Nearly 80 years after McCarthyism, Jane Fonda relaunches Committee for the First Amendment: ‘The stakes are too high’

Eight decades after Hollywood legends like Henry Fonda, Lucille Ball, Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland launched the Committee for the First Amendment to stand up to McCarthyism, Jane Fonda is bringing back the organization at a time she calls “the most frightening moment of my life.”

The younger Fonda issued a plea to her Hollywood community in a letter shared with CNN, asking her peers to join the relaunched committee, writing, “I’m 87 years old. I’ve seen war, repression, protest, and backlash. I’ve been celebrated, and I’ve been branded an enemy of the state. But I can tell you this: this is the most frightening moment of my life.”

“When I feel scared, I look to history,” Fonda wrote. “I wish there were a secret playbook with all the answers – but there never has been.”