Index: Anti-Communist Hysteria

Jun 10,

1692

Bridget Bishop Hanged; First Victim of Salem Witch Trials

Jan 21,

1884

Roger Baldwin, Founder of the ACLU, is Born

Apr 6,

1917

Congress Declares War – Suppression of Civil Liberties Begins

Jan 15,

1919

National Civil Liberties Bureau Condemns Deportation and Exclusion Laws

Jan 22,

1919

Senate Investigation Attacks Liberals, Pacifists, Radicals

Mar 26,

1919

New York Lusk Committee to Investigate Alleged Radicals

Apr 4,

1919

Government Drops Espionage Act Charges Against Radical, Author John Reed

Dec 21,

1919

“Red Ark” Sails – Anarchist Emma Goldman, 248 Others, Deported

Apr 1,

1920

Red Scare in New York: Legislature Expels Socialist Party Members

Apr 15,

1920

Congressman Calls for Impeachment of Secretary of Labor for Not Deportating Radicals

Apr 24,

1920

“Revolutionary Radicalism” Report Slurs Pacifists, Civil Libertarians, Liberals

May 28,

1920

Prominent Lawyers Issue Report Condemning Palmer Raids

Dec 15,

1930

Fish Committee Hearings on Communist Propaganda in the U.S. – Targets ACLU

Apr 20,

1932

Reed Harris Reinstated by Columbia University, But He Resigns

May 26,

1934

McCormack-Dickstein Committee Hearings Begin; Forerunner of HUAC

May 26,

1938

House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) Established – 37 Years of Civil Liberties Violations Follow

Aug 11,

1938

“Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?” First HUAC Hearings Begin – 37-Years of Inquisitions Follow

May 7,

1940

ACLU Expels Elizabeth Gurley Flynn from Board of Directors

Jun 29,

1940

Advocating an Idea is Illegal: Smith Act Passed

Jun 30,

1941

AG Biddle Creates First List of “Subversive” Organizations

Jul 28,

1941

California Un-American Activities Hearings Begin

Feb 1,

1943

HUAC Chair Places Names of 39 Alleged Communists in Congressional Record

Oct 5,

1944

Poet Langston Hughes Tops HUAC Anti-Communist List with 49 “Affiliations”

Jan 3,

1945

HUAC Made a Permanent Committee – Assault on Freedom of Belief and Association Continues

Apr 16,

1945

Los Angeles First Unitarian Church Labeled a “Communist Meeting Place”

Nov 5,

1946

Joe McCarthy Elected to Senate – “McCarthyism” Lies Ahead

Mar 12,

1947

Cold War Begins: Truman Doctrine Announced

Mar 21,

1947

Guilt by Association: President Truman Launches Federal Loyalty Program

Apr 10,

1947

Reagan “Names Names” to the FBI

Jun 23,

1947

Congress Overrides Truman Veto, Passes Taft-Hartley “Slave-labor Bill”

Oct 20,

1947

HUAC Opens Hearings on Communists in Hollywood

Oct 23,

1947

Ronald Reagan Testifies Before HUAC as “Friendly” Witness

Oct 24,

1947

Committee for the First Amendment Opposes HUAC Investigation of Hollywood

Oct 30,

1947

Famed Playwright Brecht Testifies Before HUAC – Immediately Leaves the U.S.

Oct 30,

1947

Writer of MAS*H Refuses to Tell HUAC About His Beliefs and Associations – Is Blacklisted

Dec 3,

1947

Hollywood Blacklist Begins

Jan 9,

1948

Hollywood Ten Arraigned for Contempt of Congress

Jul 19,

1948

Canwell Committee Begins Hearings on Communism in Washington State

Nov 16,

1948

Anti-National Health Care “Thought Control in Medicine” Denounced

Aug 27,

1949

Peekskill, New York: Anti-Communist Riot Blocks Robeson Concert

Jan 21,

1950

“Fear Obscures Reason,” Justice Hugo Black Warns of Cold War Hysteria

Feb 9,

1950

“McCarthyism” is Born

Feb 20,

1950

Senator Joe McCarthy Claims List of 81 Communists in Government

Feb 28,

1950

Gov. Earl Warren Opposes University of California Loyalty Oath

Mar 8,

1950

Senator Joe McCarthy Names First Alleged “Communist” – She Wasn’t One

Mar 22,

1950

University of California Faculty Votes Not to Employ Communists

Jun 1,

1950

Senator Margaret Chase Smith Denounces Joe McCarthy – And is Punished by GOP

Jun 22,

1950

“Red Channels” Report Names Alleged Communists, Leads to Blacklisting

Jun 26,

1950

Anti-Communist Congress for Cultural Freedom Formed

Sep 22,

1950

Congress Passes Emergency Detention Act

Sep 22,

1950

Repressive McCarran Act Passed Over President Truman’s Veto

Dec 16,

1950

Truman Declares National Emergency to Combat “Communist Imperialism”

Apr 25,

1951

Hollywood Director Edward Dmytryk “Rehabilitates” Himself: Gives HUAC 26 Names

May 14,

1951

HUAC Publishes “Guide to Subversive Organizations and Publications”

Jun 14,

1951

Joe McCarthy Attacks American War Hero, Gen. George C. Marshall

Jul 9,

1951

Author Dashiell Hammett Refuses to Provide Names of Contributors to Left-Wing Bail Fund

Oct 8,

1951

Emergency Civil Liberties Committee Formed

Jan 13,

1952

Cold War: “The Black Silence of Fear”

Mar 10,

1952

“Kill the Lawyers:” Smith Act Trial Attorneys Contempt Convictions Upheld

Mar 25,

1952

Homophobic Scare: State Department Removes 126 “Perverts”

Apr 6,

1952

ACLU Report Blasts Cold War Blacklisting

Apr 10,

1952

Naming Names: Famed Director Elia Kazan Names 8 People Before HUAC

Jun 27,

1952

Subversives Out! Repressive McCarran-Walter Immigration Act Signed

Oct 28,

1952

Attorney General: Charlie Chaplin Must “Prove His Worth” to Return to U.S.

Jan 22,

1953

“The Crucible” Opens in New York; Playwright Arthur Miller’s Cold War Statement

Apr 27,

1953

President Eisenhower Expands Loyalty Program to Cover Homosexuality

Sep 4,

1953

HUAC Loves Lucy

Nov 4,

1953

President Eisenhower Privately Admits Loyalty Program Problems – Does Not Act on Them

Mar 9,

1954

Edward R. Murrow Exposes Sen. Joe McCarthy

May 27,

1954

AEC Denies Noted Scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer Appeal Over Security Clearance

Jun 9,

1954

“Have You No Decency?” Joseph N. Welch Rebukes Senator Joe McCarthy

Jun 24,

1954

New York State Bar Association: Disbar Members of Subversive Organizations

Jul 28,

1954

Film “On the Waterfront” Premieres – Cold War Debate Energized

Sep 30,

1954

Rationale for Secrecy and Lawlessness: The Cold War is “A Different Kind of War”

Dec 13,

1954

Civil Rights Activist Carl Braden Convicted of Sedition

Aug 18,

1955

Pete Seeger Asserts First Amendment Right at HUAC Hearing

Sep 1,

1955

Blacklist Victim Philip Loeb Commits Suicide

Jan 4,

1956

Senate Subcommittee Investigates The New York Times for Alleged Communist Influence

Mar 8,

1956

Notorious FBI COINTELPRO Program Approved

Jun 12,

1956

“You Are the Un-Americans:” Paul Robeson Denounces HUAC

Jun 21,

1956

Playwright Arthur Miller Testifies Before HUAC – Refuses to Name Names

Jun 26,

1956

“One Pro-Communist Decision After Another:” Right-Wingers Attack Supreme Court

Jul 1,

1956

Report Condemns Blacklisting in Movies and Television

Oct 24,

1956

J. Edgar Hoover Warns Eisenhower of Communist Infiltration of Civil Rights Movement

Nov 25,

1956

Oscar-Nominated Film . . . Has No Screenwriter!

May 2,

1957

Senator Joe McCarthy Dies – McCarthyism Lives On

May 31,

1957

Famed Playwright Arthur Miller Convicted of Contempt of Congress

Jun 17,

1957

“Red Monday” – Supreme Court Limits Anti-Communist Measures

Jun 19,

1958

Joe Papp, Future Theater Great, Takes the Fifth Before HUAC – Is Fired by CBS

Jul 30,

1958

Frank Wilkinson, Anti-HUAC Activist, Refuses to Answer HUAC Questions

Dec 9,

1958

John Birch Society, Hard-Line Anti-Communist Group, Founded

Apr 4,

1960

Anti-HUAC Demonstrations Planned

May 12,

1960

Major Anti-HUAC Protest Begins in San Francisco; Police Brutality the Next Day

Oct 10,

1960

Committee to Abolish HUAC Holds First National Convention

May 1,

1961

Frank Wilkinson, Anti-HUAC Activist, Sent to Prison for Contempt of Congress

Jun 28,

1962

John Henry Faulk Wins $3.5 Million Damages Award for Being Blacklisted

Jun 22,

1963

President Kennedy Pressures Dr. Martin Luther King to Fire Alleged Communist Associates, Fails

Jun 25,

1963

North Carolina Passes Campus Speaker Ban

May 24,

1965

Supreme Court Strikes Down Postal Censorship Law

Feb 15,

1967

“Ramparts” Magazine Exposes Secret CIA Funding of U.S. Student Group

Jan 7,

1969

Governor Reagan: Drive “Anarchists” and “Latter Day Fascists” Off California Campuses

Mar 8,

1971

Activists Raid FBI Office in Media, PA; Steal Documents, Expose Notorious COINTELPRO Program

Feb 12,

1972

Dorothy Kenyon, Feminist and Civil Libertarian, Dies

Apr 2,

1972

Charlie Chaplin, Excluded in 1952, Returns to U.S. After 20 Years

Apr 10,

1972

Charlie Chaplin Receives Honorary Oscar, 20 Years After Being Excluded From U.S.

Jul 1,

1975

David Saxon, Fired For Not Signing Loyalty Oath in 1950, Becomes President of University of California

Mar 21,

1999

Elia Kazan Given Honorary Oscar – Award Protested Because He “Named Names” to HUAC

Jan 2,

2006

Frank Wilkinson, Anti-HUAC Activist, Dies

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