Joseph P. Kamp (May 3, 1900 – June 7, 1993) was an American political activist from New York who ran the Constitutional Educational League and was jailed in 1950 for contempt of Congress.

Background

Joseph Peter Kamp was born on May 3, 1900, in Yonkers, New York. His parents were German-born Joseph Kamp, tailor, and Margaret Franz Kamp. He attended grammar school in Yonkers and spent a few months at Fordham Prep.

Career

Kamp started his career by working in a law office, followed by work at a newspaper. In 1921, he worked in construction, at which time he first encountered and joined the Constitutional Educational League. By 1925, he had become a public speaker for the League. In 1934, Kamp became executive editor for The Awakener, founded in 1934 by Harold Lord Varney (manager of the Italian Historical Society, which shared offices with the Constitutional Educational League ), with fellow editors Lawrence Dennis and Milford W. Howard. The Awakener folded in 1936. Kamp sent a manuscript to the League, which was published in Join the C.I.O. and Help Build a Soviet America. In 1947, he joined the League's staff as executive vice chairman. In 1942 and 1943, two federal grand juries issues indictments against people and organizations conspiring against US involvement in World War II; the League appeared both times. During the 1944 presidential campaign, the Constitutional Educational League published a brochure, Vote CIO and Get A Soviet America. A federal grand jury, investigating 1944 campaign expenditures, sought to find out who the League's financial backers, as requested by a congressional subpoena; Kamp refused to answer. In December 1944, Kamp found himself indicted for contempt of Congress. Starting on June 16, 1950, Kamp was sentenced to four months in prison for refusing back in 1944 to answer questions regarding campaign activities, asked by the House Campaign Expenditures Committee. (He was also "in trouble" with the House Lobby Investigating Committee for refusing to share his organization's records.) The United States Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal earlier in 1950. Others who also defied Congress over similar issues include: Edward A. Rumely of the Committee for Constitutional Government and Merwin K. Hart of the National Economic Council, Inc. Kamp was tried another time for congressional defiance in 1951, when he failed to produce records for the House Lobby Investigating Committee. He was found guilty, but was granted another trial on appeal due to possible jury bias. In 1952, Kamp was acquitted as the House Committee failed to orderly disclose why he was in default. The second contempt charge in relationship with the lobbying activities of the Constitutional Educational League, an anti-communist organization. In 1956, he issued the pamphlet Behind the Plot to Sovietize the South, in which he protested against desegregation. He said the first step after desegregation would be black supremacy, and then Sovietism. Kamp said the civil rights movement had the goal of making the South a "Soviet South", and then a "Soviet America". He went as far as to imply that President Dwight D. Eisenhower was worse than Adolf Hitler for using federal troops to enforce the Brown v. Board ruling. "'Some intemperate Southern leaders have compared Dwight Eisenhower to Adolf Hitler. . . . They are wrong. . . . Hitler had the constitutional right to use Nazi storm troopers in any way he pleased. Eisenhower has no such right to use Federal troops in the South.'"Kamp also served as a policy advisor to the Liberty Lobby. He was a staunch supporter of Joseph McCarthy.

Personal life

Kamp was a great-uncle of actor Jon Voight through his mother, making him the great great uncle of actress Angelina Jolie. Kamp died on June 7, 1993 in Jupiter, Florida at the age of 93. Kamp was associated with Alfred Kohlberg, Merwin K. Hart, Edward A. Rumely, J.B. Matthews, and William F. Buckley Jr. He also associated with Elizabeth Dilling, author of The Red Network—A Who's Who and Handbook of Radicalism for Patriots (1934). Gerald L. K. Smith (1898–1976) far-right clergyman and leader of the Christian Nationalist Crusade called Kamp a "well-informed and fearless patriot."

Works

Kamp seems to have penned all pamphlets published by the Constitutional Educational League: