Jan. 2, 1962: NBC Bans Weavers for Refusal to Sign Loyalty Oath

Teaching Activity. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca.
In this mixer lesson, students meet 27 different targets of government harassment and repression to analyze why disparate individuals might have become targets of the same campaign, determining what kind of threat they posed in the view of the U.S. government.

Article. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. If We Knew Our History series.
Too often, when it comes to U.S. Cold War interventions, the official curriculum is sanitized and disjointed, leaving students ill-equipped to make sense out of their nation’s global bullying.

Article. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca. 2021. If We Knew Our History series.

The history of McCarthyism we teach students should restore the powerful and inspiring stories of the activists and organizations who were its victims.

Book — Non-fiction. Written and illustrated by Sharon Rudahl. Edited by Paul Buhle and Lawrence Ware. 2020. 142 pages.
The first-ever graphic biography of Paul Robeson charts Robeson’s career as a singer, actor, scholar, athlete, and activist who achieved global fame.

Book — Non-fiction. By Stuart Stotts. Illustrated by Terrance Cummings. 2010. and a CD. 64 pages.
History of the song from the Civil Rights Movement and other struggles, “We Shall Overcome.”

Film. Directed by Alexandra Isles. 2000. 60 minutes.
Documentary about the impact of the McCarthy era on African Americans in the film industry.

Activist folksinger Pete Seeger was born in New York.

The “Hollywood 10” directors, producers, and writers who refused to testify at HUAC were held in contempt of Congress.

Senator Joseph McCarthy delivered a speech at the McLure Hotel during which he claimed to hold a list of known communists in the U.S. State Department.

Mrs. White of the Indiana Textbook Commission called for a ban of Robin Hood in all school books for promoting communism.

Five students from Indiana University at Bloomington (IU) started the Green Feather Movement to protest censorship.

Paul Robeson testified before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, where he was questioned about his political speech, associations, and party affiliation.

Peaceful protesters formed a picket line at the House on Un-American Activities Committee hearings.