“ I am a man of a thousand faces, all of them blacklisted.” -Zero Mostel, comedian “featured” in Red Channels The Red Channels: The Illegitimacy of America’s Own Little Black Book A mindless observer flipping through Red Channels would not find anything shocking, significant, or suspicious throughout its 213 pages. This small book, published in 1950 by the American Business Consultants, initially looks like an attractive collection of résumés, complete with a person’s name, occupation, and a comprehensive listing of various activities in which the person was involved. These “résumés,” however, were not made to make a person look appealing to an employer. In fact, if one’s name were found in this book, they would most certainly not be employed, or if they were employed, would be fired. Developed by three ex-FBI agents, Red Channels was America’s Holy Book of the 1950’s. It was referred to and analyzed, being the basis of every major decision in politics, media, and music. During this era, the majority of American citizens thought that this special book was a tool of protection for America, weeding out influential Communists who were dangerous to their government and way of life. Yet this potent book was in reality harmful to society and illegitimate for a number of reasons. First, the book’s overt discrimination caused people to lose their jobs or their reputation, ultimately violating certain constitutional rights: the right to privacy, the right to property, and freedom of speech and association. Second, the book was the American Business Consultants’ corrupt means to extract profit, undermining the alleged “goal” of this publication to protect America’s interest. Third, the booklet added to the public ho... ... middle of paper ... ...New York: Thunder's Mouth Press/Nation Books, 248, 254-255, 702. Capaldi, Jim. (2002, February 20). Pete Seeger Appreciation Page [Web site]. Retrieved May 17, 2002, from the World Wide Web: http://home.earthlink.net/~jimcapaldi/redchannels.htm Caute, D. (1978). The Great Fear: the anti-Communist purge under Truman and Eisenhower. New York: Simon and Schuster, pp. 509, 521-532, 617-618. Fleming, D.F. (1954). Are we Moving Toward Fascism? The Journal of Politics, (16)1, 39- 56, 58-75. Fried, R. (1990). Nightmare In Red: the McCarthy era in perspective. New York: Oxford University Press, 156-157. Malin, P. M. (1951). The Status of Civil Rights in the United States in 1950. Journal of Negro Education, (20)3, 279-289. Stowe, D.W. (1998). The Politics of Cafe Society. The Journal of American History, (84)4, 1384-1406.
Prior to the 1950s, very little research had been done on the history and nature of the United States’ policies toward and relationships with African Americans, particularly in the South. To most historians, white domination and unequal treatment of Negroes were assumed to be constants of the political and social landscapes since the nation’s conception. Prominent Southern historian C. Vann Woodward, however, permanently changed history’s naïve understanding of race in America through his book entitled The Strange Career of Jim Crow. His provocative thesis explored evidence that had previously been overlooked by historians and gave a fresh foundation for more research on the topic of racial policies of the United States.
Guilford, CT: Dushkin/ McGraw-Hill, 1997. Chiatkin, Anton. A. Treason in America. Washington DC: Executive Intelligence. Review, a review of the book, Divine, Breen, Frederickson, and Williams. America Past and Present.
To get a clear view and understanding of the book, first must review the time period in history. The book was written in the mid 1950's during the cold war. Former General McCarthy, then U.S. Senator started a fire ball of suspicion, suppression, and incarceration. This had a very huge impact on the entrainment industry, which included everyone from playwrights to filmmakers, as well as writers and actors. If anyone in that time period was suspected of being a communist, the government could come and pull them out of their home. At the least a suspected communist would be banned, or put on a black ball list. Printed in the Times, McCarthy's First Slander, "Overnight, his speech sparked a media firestorm that played to the basest fears of Americans swept up in a frightening cold war and triggered loyalty oaths, blacklists and personal betrayals that cost an estimated 10,000 Americans their jobs and some shattered innocents their lives." (Johanna McGeary 28) This happened to a number of actors and film makers during that time period. The black ball list was a list of names of people who were believed to be communist. The people on this list came from the movie industry as well as writers. These people would no longer be able to get work ...
Mary Dudziak's Cold War Civil Rights is an impressive take on the American race problem of 1950s and 1960s. Legal segregation is viewed in the context of its impact of the Cold War. This Professor of both Law and History has decided that it is pertinent to look at a string of events that happened solely in the United States, and place them within the histories and actions of the rest of the world. Her hypothesis is that much of the Civil Rights legislation passed in the 20th century was a direct result of America's desire to implement democracy as a way of life worldwide. This text is a sort of tale of modern racism, focusing on America, written as a narrative of the relationship between democracy and communism.
In 1955, C. Vann Woodward published the first edition of his book, The Strange Career of Jim Crow. The book garnered immediate recognition and success with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. eventually calling it, “the historical Bible of the civil rights movement.” An endorsement like this one from such a prominent and respect figure in American history makes one wonder if they will find anything in the book to criticize or any faults to point out. However, with two subsequent editions of the book, one in August 1965 and another in October 1973—each adding new chapters as the Civil Rights movement progressed—one wonders if Dr. King’s assessment still holds up, if indeed The Strange Career of Jim Crow is still the historical bible of the civil rights movement. In addition, one questions the objectivity of the book considering that it gained endorsements from figures who were promoting a cause and because Woodward had also promoted that same cause.
McCraw, David, and Stephen Gikow. “The End to a Unspoken Bargain? National Security and Leaks in a Post-Pentagon Papers World.” Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 48.2 (2013): 473-509. Academic OneFile. Web. 5 Dec. 2013.
Younge, Gary. "America dreaming: the horrors of segregation bound the US civil rights movement together. Fifty years on from Martin Luther King's great speech, inequality persists--but in subtler ways." New Statesman [1996] 23 Aug. 2013: 20+. Student Resources in Context. Web. 28 Jan. 2014.
Both Fannie Lou Hamer and Malcolm X rejected the idea that the main goal of the civil rights movement should be based on an aspiration to gain rights “equal” to those of white men and to assimilate into white culture. They instead emphasized a need to empower Black Americans.1 Their ideas were considered radical at a time when Martin Luther King Jr. preached the potential of white and black americans to overcome “the race issue” together and in a gradual manner. Malcolm X’s attempt to achieve his goals through revolutionary top-down methods and Fannie Lou Hamer’s focus on the need for grassroots movements contributed to the Civil Rights movement significantly by encouraging and assisting Black Americans.
In times of great terror and panic, the citizens of a nation must decide what they value most: their right to privacy or the lives of the innocent. Government surveillance is criticized, however there are times in a nation’s history where, in order to ensure the safety of their citizens, they must surveill the country for potential hazards that might exist in the world. The government-issued program, COINTELPRO--a series of illegal projects during the twentieth century organized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation--while heavily criticized for its unconstitutional grounds--was justified because it benefitted the nation during a period of upheaval. COINTELPRO is popularly condemned by historians and professors such as Brandeis University Professor of Sociology, David Cunningham, who asserts that the FBI counterintelligence program was only a form of repression that allowed for the government to suppress matters that they consider bothersome (234). This however was not the case.
Prados, John. Safe for Democracy The Secret Wars of the CIA. Chicago, IL: Ivan R Dee, Publisher, 2006.
The United States after the Civil War was still not an entirely safe place for African-Americans, especially in the South. Many of the freedoms other Americans got to enjoy were still largely limited to African-Americans at the time. At the beginning of the 20th Century, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois emerged as black leaders. Their respective visions for African-American society were different however. This paper will argue that Du Bois’s vision for American, although more radical at the time, was essential in the rise of the African-American society and a precursor to the Civil Rights Movement.
Hummel, William and Huntress, Keith. The Analysis of Propaganda. New York: William Sloane Associates, 1949
Everyday citizens often live unaware of their government’s inner workings. The knowing of political espionage is often too heavy of a subject to be inducted in conversation. True, prima facie, modest twists and turns of information may not be considered substantial, but this inconsideration leaves much to be uncontrolled. It is easy for political leaders to become power crazed, to not realize the massive implications that come of their actions. Only after all is said and done do the people actually realize their government is an opaque mask of deception. The Watergate Scandal substantially impacted Americans’ trust in their government.
Nabrit, James M. Jr. “The Relative Progress and the Negro in the United States: Critical Summary and Evaluation.” Journal of Negro History 32.4 (1963): 507-516. JSTOR. U of Illinois Lib., Urbana. 11 Apr. 2004
John A. Kirk, History Toady volume 52 issue 2, The Long Road to Equality for African-Americans