Bella Dodd was a teacher, lawyer, and labor union activist, member of the Communist Party of the United States of America and New York City Teachers Union in the 1930s and 1940s.
25 Facts About Bella Dodd
1.
2.
Bella Dodd became a vocal anti-communist after she underwent a major conversion upon meeting Fulton J Sheen, Bishop of Rochester, New York.
3.
Bella Dodd was born Maria Assunta Isabella Visono in 1904 in Picerno, Basilicata region, Province of Potenza, Kingdom of Italy, the youngest of ten children.
4.
Bella Dodd attended public schools in the New York City area including Evander Childs High School.
5.
In fall 1925, Bella Dodd got her first job as a substitute teacher of history at Seward Park High School.
6.
On route home from Europe in 1930, Bella Dodd met a group of New York City school teachers in the Teachers Union.
7.
From 1926 to 1938, Bella Dodd taught political science and economics at Hunter College.
8.
Bella Dodd secretly burned a list of TU members in her possession.
9.
Bella Dodd led the TU into new affiliation with United Public Workers as Local 555 UPW.
10.
Bella Dodd declined an offer to run the California Labor School.
11.
In March 1943, Gil Green convinced Bella Dodd to become an open Communist Party leader.
12.
Bella Dodd succeeded Si Gerson as Communist legislative representative for the New York district, retaining an honorary TU position.
13.
Bella Dodd wrote that the Party had control of the CIO Political Action Committee as well as the Independent Committee of Artists, Scientists and Professionals, chaired by sculptor Jo Davidson.
14.
Depressed by continued infighting, Bella Dodd complained to Gurley Flynn, who sent Bella Dodd on a cross-country speaking tour in 1945, but upon her return to New York she found no improvement.
15.
Bella Dodd began angling to leave the Party but was refused.
16.
In January 1946, Browder and all those suspected of "Browderism" were expelled from the Party; Bella Dodd claimed "several thousands were expelled".
17.
Bella Dodd became an outspoken proponent for the Catholic Church and a vocal anti-communist, warning against the "materialistic philosophy" which guided public education and demoralized Americans, as well as formed the basis of both Communism and National Socialism.
18.
On March 10,1953, Bella Dodd testified before a televised hearing of the US Senate Internal Security Subcommittee about covert Party infiltration of labor unions and other institutions.
19.
Bella Dodd claimed to have resigned her Party position in 1946 and returned to law.
20.
Bella Dodd claimed that more than 1,500 teachers nationwide were members of the Communist Party, and that the Party recruited teachers and professionals, but kept their participation highly secret.
21.
Bella Dodd named both teachers and public intellectuals who were Party members, fellow travellers, or useful idiots, including Moe Finkelstein, Franz Boas, Albert Einstein, and Christian Gauss.
22.
Bella Dodd continued as a lawyer for the rest of her life.
23.
In 1968, Bella Dodd made an unsuccessful run for a seat in the US Congress as the candidate of the New York Conservative Party; she lost by a significant margin.
24.
Bella Dodd died in Manhattan on April 29,1969, at age 64 after gall bladder surgery.
25.
Bella Dodd was buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Pleasantville, New York.