{"value"=>"<p>The Conference files in this series consist of correspondence, lists of sponsors, programs, publicity material, newspaper clippings and related documents. The Mass Delegate Conference in Defense of Civil Rights held in NY in April 1948 was part of an overall campaign to defeat the Mundt Bill (H.R. 5852), known as the Subversive Activities Control Act, which would outlaw any group or third-party movement deemed \"Communist-inspired\" or a Communist-front organization, and would require them to register their members with the Attorney General. The 1949 National Civil Rights Legislative Conference and Freedom Crusade called for thousands of delegates and participants to converge on Washington, D.C. to urge Congress to pass comprehensive legislation to abolish thought control, grant full equal rights to ethnic minorities and women, dissolve HUAC and dismiss the Smith Act indictments against leaders of the Communist Party.</p>"}