Harvard's Secret Court: The Savage 1920 Purge of Campus Homosexuals

Harvard's Secret Court

Power corrupts. Common theme. We are seeing it in the media everyday. The arrogance of power leads to the suffering of individuals. In 1920, the suicide of a Harvard student led to a secret court that set about purging the campus of the harmful effects of homosexuality. The court, convened by President A. Lawrence Lowell, blazed through a small community of students ignited by the distraught and angry brother of the dead youth. William Wright narrates the story of this event hidden for 82 years in his book Harvard¿s Secret Court: The Savage 1920 Purge of Campus Homosexuals. Cyril Wilcox¿s suicide was the first domino that resulted indirectly with 2 more suicides and numerous life aspirations of families and students being destroyed. Wright attempts to uncover the motivation behind this court. Was Lowell¿s flamboyantly lesbian sister a fuel for the fire. Was it fueled by the courts view that homosexuality, despite quickly changing views and the influence of homosexuality on a rich culture, had no place in an institution that took its job of creating the men of a nation serious. Wright looks at this and offers his own insights and opinions. It was not enough that students were expelled from Harvard. Harvard expected them to get far from Cambridge. The expelled students were informed that any attempt to reference their time at Harvard would lead to letters describing explicitly their crimes. This in effect ended the college careers of promising young men. Men whose immediate and extended families had invested much in these youth¿s future. Joe Lumbard, one student expelled, was allowed to return the following year. If Lumbard is an example of the caliber of futures lost, it is truly sad. Joe Lumbard had legal career that spanned 8 decades. He won glory as a federal prosecutor. He sat on the New York supreme court. He was cofounder of the OSS, which later became the CIA. He conclude his career as a senior judge on the US Court of Appeals. In 1967 Lumbard was close to a seat on the Supreme Court but in the end, Lyndon Johnson selected another lawyer in Lumbard¿s firm, Thurgood Marshall. Lumbard was even elected to the Board of Overseers of Harvard. Lumbard¿s opinion was that 'the legal system was in place to help people resolve conflicts, but not to impose anything on anyone'. What would Joe Lumbard say about the current discrimination issues rampant in communities today? Wright shows the reader how the entire country benefited from Lumbard¿s work. As late as 1953, his expulsion from Harvard turned up during an FBI background search. Lumbard¿s crime? He was not gay, but simply was too friendly to the campus homosexuals. Wrights book is powerful both in its content and warning. The tides of public opinion can be unpredictable, and the vindictiveness of those in power can have long term effects. Humanity deserves better.