The Alien Registration Act passed by Congress on 29th June, 1940, made it illegal for anyone in the United States to advocate, abet, or teach the desirability of overthrowing the government. The law also required all alien residents in the United States over 14 years of age to file a comprehensive statement of their personal and occupational status and a record of their political beliefs. Within four months a total of 4,741,971 aliens had been registered. The main objective of the Alien Registration Act was to undermine the American Communist Party and other left-wing political groups in the United States. It was decided that the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), that had been set up by Congress under Martin Dies in 1938 to investigate people suspected of unpatriotic behavior, would be the best vehicle to discover if people were trying to overthrow the government. In 1947 the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), chaired by J. Parnell Thomas, began an investigation into the Hollywood Motion Picture Industry. The HUAC interviewed 41 people who were working in Hollywood. These people attended voluntarily and became known as "friendly witnesses". During their interviews they named nineteen people who they accused of holding left-wing views. One of those named, Bertolt Brecht, a playwright, gave evidence and then left for East Germany. Ten others: Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Albert Maltz, Adrian Scott, Samuel Ornitz,, Dalton Trumbo, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner Jr., John Howard Lawson and Alvah Bessie refused to answer any questions. Known as the Hollywood Ten, they claimed that the 1st Amendment of the United States Constitution gave them the right to do this. The House of Un-American Activities Committee and the courts during appeals disagreed and they all were found guilty of contempt of congress and each was sentenced to between six and twelve months in prison. Larry Parks was the only actor in the original nineteen people named. He was also the only person on the list who the average moviegoer would have known. Parks agreed to give evidence to the HUAC and admitted that he had joined the Communist Party in 1941 but left it four years later. When asked for the names of fellow members, Parks replied: "I would prefer, if you would allow me, not to mention other people's names. Don't present me with the choice of either being in contempt of this Committee and going to jail or forcing me to really crawl through the mud to be an informer.
..., for being a “friendly witness” to the Congressional committee, he has made it equally difficult for anyone else to forgive or forget what he did. Even though Kazan’s testimony was essentially symbolic, and despite that fact that many others were guilty of the same crimes against Hollywood, his name has become the symbol most associated with HUAC.
Through the 1940s and 1950s, America was beleaguered with anxieties about the menace of communism arising in Eastern Europe and China. Profiting out of such worries of the nation, young Senator Joseph McCarthy made an open charge that hundreds of "card-carrying" communists had penetrate in the United States government. Although his allegations were found ultimately to be false and the Senate reproached him for improper ways, his ardent shakeup heralded as one of the most tyrannical era in 20th-century American politics. While the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAA) had been made in 1938 as a body to resist communists, McCarthy's charges enhanced the political nervousness of the epoch. The suspicious chase for moles, scandalously known as McCarthyism, made the life and work of a number of important cultural names in the U.S difficult, being branded as champions and supporters to leftist causes. By 1954, the zeal had subsided. These short trials remain one of the most disgraceful times in modern U.S. history (McCarthyism, pbs.org). There are researchers and critics who still find the shadow of McCarthyism looming on the present history of the Unites States. About two years ago, in a Presidential Address George Bush, pleaded the Congress to ratify legislation that would prolong the time-bound terms of the notorious anti-terror law, originally planned to end on December 31st, 2005 and later extended. Advocated by Attorney General John Ashcroft and accepted by the Congress in the scared upshot of the 9/11 fanatic assaults, the Patriot Act has been depicted by its critics as the utmost warning to U.S human rights since the Alien and Sedition Acts or the postponement of habeas corpus during the Civil War. The Alien Registrat...
During this time a variety of Americans were accused of being Communists or communist sympathizers and were victims of aggressive investigations by government committees and agencies.
The Alien Act was a law that was signed by John Adams to weaken the Republican party. Because all the poor people and people from other country that moved here was a Republican and John Adams was with the Federalist party. Before the Alien Act was signed in to law, people from other country that live in the U.S, also called Foreigners, could became a citizen when they lived here for 5 years, but after the law was signed they had to want for 14 years till they can become a citizen(Welcome to Our Documents). This made the Republican party angry because you need to be a citizen of the U.S to vote and now they will have less people to vote because most of the Republican were Foreigners. The Alien Act also gave the President power to deport any Foreigner that if he thought they were being bad in this country. This also made the Republicans angry(Library of
Joseph McCarthy’s negative influence first manifested itself through his ambition to gain political power. He used his senatorial position to litigate persons who were thought to be part of the Communist Party. Examples this would be the targeting of the Hollywood Ten. These were citizens in the film industry who were cited for contempt of Congress after refusing to answer the questions of McCarthy. The author of The Crucible, Arthur Miller, was even cited for contempt of Congress when he refused to identify writers that attended communist meetings. He went on to explain how the House Un-American Activities Committee, or HUAC, was deceitfully informing citizens that the Soviet way of controlling culture could be successfully exported to America. According to professor and historian Regin Schmidt, when McCarthyism was at its height, only 1% of the public was worried about the internal threat of Communism. This fact shows how manipulative and cynical the government was when fueling the fire of the anti-communist movement.
already in the middle of a Communist witch-hunt. It was believed that the recipe for the atomic
The United States’ government instilled a closed door policy with the creation of many immigration laws in an effort to make America a melting pot of similar ethnicities. However, the prejudice of American society that was enforced by immigration policy forced immigrants to form their own communities for the purpose of survival and protection, turning America into a mosaic of different cultures. The Burlingame Treaty of 1868 and Naturalization Act of 1870 both created a false image of acceptance for immigrants while simultaneously restricting immigration. The United States’ government only began clearly restricting immigration with the Page Act of 1875 and Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
Please allow me to clarify my comments by using some information that I found important regarding Dalton Trumbo and Douglas. In his book, “Spartacus: Film and History” Martin M. Winkler discusses important points about the blacklist. For instance, “In the long run, then, the breaking of the blacklist was a paradoxical triumph of capitalist economy over both capitalist and Communist ideologies. In 1957, attempts to maintain the blacklist degenerated into farse, but thirteen years during which it had been maintained were a grim era for many, including Trumbo.
In 1938, a committee was formed to find suspected communists in America; this committee was the House of Un-America Activities Committee or HUAC.
The unit consisted of originally, nineteen writers and directors that were involved in the film producing industry in Hollywood. “Writers Alvah Bessie, Lester Cole, Ring Lardner, Jr., John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Sam Ornitz, and Dalton Trumbo, as well as directors Herbert Biberman and Edward Dmytryk and writer-producer Robert Adrian Scott,” (Dickinson) were involved in the group, but were the only ten of nineteen that refused to cooperate with a sub-committee of HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee). These members were called the Hollywood Ten or often times the Unfriendly Ten. Amid the nine additional people that were not included, Larry Parks was the only actor that had been mentioned. “He was also the only person on the list who the average moviegoer would have known. Parks agreed to give evidence to the HUAC and admitted that he had joined the Communist Party in 1941 but left it four years later.” (Simkin).
On January 7th 1950, an acquaintance said that the communist-in-government issue would attract national publicity and enhance his chances of reelection. His first speech against the issue was on February 9th in Wheeling, West Virginia and McCarthy revealed a sheet of paper with a list of 205 names, who he said, were members of the Communist party. “He could not remember what figure he had quoted at Wheeling, whether it was 205 or 209 or 57 or whatever…” Oakley adds, which shows that McCarthy’s list wasn’t authentic and credible. In an attempt to restore confidence in the Truman administration, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee established a subcommittee headed by Democratic Senator Millard E. Tydings of Maryland to investigate McCarthy’s charges.
In the end, On December 29, Judge Cox imposed sentences. Roberts and Bowers received ten years, Posey and Price got six years, and the other three convicted defendants got four years. Cox said of his sentences, "They killed one nigger, one Jew, and a white man-- I gave them all what I thought they deserved"(www.core-online.org). Price only served four years and returned home to his family saying he was changed after watching the TV show, “Roots.”
"The McCarthy Era of the 1950's and the Salem Witch Trials of the 1600's were major events in American history that destroyed the lives and careers of many innocent victims. These tragic events were similar in that they demonstrated how hard times lead to society's need to find a scapegoat. They also show the shame and regret that take place after the bloodbaths occur. The parallels between these two events, which took place almost 300 years apart, are remarkable."
The alien act passed in 1798, and was signed by president john adams who was a federalist.. The act made it so instead of living in the united states for 5 years, you had to live in the us for 14 years before you could become a legal citizen. This to some extent restricted immigration. It made it harder for immigrants to become citizens, and because most immigrants favored republicans, making it harder for them to become a citizen would make the growth of Thomas Jefferson's party slow down. within the alien act there was an act called “The alien friends act” this act made it so that if the government though an immigrant was plotting against the government in wartime the government could deport that immigrant. The Alien Friends act violates the fist amendment. The first
The first one would be when Jim Jones made it known after he moved to San Francisco that he was interested in politics, and legal changes strengthened political groups like the temple. In 1975 when George Moscone won the election and appointed Jones as Chairman of San Francisco Housing Authority Commission. The negative impact was when Congressman Leo Ryan and a group of journalist visited People’s temple in Jonestown,Guyana During the Congressman's visit several members of the group wanted to leave with the congressman and on the afternoon of november 18 when they accompanied Congressman Ryan to the local airstrip to leave they were intercepted by a group of temple security guard who opened fire on the group killing Congressman Ryan ,three journalist and one temple defectors a few seconds of gunfire was captured on video by Bob Brown one of the journalist that was killed in the