Bella Dodd was a teacher, lawyer, and labor union activist, member of the Communist Party of America and New York City Teachers Union in the 1930s and 1940s, and vocal anti-communist after her expulsion from the Party in 1949. Bella Dodd was born Maria Asunta Isabella Visono was born in 1904 in Italy. She was the youngest of ten children. When her family came to the United States, they were very poor. They 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. In 1925, she graduated with honors. She received an MA from Columbia University working toward a doctorate in philosophy. The title of her MA thesis was "Is Congress a Mirror of the Nation?" Then she switched to the legal division. From Fall 1927 to June 1930, she graduated from the School of Law at New York University where she received a JD. During Summer 1930, she traveled to Berlin, Vienna, Venice, Florence, and Rome. In Italy, she found Fascism appalling and became vehemently anti-fascist.