HUAC: House Un-American Activities Committee
Ring Lardner and Dalton Trumbo, fi lm directors
Elia Kazan and Martin Ritt (see Ritt’s movie of
1976, Th e Front, on the theme of blacklisting),
writers Clifford Odets and Lillian Hellman,
and actors Zero Mostel (star of Th e Front) and
Edward G. Robinson. During the 1960s HUAC’s
dominance of the hearts and minds of the Amer-
ican nationals was repeatedly challenged. Indeed
its momentum had been seriously checked
by TV commentator Edward R. Murrow, who
produced a See It Now documentary (1954) in
which he suggested that McCarthy had repeat-
edly stepped over the fi ne line between investi-
gating and persecuting.
The nightmare spell which McCarthy cast
over a nation was mercifully broken when he
died of liver failure in May 1957. In 1969 HUAC
was reincarnated as the House Internal Security
Committee which, learning the lessons of the
past, opted for low-key activities, holding fewer
sessions and avoiding unpleasant confronta-
tions by not subpoenaing unfriendly witnesses.
See usa – patriot act (2001). See also topic
guides under media ethics; media: freedom,
censorship; media history.
Human Rights Act (UK), 2000 Incorporating
into British law the European Convention on
Human Rights, the Act has been described as
the biggest change in UK law since the Bill of
Rights of 1688. Th e Act guarantees freedom of
thought, conscience and religion; freedom of
expression, and this right ‘shall include freedom
to hold opinions and to receive and impart infor-
mation and ideas without interference by public
authority and regardless of frontiers’.
Freedom of expression is deemed to be subject
to ‘duties and responsibilities’ and conditional
upon ‘restrictions and penalties as are prescribed
by law and are necessary in a democratic society,
in the interests of national security, territorial
integrity or public safety’. Th at freedom is equally
subject to criteria concerning ‘the prevention of
disorder or crime, for the protection of health
and morals, for the protection of the rights of
others, for preventing the disclosure of informa-
tion received in confi dence or for maintaining
the authority and impartiality of the judiciary’.
Discrimination ‘on any ground such as sex,
race, colour, language, religion, political or other
opinion, national or social origin, association
with a national minority, property, birth or
other status’ is prohibited. Th e right to life, to
a fair trial, to respect for private and family life,
freedom of assembly, the right to marry are all
confirmed. See topic guide under commis-
sions, committees, legislation.HUAC: House Un-American Activities
Committee Inspiration for Arthur Miller’s
play, Th e Crucible, which explored the nature of
community hysteria leading to the persecution
of ‘suspected witches’. In the case of HUAC, set
up by the US Congress in 1938 (and not wound
up until February 1969), the witches were
Communists, alleged Communists or Commu-
nist sympathizers. Among the witch-finders
were Richard Nixon, later Republican president,
and the notorious Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Every section of society was scrutinized
for suspects, not the least the entertainment
industry. One committee member, John Rankin
- a ‘virulent bigot who equated Jews with
Communists and Negroes with monkeys’, as
Godfrey Ryan describes him in his three-part
series of articles, ‘Un-American activities’ (Index
on Censorship 1, 2 and 3, 1973) – declared ‘one
of the most dangerous plots ever instigated for
the overthrow of this government has its head-
quarters in Hollywood ... Th e information we get
is that this is the greatest hot-bed of subversive
activities in the United States’.
HUAC’s pursuit of ‘subversives’ thrived in the
years of the Second World War and fl ourished
even more in the years of the so-called Cold
War. In Joe McCarthy and McCarthyism: Th e
Hate Th at Haunts America (McGraw-Hill, 1972),
Roberta Fauerlicht writes, ‘Since the govern-
ment had to fi nd subversives before they could
subvert, people were punished not for what they
did but for what they might do. Men and women
found their loyalty questioned because they
liked Russian music, because they had books on
Communism in their libraries, or because they
believed in equality for blacks or civil liberties
for Communists.’ One hundred and thirty-nine
government employees were fired as a result
of HUAC investigations, although not a single
one was found guilty of subversive acts. Hearst
newspapers were prominent in applauding the
work of HUAC.
Perhaps the most insidious result of HUAC
activities was blacklisting, whereby ‘suspects’ –
often mysteriously – failed to gain employment
or were laid off from work for specious reasons.
Blacklisting was keenly felt in the movie indus-
try and in broadcasting. It is a cruel irony that
where accusations were publicly proved to be
fraudulent, blacklisting increased rather than
decreased.
Prominent victims of HUAC scrutiny were
Arthur Miller himself (he was refused a passport
by the State Department in 1956), the black
singer Paul Robeson, Hollywood scriptwriters