Hollywood Blacklist

In the United States Constitution the First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” In America all people are supposed to be guaranteed these rights, but in the late 1940s and early 1950s their was an immense amount of controversy in Hollywood as to what the stipulations of this Amendment consisted of to Americans, especially in Hollywood. In 1938 The House of Un-American Activities formed, but it wasn’t until 1947 that it decided to search Hollywood “citizens” to find the so-called reds. It was also in 1947 that the Preliminary hearings of the Communist Infiltration of Hollywood Motion Picture Industry began and saw their “friendly witnesses” testify. It wasn’t long after these hearings that the “blacklisting” be...