About

Bella Dodd

This website is dedicated to the life and work of Isabella (“Bella”) Visono Dodd (1904 – 1969). She was a Communist lawyer in New York from 1932-1949, working within the New York educational system. She was expelled from the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) in 1949. In 1952, she was conditionally baptized into the Catholic Church by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.

Bella pledged the remaining years of her life, as she once remarked, to undoing the “harm I had done” as a Communist. She traveled around the United States wherever she was invited to talk with people about the dangers of Communism. She also provided numerous testimonies before the United States Congress about Communism.

Bella died in April of 1969, faithful to her pledge.

The above information doesn’t even scratch the surface of the life and work of Bella Dodd. What was her message to the United States and the world? What is the relationship of her legacy to the 21st century?

This Site

^{Image by Lukas Bieri from Pixabay}

This website endeavors to strive to provide solid and reliable information about Bella so as to provide an accurate picture of an intriguing figure of 20th century political (and religious) history. Intensive and ongoing research is turning up some new and intriguing information.

This website was started in December, 2023 by Kevin J. Symonds. He is a writer and author within the Catholic tradition. He has had an abiding interest in Bella Dodd for many years.

This website is being developed. So please do check back regularly to see new material as it becomes available!