. The resulting witch hunt remains one of the most shameful episodes in the history of America's premier university: Harvard conducted its investigation in secrecy. Several students committed suicide; others were subjected to an ongoing effort on the part of Harvard to destroy their reputations. This book is an indictment of the human toll of intolerance and the horrors of injustice that can result when a powerful institution loses its balance.--From publisher description.
- Subject headings
- Harvard University--Students--History--20th century. Gay college students--Massachusetts--Cambridge--History--20th century. Gay people in higher education--Massachusetts--Cambridge--History--20th century. Discrimination in higher education--Massachusetts--Cambridge--History--20th century.
- Genre heading
- History.
- ISBN
- 0312322712 9780312322717 0312322720 9780312322724
- Standard Identifier
- 9780312322717 99810582621