Jane Fonda Revives Hollywood’s Committee for the First Amendment

Jane Fonda Revives Hollywood’s Committee for the First Amendment

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Almost 90 years ago, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), a congressional body that investigated alleged disloyalty and a wide array of activities deemed “subversive,” was formed under the guise of rooting out the red scourge of communism in the United States. It was an elusive specter that loomed large in the minds of politicians in the post-World War II era. Communists could be anywhere and could be anyone. Your milkman, your neighbor, your kid’s teacher, or the star of the movie playing at the matinee.

Led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, the HUAC created such a strong atmosphere of fear about being perceived as a communist that a lot of people and organizations complied in ad