Today I finished my presentation and I think I did pretty well. Then Nate Ohms started his presentation. His was about the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
The HUAC was formed in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty. The chairman of the committee was Martin Dies. They would question private citizens, public employees, and other organizations. This became very popular during the time of the cold war because they wanted to get rid of all the communists in the world. The HUAC thought that the threat of communists in the film industry was a serious one. In 1947, the HUAC began investigating the Hollywood Motion Picture Industry. They investigated whether of not Communists were planted propaganda in US films. In September 1947, the HUAC interviewed 41 people who were working in Hollywood. The 41 were used as “friendly witnesses”. They named people who they accused of holding leftwing views. A lot of people were afraid to get their career ruined b not saying names and being known as communist. The Hollywood ten became famous because of blacklisted individuals. They did not answer any questions, they cited the first amendment. They were jailed by the government and a blacklisted by Hollywood. Over 300 Hollywood people were blacklisted. Writers continued to work by using a pseudonyms or fake names so they could continue writing. Very many people thought that these people were communist and they took away their jobs and the government put them in jail. The work of the committee continued to decline in importance throughout the late 1950’s. In 1959, former President Harry S. Truman said it was the most Un- American thing in the country today. The committee was abolished in 1975.
Erin started her presentation today. Here is her information:
Senator Joe McCarthy was born on November 14, 1908. He dropped out at the age of 14 to help out his family. He went back at the age of 20 and went for one year. He went into the military as a marine but mostly worked in the office. He ran as the Republican for the Campaign of 1944 while he was on active duty as a marine. La Follette was the Governor of Wisconsin. Joe’s slogan was “Congress Needs a Tail-Gunner”. Joe was very popular in his first three years.
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