Hugo DeGregory in New Hampshire
Hugo DeGregory stopped being big news in New Hampshire back in 1966 and that was probably just fine with him. For twelve years he had stood his ground against Attorney Generals, Governors, the FBI, the Supreme Court of New Hampshire, and a statewide newspaper. In the end, Hugo beat them all by simply believing in the most basic American principle, freedom of speech.
A veteran of World War II, DeGregory settled in Massachusetts when he returned home from the war. His passion for a better world drew him to the Communist Party. He became an active member, even running for office on the Party ticket in Massachusetts. It was not a popular thing to be doing as the 1950s approached. Joe McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover were just getting warmed up. But DeGregory believed in the American ideal of free speech. His interest was not in overthrowing the government. His interests were in racial equality, affordable housing, health care, worker rights and social justice.
In 1950 DeGregory was asked by a woman named Carol Foster to lead a weekly discussion group in Nashua, the hope being to begin a Party chapter in the Granite State. DeGregory agreed and began making the trip up to Nashua once a week where meetings were held in the home of the Doborowolski family, usually attend by 5 to ten people.
The interest wasn’t there for a new chapter in the party, but other interests surfaced.
One of the people attending the discussions was Louise Doborowolski of Hollis. She and Hugo began dating. By the end of the year they were married and moved to California.
That could have been the end of the story, but for Louis Wyman.
Well, wait, there is one other thing, Carol Foster–the woman who wanted Hugo to get a Communist Party chapter going in New Hampshire. Several years later it was revealed that she was really working for the FBI. The Bureau felt the best way to keep track of Communist activities was to take the lead in organizing them.
But back to Louis Wyman. In 1953, Governor Hugh Gregg appointed Wyman to be Attorney General for the State of New Hampshire. In the spirit of the times, Wyman, with the approval of the Governor and the Legislature and a bully newspaper publisher in Manchester, took on the charge of rooting out Communists and “subversives” in New Hampshire. He hired an investigator and they went to work.
After questioning over 100 people the biggest threat Wyman could find was an 80 year old grandmother named Elba Chase Nelson who lived in Washington, New Hampshire. She had been a Party member and even run for Governor of New Hampshire on the Communist Party ticket in the 1930s. Failing to find any other Communists on New Hampshire soil, Wyman decided to reel one in himself—Hugo DeGregory.
The plan was as simple as it was despicable. DeGregory’s father-in-law, an immigrant from Lithuania lived in Hollis. His English was not good, his family was active in labor unions causes, they had hosted the meetings that DeGregory led. Wyman called him up to Concord for questioning.
Doborowolski, without legal council, came up to the State House to answer the Attorney General’s questions. His English skills began to suffer under Wyman’s inquisition. In his confusion he said that Hugo was not his son in law. Wyman pounced. Since Dobrowolski had been under oath, Wyman charged him with perjury and threatened him with deportation. Then he offered an out. If his son-in-law came back to New Hampshire to answer questions before Attorney General Wyman, Dobrowlosky could remain in the United States.
So in 1954, Hugo and Louise DeGregory came back to the state. Hugo was no longer active in the Party, but that mattered not. Wyman demanded to know the names of everyone Hugo associated with. Hugo refused to cooperate. He was charged by Wyman with contempt of court. What followed were twelve years of harassment and legal challenges.
As Hugo put it in a 1991 interview, “They wanted me to finger people, and by doing so, they would be tarnished, they would be given the Communist tag. I was not going to do that.”
And he didn’t. Instead, DeGregory spent the next twelve years under subpoena by the Attorney General while First Amendment issues were argued out in the court system. Represented by James Cleveland (who would later become a US Congressman), Hugo never gave an inch. Three times he was the subject of rulings by the United States Supreme Court. Twice he was incarcerated at the Merrimack County jail, the longest stretch for two weeks. He and his in-laws were filmed by hidden cameras. Their phone conversations were monitored. Their jobs were suddenly lost when their names would appear in the newspaper.
Somehow, they got through it all. They never lost faith in America or what it stood for. Things finally came to an end in 1966, when the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hugo. The decision, written by Justice William Douglas, stated in part:
“New Hampshire’s interest on this record is too remote and conjectural to override the guarantee of the First Amendment that a person can speak or not, as he chooses, free of all governmental compulsion.”
Finally free of being shackled by subpoenas, Hugo and Louise DeGregory were free to pursue another American dream, they started a family. Over the next few years they adopted 6 children and eventually moved to Florida.
Hugo DeGregory, age 94, died quietly in his sleep in 2009 in St. Petersburg, Florida. He was a veteran of World War II. Equally important, he was a veteran of the Cold War. Yes, once he was a Communist Party member, but he never stopped being an American citizen. Because of his faith in this country, and because of his determination, the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights is a little stronger and the freedoms we all share are a little more secure.
