Rose Chernin; Prosecuted for Communist Activities

Rose Chernin, 93, a left-wing activist of the 1940s and 1950s prosecuted for communist activities. Born in Russia, Mrs. Chernin moved to the United States in 1913 and became a citizen. The government attempted twice--unsuccessfully--to revoke her citizenship and in 1952 she was convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government by force and violence. But the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the conviction in a landmark 1957 decision stating that, without “forcible action,” mere advocacy of revolutionary politics was not illegal. Mrs. Chernin was active in the Young Communist League, International Labor Defense, which backed a union movement of agricultural workers in the Imperial Valley, and the American Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born. Her story was detailed in a 1983 book, “In My Mother’s House,” written by her daughter, Berkeley psychoanalyst Kim Chernin. On Sept. 8 in Los Angeles.