Manuscripts Department
Library of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION
#4879
JUNIUS IRVING SCALES PAPERS
Inventory
Abstract: Junius Irving Scales (1920- ), native of
Greensboro, N.C., and graduate of the University of
North Carolina in Chapel Hill, was Communist Party
chair for North and South Carolina, 1948-1956.
Personal and political papers of Junius
Scales, including Communist party papers, a small
amount of material about the Progressive Party (1948),
personal correspondence, the proceedings of Scales’s 1958
trial under the Smith Act, drafts of his two books,
and other personal papers.
Online Catalog Terms
Communists—North Carolina.
Communist Party of the United States of America. Carolina
District—History.
Communist trials—North Carolina.
Progressive Party (U.S. : 1948).
Scales, Junius Irving.
University of North Carolina (1793-1962)—Alumni and
alumnae.
Size: About 1000 items (7.5 linear ft.).
Date Span: Ca. 1940-1978.
Provenance: Received from Junius I. Scales of Pine Bush,
N.Y., in July 1997 (Acc. 97085).
Access: No restrictions.
Copyright: Retained by the authors of items in these
papers, or their descendants, as
stipulated by United States copyright law.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Biographical Note
Collection Overview
Series Descriptions
Series 1. Subjects
Series 2. Personal Correspondence
Series 3. Scales Trial
Series 4. Book Drafts
Series 5. Personal Papers
INTRODUCTION
Biographical Note
Junius Scales, a native of Greensboro, N.C., and graduate of
the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, was the chair of
the Communist Party of North Carolina and South Carolina from
1948 to 1956. He was the first individual imprisoned under the
Smith Act for membership in the Communist Party and suspected
plotting to overthrow the United States government. He served
fourteen months before his sentence was commuted by President
John F. Kennedy. A play was written in 1976 about his trial.
Collection Overview
This collection contains personal and political papers of
Junius Scales, including Communist party propaganda, personal
correspondence, the proceedings of his trial, drafts of his two
books, and other personal papers.
The collection is arranged as follows:
Series 1. Subjects
Series 2. Personal Correspondence
Series 3. Scales Trial Proceedings
Series 4. Book Drafts
Series 5. Personal Papers
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
Series 1. Subjects
ca. 1940-1958. About 250 items.
Arrangement: by subject.
Political papers and memorabilia and publications of the
Communist Party and of related groups, including the Progressive
Party.
Communist Party
Folder 1 Membership information
2-3 Policy and teaching – general
4 Policy and teaching – Youth Commission
5 Political campaigns – Wallace
6 Political campaigns – other
Communist Party in the South
7 General
8 North Carolina Party
9 Southern Negro Youth Conference
10 Civil rights
11 Southern Conference on Human Welfare
12 Communist and Progressive Party conventions,
1939-1946
13 Communist and Progressive Party conventions,
1947-1956
Communist Party propaganda
14 National defense
15 Korean War
16 Draft
17 Nazi threat
18-19 Anti-Communist activities
Labor
20-21 General
22 CIO
23 Mills
24 Furniture
25 Hosiery
26 Steel
27 Textile
28 Textile Workers Voice
29 Tobacco
Communist Party publications
30 Daily Worker
31 Party Voice and the Bulletin
32 For Peace and Fighter for Peace
33 Texas Star and Southern Patriot
34 Radio publicity
35 Economic Notes
36 Economic Notes
37 Miscellaneous
Series 2. Personal Correspondence
1940-1978. About 100 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
Personal letters both from Scales and to Scales by family and
friends. Included are Christmas cards sent to Scales while he
was in jail in 1962.
Folder 38 1940-1949
39 1950-April 1955
40 May 1955
41 June 1955-1958
42 1961-November 1962
43-45 December 1962, Christmas cards
46 1976-1978
Series 3. Scales Trial
1955-1960. About 200 items.
Arrangement: chronological and by trial type.
Publicity, legal correspondence, petitions, and trial
proceedings from Scales’s trial in 1958.
Folder 47 Publicity
48 Legal correspondence
49 Circuit Court appeals
50 Supreme Court petitions, 1955-1957
51 Supreme Court petitions, 1958-1960
Scales trial proceedings, 1958
52 17 January
53 3 and 4 February
54 5 February
55 6 February
56 7 February
57 10 February
58 11 February
59 12 February
60 13 February
61 14 February
62 17 February
63 18 February
64 19 February
65 20 February
66 21 February
Series 4. Book drafts
ca. 1970. About 300 items.
Arrangement: by book title.
Drafts of Once Upon a Felon, a book written by Scales, and
Rebel with a Lost Cause, written by Scales and Richard Nickson.
Folder 67-77 Once Upon a Felon
78-82 Rebel with a Lost Cause
Series 5. Personal Papers
ca. 1940-1978. About 150 items.
Arrangement: by type.
Personal papers of Scales including financial papers, military
records, diaries, Communist School notes, and miscellaneous
notes. The war records and papers include a few U.S. Army forms,
but mostly consist of guide-books and political pamphlets that
Scales acquired in Italy during World War II. The diaries are
small volumes in which Scales recorded expenses, appointments,
and a few notes.
Folder 83-84 Financial papers
85-86 War records and papers
87 Diaries, 1949 and 1953
88 Membership cards
89 Prison papers
90 Communist School notes
91-92 Miscellaneous notes