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Scandalize My Name: Stories from the Blacklist (1998)

Scandalize My Name: Stories from the Blacklist (1998)

History Documentary
Release Date: 1998, January 1
Directors: Alexandra Isles
Cast: Morgan Freeman, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, Ossie Davis, Rosetta LeNoire, J. Edgar Hoover, Gertrude Jeannette, Jackie Robinson, Paul Robeson, Adam Clayton Powell III, Dick Campbell, Frederick O'Neal

Overview:

A look at the confluence of the Red Scare, McCarthyism, and blacklists with the post-war activism by African Americans seeking more and better roles on radio, television, and stage. It begins in Harlem, measures the impact of Paul Robeson and the campaign to bring him down, looks at the role of HUAC, J. Edgar Hoover and of journalists such as Ed Sullivan, and ends with a tribute to Canada Lee. Throughout are interviews with men and women who were there, including Dick Campbell of the Rose McLendon Players and Fredrick O'Neal of the American Negro Theatre. In the 1940s and 1950s, anti-Communism was one more tool to maintain Jim Crow and to keep down African-Americans.

Keywords:

racism mccarthyism post world war ii black community hollywood blacklist harlem renaissance artistic risk