Rose Chernin

Rose Chernin (September 14, 1901 – September 8, 1995) was a Russian-born naturalized U.S. citizen. She was a member of the Communist Party and became notable for her left-wing activism which eventually led to her arrest in 1951. She was charged with forming a conspiracy to overthrow the government under the Smith Act of 1940 and spent a year in jail. The Immigration and Naturalization Service attempted to deport her, but their efforts were preempted by the 1957 ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States that the Smith Act was unconstitutional. After finishing grade school, Rose entered Crosby Preparatory School, where she encountered socialist ideas in an activist newspaper.

Arrest and release Rose Chernin founded the Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born in 1950. In July 1951 she was arrested for conspiracy to overthrow the government with bail set to $100,000. Under the Smith Act of 1940, advocacy for Marxism or Leninism was equated with advocating for the overthrow of the US government. She and other communists were arrested under the law. Chernin was sentenced five years in prison, and subpoenaed to identify conspirators to the House Un-American Committee, which she refused. She was threatened with denaturalization and deportation by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, but the process was abandoned for lack of evidence. In 1957, the Supreme Court overturned Chernin's conviction, deeming the Smith Act of 1940 unconstitutional.