HUAC Made a Permanent Committee – Assault on Freedom of Belief and Association Continues
In a surprise move by Rep. John Rankin (D–Mississippi) that outmaneuvered House leaders, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was made a permanent committee of the House of Representatives on this day.
During World War II, HUAC had been much less active than it had been in the late 1930s, and many observers had expected the committee to expire. Rep. Rankin was one of the most vicious racists and the leading anti-Semite in Congress (see, for example, his anti-Semitic rant on April 23, 1952), but he was also a clever legislator and he worked hard to convince enough members of the House to make HUAC a permanent committee.
HUAC was first established on May 26, 1938. It’s name was changed to the House Internal Security Committee in 1969, and it was finally abolished on January 14, 1975.
HUAC had a 37-year history of attacking people, almost exclusively leftists, liberals, and civil rights activists, because of the political beliefs and associations. The victims of HUAC abuses included many famous Americans: the noted playwright Arthur Miller (June 21, 1956), folk singer Pete Seeger (August 18, 1955), the African-American singer and civil rights activist Paul Robeson (June 12, 1956), and many others.
One of the most insidious aspects of HUAC investigations was the demand that witnessed “name names” of alleged Communists they knew or had once known. It was a degrading ritual that forced people to become informers. The alternative was to refuse to testify and by cited for contempt of Congress.
Contempt of Congress indictments became a heavy weapon against alleged subversives during the Cold War. While it had rarely been used before World War II, HUAC issued 21 contempt citations in 1946, 14 in 1947, and 56 in 1950. All other House Committees in those years issued a total of only 6 contempt citations.
Read a letter by Rep. John Rankin supporting HUAC: http://www.lib.usm.edu/legacy/spcol/exhibitions/anti-comm/activism_political-4.html
Read: Kenneth O’Reilly, Hoover and the Un-Americans: The FBI, HUAC, and the Red Menace (1983)
Read about HUAC and the Hollywood blacklist: Thomas Doherty, Show Trial: Hollywood, HUAC, and the Birth of the Blacklist (2018)
Watch a documentary about HUAC and the Hollywood Ten: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taancRcLQ8o
Learn more about HUAC: http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/huac