Editing Americans for Democratic Action (section)

===Formation===
The ADA grew out of a predecessor group, the [[Union for Democratic Action]] (UDA). The UDA was formed by former members of the [[Socialist Party of America]] and the [[Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies]] as well as [[trade union|labor union]] leaders, [[Liberalism|liberal]] politicians, [[Theology|theologians]], and others who were opposed to the [[pacifism]] adopted by most left-wing political organizations in the late 1930s and early 1940s.<ref>Zuckerman, ''The Wine of Violence: An Anthology on Anti-Semitism'', 1947, p. 220; Parmet, ''The Master of Seventh Avenue: David Dubinsky and the American Labor Movement'', 2005, p. 214, {{ISBN|0-8147-6711-7}}; Boyle, ''The UAW and the Heyday of American Liberalism, 1945-1968'', 1998, p. 49, {{ISBN|0-8014-8538-X}}; Brown, ''Niebuhr and His Age: Reinhold Niebuhr's Prophetic Role and Legacy'', 2002, p. 102, {{ISBN|1563383756}}; Ceplair, "The Film Industry's Battle Against Left-Wing Influences, From the Russian Revolution to the Blacklist", ''Film History'', 2008, 400–401; Libros, ''Hard Core Liberals: A Sociological Analysis of the Philadelphia Americans for Democratic Action'', 1975, p. 13, {{ISBN|0870731483}}.</ref><ref name="Brock">Brock, ''Americans for Democratic Action: Its Role in National Politics'', 1962, p. 49.</ref> It supported an [[Interventionism (politics)|interventionist]], [[Internationalism (politics)|internationalist]] foreign policy and a pro-[[Trade union|union]], [[Modern liberalism in the United States|liberal]] domestic policy. It was also strongly [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]].<ref name="Brock" /><ref name="Powers200">Powers, ''Not Without Honor: The History of American Anticommunism'', 1998, pp. 200–201, {{ISBN|0-300-07470-0}}.</ref> It undertook a major effort to support left-wing [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] members of Congress in 1946, but this effort was an overwhelming failure.<ref name="Powers200" /><ref name="Davis">Davis, ''The Civil Rights Movement'', 2000, p. 27, {{ISBN|0-631-22043-7}}.</ref><ref>Halpern, ''UAW Politics in the Cold War Era'', 1988, pp. 138–139, {{ISBN|0887066712}}.</ref> 

[[James I. Loeb|James Isaac Loeb]] &ndash; later an [[ambassador]] and diplomat in the [[John F. Kennedy]] administration &ndash; the UDA's executive director, advocated disbanding the UDA and forming a new, more broadly based, mass-membership organization.<ref name="Beinart4">[[Peter Beinart|Beinart]], ''The Good Fight: Why Liberals—and Only Liberals—Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again'', 2007, p. 4, {{ISBN|9780522853834}}.</ref><ref name="Libros22">Libros, ''Hard Core Liberals: A Sociological Analysis of the Philadelphia Americans for Democratic Action'', 1975, p. 22, {{ISBN|0870731483}}.</ref> The ADA was formed on January 3, 1947, and the UDA shuttered.<ref name="Davis" /><ref name="Libros22" /><ref>Hamby, "The Liberals, Truman, and the FDR as Symbol and Myth", ''The Journal of American History'', March 1970; Heale, ''American Anticommunism: Combating the Enemy Within, 1830-1970'', 1990, p. 140, {{ISBN|0-8018-4050-3}}</ref><ref name="ER">
{{cite web
| title = Teachings of Eleanor Roosevelt: Americans for Democratic Action
| publisher = Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project
| url = https://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/teachinger/glossary/ada.cfm
| access-date = July 19, 2017}}</ref>

Among ADA's founding members were leading anti-communist liberals from academic, political, and labor circles, including theologian [[Reinhold Niebuhr]], historian [[Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.]], [[Eleanor Roosevelt]], union leader [[Walter Reuther]], civil rights lawyer [[Joseph L. Rauh Jr.|Joseph Rauh]], and [[Hubert Humphrey]]. Its founders hoped to solidify a progressive, pragmatic, noncommunist "vital center" in mainstream politics, embodying Schlesinger's concept formulated in his 1949 book ''[[The Vital Center]]''.<ref name="oxfcomp">Mark L. Kleinman, "Americans for Democratic Action", in ''The Oxford Companion to United States History'', ed. Paul S. Boyer (Oxford/NY: Oxford UP, 2001), 34.</ref>