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.”
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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.
Chan Davis, died last month at 96, faced down McCarthyite blacklists and imprisonment to pursue a brilliant academic career. Davis knew how to change and learn from political experience, but he always remained loyal to his socialist principles.
The postwar Second Red Scare successfully smashed the American left. But in the midst of its devastation, a small number of old leftists refused to be shut up by the climate of fear. Without their heroism, the New Left could never have emerged.
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