Sticking to his principals, Lawson refused to answer a question put forth to him by the extremely abrasive Rep. J. Parnell Thomas R-NJ that no American should of had to. At the Thomas' hearings in 1947, It was Lawson who led off a series of "un cooperative" witness' and refused to answer the question "whether or not you are now or were ever a member of the Communist party" Lawson tried to read a prepared statement but was barred from doing so. He wound up telling Thomas that "I'm not on trial here Mr. Chairman, this commission is on trial before the American people" With that said Lawson and the nine writers and directors that followed him , Dalton Trumbo, Adrian Scott, Samuel Ornitz, Albert Maltz, Ring Lardner Jr. Edward Dmytrk, Lester Cole, Herbert Biberman and Alvah Bessie forever became known as

That's Lawson 2nd left in second row. The plus 4 are the lawyers who defended the 10 in their contempt of Congress trial. He wound up getting a year in jail for their efforts. It was appealed all the way to the Supreme Court who refused to hear the case. One ironic thing of this case was by the time Lawson and Trumbo left for prison in June of 1950, the guy who played the major role in putting them there J. Parnell Thomas was already in jail for taking kickbacks from his staff and padding his payroll. He would still be there after Lawson left prison, President Truman who was no friend at all of Thomas ( Old J.Parnell seemed to see RED wherever he looked. implied in the press that both FDR & Truman's administrations played footsie with the Reds) pardoned Thomas on Christmas Eve 1952. But unfortunately the paranoia and witch hunts Thomas started in 1946 continued and were ended 8 years later when Sen. Joe McCarthy (who eclipsed Thomas in historic notoriety) went down in flames also.

John Howard Lawson was blacklisted in Hollywood along with many others who were 'named'. He moved to Mexico where he continued to write. One of the books he finished writing before he left for prison was "The Hidden Heritage" which I am proud to say I now have an autographed first edition. Here is part of the preface of that book. Lawson was never a man of a few words. Perhaps because he was one of the very first screenwriters to write for The Talkies? I have to say from reading his thoughts and ideas that if John Howard Lawson was ever guilty of anything it may of been too many deep thoughts for the likes of a simple man of the people like J. Parnell Thomas and his "thought police"

In August of 1977 a month short of his 83rd birthday, John Howard Lawson passed away. Apparantley sometime between before that and most likely years after he went before the HUAC he decided to talk about his affiliation with the Communist party. For in his NY Times obit he is quoted as saying in ..... "There was a minimum of interference from members of the Communist party and a great deal of emphasis on creative problems rather than solutions. I was concerned with the deeper understanding of the nature of the artistic experience. The whole problem of the artist is to deepen and strengthen his work"