Testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities
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The committee targeted several organizations and notable people, including the American Civil Liberties Union and aspiring president, William Z. Foster, who was a communist. From its inception in 1938 until it was dissolved in 1975, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) took a prominent role in the investigation of communist activity in the United States. House of Representatives performed an important function, its critics contend that its abuse of power trampled important First Amendment rights, such as freedom of expression and freedom of association. On October 20, 1947, the committee began hearings in Washington in which prominent members of the film industry testified. On the first day, studio heads Jack Warner and Louis B. Mayer denounced what they called "un-American" writers in Hollywood, and swore not to employ them. The novelist Ayn Rand, who was working as a screenwriter in Hollywood, also testified and denounced a recent musical film, "Song of Russia," as a "vehicle of communist propaganda."
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Its influence waned by the 1960s; in 1969 it was renamed the Internal Security Committee, and in 1975 it was dissolved. Every host nation of the summit has discretion in drawing up the guest list, and most if not all countries are routinely included. This is the first time the summit, which takes place every three or four years, is being held in the U.S. since its 1994 inaugural session in Miami. But the White House remains circumspect about who will actually attend the high-stakes regional conference. That includes whether Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who leads Latin America’s second-most-populous country, will be among the leaders standing by Biden’s side. Topping the agenda is tackling the historic flows of migration and addressing the nearly 7 million people who have been displaced from their homes in the region, according to a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe summit preparations.
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Only about 10 percent succeeded in rebuilding careers within the entertainment industry. With the support of the court system behind them, the committee was encouraged to act even more aggressively. By the 1950s, HUAC was investigating subversives in government, labor unions , the press, and religious organizations as well as Hollywood. Fearing the committee's unchecked power, many witnesses falsely accused others. With little chance to establish their innocence, many people had their lives forever altered by a HUAC summons. Although many people supported the committee for playing an important role in protecting the US from communist infiltration, many also believed that it abused the First Amendment rights of citizens and organizations, including freedom of expression and freedom of association.
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This meant that if Lavery aligned himself with the Unfriendlies and refused to deny he was a communist, the SWG could be shut down. In 1965, the anti-communist provision of the act would be ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Lavery’s most well-publicized confrontation with anti-communist critics of Hollywood occurred on the popular weekly affairs radio program, America’s Town Meeting of the Air, broadcast Sept. 2, 1947. ” Lavery and the actor Albert Decker said no; Jack B. Tenney, whom Lavery had tussled with the year before, and Lea E. Rogers, mother of Ginger and a professional anti-communist, said of course. During the heated back and forth, Rogers charged that the SWG was “loaded with communists” and accused Lavery of sneaking “commie bits” into his latest play, The Gentleman From Athens.
An anti-communist propaganda film, Operation Abolition,[8] was produced by the committee from subpoenaed local news station reports and shown around the country during 1960 and 1961. In response, the Northern California chapter of the ACLU produced a film called Operation Correction, which discussed falsehoods in the first film. Subsequent HUAC hearings investigated Soviet espionage, communist ideas and practices, and alleged communist influence in student organizations, the media, and, as seen in the following document, labor unions. By 1953, U.S. labor unions had taken many steps to prove they were anti-communist; the Congress of Industrial Organizations, for example, expelled numerous unions for communist connections between 1948 and 1950.
The third lawyer I went to see and offered a retainer to represent me before these hearings was an older lawyer, and he was a better financially established lawyer . The activities before this committee would be too strenuous,” he thought, the publicity would be harmful. The first lawyer, whom I will call lawyer No. 1, holds high office in the Alameda County Bar Association. When I first approached this lawyer, he told me that he could see no reason why he could not represent me. The next day, however, he informed me that he felt that he could not do so because of the controversial nature and the publicity attendant upon hearings before this committee and because of his position in the county bar association.
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It was replaced with a similar committee that focused on pursuing communists. While the House Un-American Activities Committee had stalwart supporters, especially during its most controversial years, the committee generally exists in American memory as a dark chapter. The abuses of the committee in the way it tormented witnesses stands as a warning against reckless investigations which target American citizens. The House Committee on Un-American Activities responded to the report on blacklisting by calling the author of the report, John Cogley before the committee.
As stated above, McCarthyism refers to a period of intense anti-Communist suspicion in the United States during the early 1950s, named after Senator Joseph McCarthy who was the most public face of the Red Scare during this time. The Fish Committee strongly advocated for the empowerment of the United States Department of Justice to ensure that communists were kept out of the country. Like HUAC, these committees were established to investigate allegations of Bolshevik, German and communist activities in the US.
The ULI-LA Building Healthy Places Initiative is developing a multifaceted program—including research and publications, convenings, and advisory activities. This committee strives to leverage the power of the Institute’s global networks to shape projects and places in ways that improve the health of people and communities. Some of those subpoenaed cooperated fully with the committee, confirming its fears that subversives were at work in Hollywood. These “friendly witnesses” included Ronald Reagan, who testified that a “small clique” of communists “have attempted to be a disruptive influence” within the Screen Actors Guild, and Walt Disney, who declared that they had been behind a strike at his studio. And while 80 celebrities — including Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart, Gene Kelly and John Huston — signed a petition denouncing the committee as un-American itself for probing the politics of individual citizens, the anti-communist momentum of the day carried the hearings forward. We have been on very friendly terms, and he readily agreed to represent me without any hesitation at all .
My law partner and I have been, for many years, and are now, general counsel for the East Bay Division of Warehouse Union Local 6, ILWU,3 a labor organization which is one of the principal targets under attack by this committee. Robert E. Treuhaft was one of two attorneys who represented a San Francisco local of a warehouse union. In 1947, HUAC turned its attention to Hollywood, a significant cultural influencer, out of concern that the film industry was being used to spread Communist propaganda.
Who Were the Hollywood 10? - Cold War - History
Who Were the Hollywood 10? - Cold War.
Posted: Fri, 24 Mar 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
These prominent screenwriters and directors, who became known as the Hollywood Ten, received jail sentences and were banned from working for the major Hollywood studios. Their defiant stands also placed them at center stage in a national debate over the controversial anti-communist crackdown that swept through the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Besides the Hollywood Ten, other members of the film industry with alleged communist ties were later banned from working for the big movie studios. In 1946 HUAC became a permanent House committee, charged with investigating subversion in the United States. In 1947 and 1951 it investigated alleged Communist Party influence in Hollywood and the motion picture industry.
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