Bella Dodd (née Visono; 1904 – 29 April 1969) was a teacher, lawyer, and labor union activist, member of the Communist Party of America (CPUSA) and New York City Teachers Union (TU) in the 1930s and 1940s ("one of Communism's most strident voices"), and vocal anti-communist after her expulsion from the Party in 1949. Background Bella Dodd was born Maria Assunta Isabella Visono in 1904 in Picerno, Basilicata region, Province of Potenza, Kingdom of Italy, the youngest of ten children. When her family came to the United States, they were very poor, and stopped going to Church. She attended public schools in the New York City area including Evander Childs High School. In 1921, after winning a state scholarship, she attended Hunter College, a public university. She worked summers and received an A.B. in 1925, developing an interest in social issues and drifting into agnosticism. In her senior year, she became president of the student council. She received an MA from Columbia University, writing a thesis entitled "Is Congress a Mirror of the Nation?" She switched to the legal division from Fall 1927 to June 1930, and received a JD from the School of Law at New York University. In summer 1930 she traveled through Europe; she found Italian Fascism appalling and became vehemently anti-fascist. Dodd met her future husband John Dodd during this trip, and they married in late September. In 1940, her husband left her over political differences. They had no children. Career In fall 1925, Dodd got her first job as a substitute teacher of history at Seward Park High School. In February 1926, she began teaching at Hunter College, which she continued even after passing the New York bar in 1931. On route home from Europe in 1930, Dodd met a group of New York City school teachers in the Teachers Union. She started attending union meetings, but she "found them disconcerting because there was so much strife between groups seeking control." She took off time from work after her marriage, but returned to Hunter College by 1932 when the Great Depression affected both her parents and husband. From 1926 to 1938, Dodd taught political science and economics at Hunter College. In 1938, she resigned to become a full-time activist for the New York City Teachers Union (TU). Dodd joined an "Anti-Fascist Literature Committee." She was attracted to the Communist Party by Margaret Schlauch: "The Communist