McCarthyism and The Salem Witch Trials

Activity You will each receive a piece of paper Some are blank and some have a red X on them. When you receive your piece of paper, you must secretly look at it, and do not reveal to anyone if you have a X, and once you know what it is, put it away. The goal of the activity is form a group of 5 of “non-X” members as possible.

Advice Since the goal is to form a group of non-X members, everyone will deny having an X, you must look for any suspicion. If you suspect that someone has a X, point them out. If you are an “X”, then you must bluff and try to convince others that you are not a X. You have 5 minutes to form groups with “non-X” members. When the timer goes off, I will turn the lights off and everyone needs to freeze and please be quiet.

So what? This activity was designed to allow you to experience the anti-communist hysteria and suspicion of the McCarthy Era in U.S. History during the 1950’s During this era, Americans turned on their fellow citizens and denounced them as Communist sympathizers based on little to no evidence McCarthyism: The practice of publicizing accusations of political disloyalty with little to no evidence

Joseph McCarthy Republican Senator Famous anti-Communist activists Why did he do this? He wanted to be reelected, so he needed a good issue He claimed that Communist were taking over the government Claimed he had a list of 205 known Communists working in the U.S. Department of State. Video

Arthur Miller The author of The Crucible He was named as a suspected communist. The House Un-american Activities Committee demanded the names of friends and colleagues who had participated in similar activities, but Miller refused to comply, saying "I could not use the name of another person and bring trouble on him." Miller related the situation with the House Un-American Activities Committee to the witch hunt in Salem in 1692

Witch hunt McCarthyist persecution of suspected communists in the United States, is especially associated with this usage of the term "witch hunt." Video Groups: Get into small groups of 5 or 6, I will give each group an example ofa “witch hunt” that took place in history, and I would like each group write down 5 examples of how that time in history could be called a witch hunt, or how it is similar to The Crucible and “The Red Scare”

Exit Slip On a piece of paper: Something you learned. Something you still have questions about.