House Committee on Un-American Activities Founded (1938)
Thu May 26, 1938
Image: Actor Gary Cooper testifying before HUAC [thoughtco.com]
On this day in 1938, the House Committee on Un-American Activities was established to investigate suspected communist sympathies among private citizens and organizations, leading to the blacklisting of hundreds of artists and academics. The committee became permanent in 1948 and was terminated in 1975.
The HUAC is notable for causing de facto media censorship among artists suspected of having communist sympathies. Their investigations resulted in a Hollywood blacklist of over 300 actors, directors, and others.
Arists whose careers were damaged by the committee included Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles, Alan Lomax, Paul Robeson, Aaron Copland, and Yip Harburg. When one Senator asked Robeson why he didn't remain in the Soviet Union, he replied "Because my father was a slave and my people died to build this country, and I am going to stay here and have a part of it just like you. And no Fascist-minded people will drive me from it. Is that clear?"
In 1960, William Mandel, an expert on Soviet affairs who had lost his position as a fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution due to anti-communist repression, was called to testify in front of the HUAC. When asked "Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?", Mandel responded:
"Honorable beaters of children, sadists, uniformed and in plain clothes, distinguished Dixiecrat wearing the clothing of a gentleman, eminent Republican who opposes an accommodation with the one country with which we must live at peace in order for us and all our children to survive...
If you think that I am going to cooperate with this collection of Judases, of men who sit there in violation of the United States Constitution, if you think I will cooperate with you in any way, you are insane!"
- Date: 1938-05-26
- Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.mtsu.edu.
- Tags: #Communism.
- Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org