History of the United States II / Unit 13 USH2 1823 short lesson, about 20 seconds
HUAC and the Blacklist
Captions available
The idea
The House Committee on Un-American Activities, established in nineteen thirty-eight, investigated suspected Communists in business, academia and the media, with particular attention to Hollywood.
In practice
Witnesses who invoked the Fifth Amendment finding themselves blacklisted, among them Leonard Bernstein, Dashiell Hammett, Lillian Hellman, Paul Robeson and Artie Shaw.
Where people slip
The Yawp counts over one hundred congressional investigations of subversion between nineteen forty-nine and nineteen fifty-four.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
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