What was huac famous for in the 1950s

The impact of these hearings was to ruin the careers of many individuals and to foster a political paranoia toward anyone suspected of holding contrary political views or of joining suspected political organizations. Its and hearings investigating anti-war activists Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, both of whom attended the hearings at various times wearing a Santa Claus or a Revolutionary War patriot outfit, contributed to the rising unpopularity of HUAC.

In its name was changed to the Internal Security Committee, and in it was abolished. Its investigations were the subject of several Supreme Court decisions that sought to define the scope of the constitutional power Congress had to hold hearings. This article was originally published in Constitution, the Supreme Court, and money, politics, and the First Amendment.

Kaplan, Lewis A. HUAC was created in to investigate alleged disloyalty and rebel activities on the part of private citizens, public employees and organizations suspected of having Communist ties.

Citizens suspected of having ties to the communist party would be tried in a court of law. Government employees could be blacklisted viewed as untrustworthy or someone to avoid and could lose their jobs. They lost their jobs and were effectively prevented from working in their chosen industry. These critics argued that most people who were called before the committee had broken no laws, but instead were targeted for their political beliefs or for exercising their right to free speech.

Supporters of the committee, on the other hand, believed that its efforts were justified given the grave threat to U. The HUAC investigations delved into many areas of American life, but they paid special attention to the motion picture industry, which was believed to harbor a large number of Communists.

Not wishing to get on the wrong side of Congress or the movie-going public, most film industry executives did not speak out against the investigations. In addition, many of the major studios imposed a strict blacklist policy against actors, directors, writers and other personnel implicated in Communist activity. The film industry investigations reached their peak with the events surrounding the Hollywood Ten , a group of writers and directors who were called to testify in October All were cited for contempt of Congress and sentenced to prison terms, in addition to being blacklisted from working in Hollywood.

HUAC also sounded an alarm about Communists infiltrating the federal government. The most infamous case began in August , when a self-confessed former member of the American Communist Party named Whittaker Chambers appeared before the committee.

During his dramatic testimony, Chambers accused Alger Hiss , a former high-ranking State Department official, of serving as a spy for the Soviet Union. Based on allegations and evidence provided by Chambers, Hiss was found guilty of perjury and served 44 months in prison. He spent the rest of his life proclaiming his innocence and decrying his wrongful prosecution.

The suggestion that Communist agents had infiltrated senior levels of the U. Senator Joseph McCarthy in the early s.

Politicians of both parties began to portray themselves as staunchly anti-communist to seize elections. Civil liberties eroded away as the legislature and the judiciary decided that the circumstances were dire enough to permit invasions of privacy in order to combat domestic communist threats.

Neighbors were accused by their peers as being communists as the hysteria grew. Those indicted were often shunned from familial relations, released from work, and persecuted by law enforcement. Generally, those seeking out communists preferred to accuse a mass amount of people, regardless of evidence or lack thereof , as opposed to locating proof to issue an appropriate conviction. This fear of communism did not just grip the federal government.

In , the Ohio General Assembly implemented the Ohio Un-American Activities Committee, a joint committee of state representatives and senators charged with determining the influence of communism in Ohio. The committee was based upon the federal government's House Un-American Activities Committee, and its members received sweeping powers to question Ohioans about their ties to communism. Most of the accused were college students or people who had advocated socialist or communist programs to end the Great Depression in the s.

Various grand juries eventually indicted the forty people, with fifteen of those accused being convicted for supporting communism. Lausche generally opposed the committee's actions, but he faced great pressure from fearful Ohio citizens to continue his investigations. The governor contended that the committee's actions might put into "grave danger.