Defund HUAC Urges ACLU of Northern California
The ACLU of Northern California on this day urged the House of Representatives to defund the House Committee on Un-American Activities HUAC). a move that would effectively end the operations of the committee.
The ACLU affiliate’s recommendation was based on its study of recent HUAC hearings in San Francisco on December 10th and 11th, 1956. When HUAC returned to San Francisco in May 1960 for new hearings it was greeted with massive protests that, in retrospect, marked the beginning of the end for the committee.
HUAC was established on May 26, 1938, and for the next 37 years conducted a relentless assault on freedom of belief and association, primarily against leftists, liberals, and civil rights activists. Witnesses were compelled to answer the question, “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party.”
HUAC was finally abolished on January 14, 1975.
Read the fascinating book: Thomas Doherty, Show Trial: Hollywood, HUAC, and the Birth of the Blacklist (2018)
Read the History of HUAC: Walter Goodman, The Committee: The Extraordinary Career of the House Committee on Un-American Activities (1968)
Watch the History of HUAC on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1Z5aYU6x0o
The “Sixties” really began in the mid-1950s and ended in the early 1970s. Read: Christopher B. Strain, The Long Sixties: America, 1955-1973 (2016)
Learn more about HUAC: http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/huac