Telling the story of a slave revolt in ancient Rome, the 1960 film Spartacus was penned by two blacklisted Communist writers. Its arrival in theaters was a middle finger to the McCarthyist witch hunt in Hollywood and publishing.
The American movie industry has been one of the most consistently unionized sectors of the economy since the 1930s — but to achieve that, workers had to overcome “the iron fist of the moguls” and organized crime, says historian Gerald Horne
With rising global tensions, unsurprisingly the same old McCarthyite playbook is again being dusted off. We reject these smears.
125 years after his birth, Paul Robeson, the civil rights titan, remains a role model for battling racism and fascism. The words written on his gravestone: “The artist must elect to fight for freedom or slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative.”
AOC & Jordan Klepper on Trump, Clarence Thomas & Ending Violence. Here's Why Writers Are Ready to Shut Hollywood Down. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. | Movie. Paul Robeson Testifying Before HUAC. Farmworkers | John Oliver.
James Earl Jones re-enacts Paul Robeson's testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (in memory of Robeson's 125th birthday)
Poet Langston Hughes was invited to speak at Occidental College on this day in 1948, then uninvited when red-baiters released a report calling him a “subversive.” His story shows how the postwar Red Scare targeted radicals, particularly black leftists.
Repealing the Paramount accords could set independent cinema back in favour of corporate giants. When larger studios can buyup properties or drive competitors out of business, that monopoly over our cultural media is truly dangerous.
Hazel Scott was a piano prodigy who wowed the worlds of music, TV, and film. But when she stood up for her rights, the establishment took her down.
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