Page One

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Harvard University has sent a letter of regret to the widow of a former professor who was forced to resign almost 50 years ago on suspicions he was a Communist. 

Ann Fagan Ginger, widow of Raymond S. Ginger, told the Boston Herald in Tuesday’s editions that the three-paragraph letter falls woefully short of the apology she had sought. Ginger lives in Berkeley and directs the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute. 

“It’s the arrogance of power,” Ginger said. She has sent another letter asking for a full inquiry into the 1954 incident. 

Harvard officials would not comment to the Herald on the matter. 

“Harvard took an action in the case of Mr. Ginger that many thoughtful people today, looking back, would not find appropriate,” said Harvard’s letter, written by Sharon Gagnon, president of the board of overseers. 

“It is also clear that you and your family experienced hardship and anguish as a result, and for that (Harvard’s president) joins me in extending to you the university’s genuine sympathy and regret.” 

Ann Ginger, 75, a civil rights attorney, asked Harvard last fall for a public inquiry into the school’s actions against her husband and other faculty during the Communist era. 

Raymond Ginger was among those investigated in the 1950s because they were suspected of siding with Cold War enemies. Many were blacklisted, refused jobs or fired. 

Although Ginger was a respected assistant professor of history at Harvard, officials there forced him to make a choice: reveal whether he was a Communist, or immediately resign. Ginger took the latter option. He died in 1975.