never find." As a result of his appearance and manner, he was held in ridicule by his peers in high school. Rushmore wanted to make his mark as a progressive journalist and at the age of 16 wrote for two newspapers—the Mexico High School Yellow Yap and The Mexico Ledger. During his junior year of high school, he was expelled for publishing several exposés in the Ledger that the school administration regarded as defamatory about themselves and the teaching staff. Rushmore's parents then enrolled him in St. Brendan's Catholic School, despite the family being Methodists. There Rushmore was even further ostracized, resulting in his quitting school altogether. Career Communist publications Rushmore continued as a reporter for the Mexico Intelligencer. On January 12, 1931, he witnessed the lynching of Raymond Gunn, in which the African-American suspect was seized from the local sheriff, doused with gasoline atop a roof and set aflame while several thousands watched. The event made an indelible mark on the 17-year-old Rushmore, who, even at the height of his anti-communist career, would maintain Gunn's complete innocence. In the 1940s, when the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) in Kansas City organized an anti-lynching committee led by Harlem-based party organizer Abner Berry, Rushmore was impressed by the bravery and anti-racist stance of the communists. Through the committee, Rushmore met Jack Conroy, editor of The Anvil, a communist literary magazine. Conroy encouraged Rushmore's literary ambitions by suggesting he submit short stories. By April 1935 Rushmore had become an associate editor of the magazine. Later that year, Rushmore joined the Young Communist League USA (YCLUSA) in St. Louis despite having neither a technical knowledge of Marxist philosophy nor its history. This lifelong ignorance would hamper his authority as a professional communist and anti-communist as critics would question his qualifications on the subject. As a member of the YCLUSA, Rushmore organized farmers in the Dakotas and Iowa. Conroy then sent Rushmore to New York City in May 1935, where he attended the American Writers Congress. There he was asked to join the editorial staff of the Young Worker, the organ of the YCLUSA. Taking advantage of his perceived all-American background, the CPUSA rapidly promoted Rushmore. All staff members of the Young Worker were assigned to a political unit of the YCLUSA; Rushmore belonged to the Harlem unit, where he met Ruby Bates, a recent recruit to the youth league. Bates was one of the