Time for some history redo;
...
The
House Committee on Un-American Activities (
HCUA), popularly the
House Un-American Activities Committee (
HUAC), was an investigative
committee of the
United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having
communist ties. It became a standing (permanent) committee in 1946, and from 1969 onwards it was known as the
House Committee on Internal Security. When the House abolished the committee in 1975,
[1] its functions were transferred to the
House Judiciary Committee.
The committee's anti-communist investigations are often associated with
McCarthyism, although
Joseph McCarthy himself (as a
U.S. Senator) had no direct involvement with the House committee.
[2][3] McCarthy was the chairman of the
Government Operations Committee and its
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the U.S. Senate, not the House.
....
Dies Committee (1938–1944)
On May 26, 1938, the House Committee on Un-American Activities was established as a special investigating committee, reorganized from its previous incarnations as the Fish Committee and the McCormack–Dickstein Committee, to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having communist or fascist ties; however, it concentrated its efforts on communists.
[14][15] It was chaired by
Martin Dies Jr. (D-Tex.), and therefore known as the Dies Committee. Its records are held by the
National Archives and Records Administration as records related to HUAC.
....
Standing Committee (1945–1975)
The House Committee on Un-American Activities became a standing (permanent) committee on January 3, 1945.
[24] Democratic Representative
Edward J. Hart of New Jersey became the committee's first chairman.
[25] Under the mandate of Public Law 601, passed by the
79th Congress, the committee of nine representatives investigated suspected threats of subversion or propaganda that attacked "the form of government as guaranteed by our
Constitution".
[26]
Under this mandate, the committee focused its investigations on real and suspected communists in positions of actual or supposed influence in the United States society. A significant step for HUAC was its investigation of the charges of espionage brought against
Alger Hiss in 1948. This investigation ultimately resulted in Hiss's trial and conviction for perjury, and convinced many of the usefulness of congressional committees for uncovering communist subversion.
[27]
The chief investigator was
Robert E. Stripling, senior investigator
Louis J. Russell, and investigators
Alvin Williams Stokes,
Courtney E. Owens, and Donald T. Appell. The director of research was
Benjamin Mandel.
....
Hollywood blacklist
Main article:
Hollywood blacklist
In 1947, the committee held nine days of hearings into alleged communist propaganda and influence in the
Hollywood motion picture industry. After conviction on
contempt of Congress charges for refusal to answer some questions posed by committee members, "
The Hollywood Ten" were
blacklisted by the industry. Eventually, more than 300 artists – including directors, radio commentators, actors, and particularly screenwriters – were boycotted by the studios. Some, like
Charlie Chaplin,
Orson Welles,
Alan Lomax,
Paul Robeson, and
Yip Harburg, left the U.S or went underground to find work. Others like
Dalton Trumbo wrote under
pseudonyms or the names of colleagues. Only about ten percent succeeded in rebuilding careers within the entertainment industry.
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en.wikipedia.org
