Ben Margolis

Ben Margolis (April 23, 1910 – January 27, 1999) was an American attorney, best known for defending the Hollywood Ten and the Sleepy Lagoon murder suspects and for helping to draft the United Nations Charter.[1][2][3][4]

Career

Margolis was born in New York, the son of Socialists who fled persecution of Jews in their native Russia. His family moved west to Santa Barbara, Calif., when he was a teenager. He attended Hastings Law School in California, opening a practice in San Francisco in 1933.[5]

Margolis had a law partnership for half a century with John T. McTernan.[6]

In the early years of the Second Red Scare Margolis testified before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) on September 30, 1952, and refused to answer questions or name names. He told the committee that he had "no intention of becoming one of your stool pigeons," and he told them that they had "terrorized ... the people of the United States."[7]

Personal life

Margolis commissioned a noteworthy home by architect Gregory Ain which was built by his partner James Garrott in 1951.[8][9] The two architects had been partners for 11 years at the time,[10][11][12] and were alternately "Garrott & Ain" or "Ain & Garrott," depending on who was responsible for design, while on other projects they simply assisted each other's solo work without credit.[13][14]

Ain drew the preliminary drawings for the Margolis house in February 1951, but as Garrott later recalled Ain "got cold feet because of the McCarthy hearings."[15] Garrott took over the project, executed the working drawings, and supervised the construction. Garrott is the only architect named on the original building permits[16] and also the only architect named in a 2004 book titled African American Architects,[17] but Ben Margolis' son Ken, who was ten years old at the time the house was built, knew Ain to be the architect.[15]

References

  1. ^ "Ben Margolis Dies; Defense Lawyer in 'Hollywood 10' Case". Los Angeles Times. February 6, 1999. Retrieved January 2, 2012.
  2. ^ "Law and Social Conscience, Ben Margolis". University of California, Special Collections. 1984. Retrieved January 2, 2012.
  3. ^ "John McTernan Dies". Washington Post. 5 April 2005. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  4. ^ McTernan, John (1999). "Ben Margolis: A Lifetime of Contempt for Injustice and Oppression". Guild Practice. 56. National Lawyers Guild: 1. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  5. ^ "CIVIL RIGHTS LAWYER BEN MARGOLIS DIES AT 88". Washington Post. Retrieved December 23, 2023.
  6. ^ "Religion an Issue at Trial of 16 Reds". New York Times. 17 April 1952. p. 11. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  7. ^ United States. Congress. House. Committee on Un-American Activities (1952), Communist activities among professional groups in the Los Angeles area. Hearings, vol. 3, U.S. Govt. Print. Off.
  8. ^ Denzer, Anthony (2008). Gregory Ain: The Modern Home as Social Commentary. Rizzoli Publications. ISBN 978-0-8478-3062-6. Archived from the original on 2008-06-17. Retrieved 2012-07-07.
  9. ^ Goldin, Greg (August 18, 2011), "Ben Margolis and Gregory Ain: A meeting of radical minds", Los Angeles Times
  10. ^ "Architect Garrott Moves Office; Takes On Partner". California Eagle. Los Angeles. May 2, 1940. pp. 9B.
  11. ^ "GREGORY AIN (1908-1988)". US Modernist. Modernist Archive, Inc. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  12. ^ "JAMES H. GARROTT (1897-1991)". Black Past. BlackPast.org. 27 November 2017. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  13. ^ "2143 Panorama Terrace - James H. Garrott, AIA". Legacies of L.A. Sotheby’s International Realty, Inc. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  14. ^ "Gregory Ain". Judeo-graphie. Yonah Productions and Shalom Haverim Org.
  15. ^ a b Denzer, Anthony (2008). Gregory Ain - The Modern Home as Social Commentary. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. p. 181. ISBN 978-0-8478-3062-6.
  16. ^ "Los Angeles Department of Building Safety". Online Building Records. City of Los Angeles. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  17. ^ Wilson, Dreck Spurlock (2004). African American Architects. New York: Routledge. p. 230. ISBN 0-415-92959-8.

Additional Sources


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