The Rev. Charles A. Hill, Hartford Avenue Baptist Church pastor, on this day in 1952 testified before the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in Detroit’s federal building.

HUAC was an investigative committee created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities by private citizens, public employees and those organizations suspected of having fascist or communist ties. The committee continued to operate throughout the Cold War era of the late 1940s and 1950s.

Hill was represented by George Crockett Jr., who would later become a judge and U.S. House member. In the dramatic testimony, Hill was accused of using of “including Almighty God” in his efforts to “give and comfort to Communism.”

Here’s some of the exchange:

U.S. Rep. Donald Jackson (R-Calif.): For a minister, for a man of the cloth, to aid or comfort or endorse or lend his assistance to Communists or to the Communist Party, is to compound the offense by including God Almighty in his treason. That is all I have to say.

Hill: If I might say, Mr. chairman. What I have done, if I have violated any law, then I am willing to go into any court, meet my accuser, and be cross-examined. I have been interested in primarily one thing, and that is discrimination, segregation, the second- class citizenship that my people suffer, and as long as I live, until it is eradicated from this American society, I will accept the cooperation of anybody who wants to make America the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Jackson: I would suggest that you accept the help and assistance of some good, loyal Americans for a change. You will have a chance to meet your greatest accuser on some other plane.

Hill: I do it all the time.

Despite the incident, Hill maintained stature in the community and continued to lead Hartford church until 1969 when he retired. He died the following year.

