1. AP Language and Composition
The Red Scare ( )
AP Language and Composition

2. Questions to consider...
What is communism? Who would be interested in this type of economic system?
What about communism would threaten people in the US?
What is McCarthyism (also known as the second Red Scare)?
Who was accused? With what evidence?
What ended McCarthyism?

3. Key Terms HUAC: House of Un-american Activities Committee
Created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having Communist ties
Red Scare:
Promotion of a widespread fear of a potential rise of communism or anarchism by a society or state. The name "Red Scare" refers to the red flags that the communists used.

4. Communism: a political theory from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs
Capitalism: an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state

5. Who is Joseph McCarthy?

6. What is McCarthyism?

7. What is McCarthyism? cont.
Communists in the U.S. were feared for being tied to the Soviets after WWII, even though the Soviets were allied with the U.S. against Hitler during the war
People who had not committed any crimes were called before the HUAC to testify in court
Those who refused to testify sometimes lost jobs, faced jail time, or were “blacklisted”
McCarthy created this campaign to supposedly oust communists, but it became a way for people to accuse each other and obtain political mobility

8. In the 1940s, Hoover used his power to “hunt down” supposed communists in the U.S. government, but other industries used the same standards to find communists in their ranks
The threat of communism was wildly exaggerated, and people who hung modern art on their walls, started petitions against nuclear weapons or had a multiracial social circle could be accused
McCarthy’s investigation of the US Army finally made him lose authority and credibility in the eyes of his colleagues
We still feel the reverberating effects today of the narrowed political spectrum as a result of The Red Scare and McCarthyism (only Democrats and Republicans achieve high-ranking political offices)

9. Who were the targets of The Red Scare?
“Could I say that the reason that I am here today, you know, from the mouth of the State Department itself, is: I should not be allowed to travel because I have struggled for years for the independence of the colonial peoples of Africa...The other reason that I am here today, again from the State Department and from the court record of the court of appeals, is that when I am abroad I speak out against the injustices against the Negro people of this land. I sent a message to the Bandung Conference and so forth. That is why I am here. This is the basis, and I am not being tried for whether I am a Communist, I am being tried for fighting for the rights of my people, who are still second-class citizens in this United States of America.” --Paul Robeson 1950 HUAC Hearing

10. How did The Red Scare affect people’s lives?

11. Activity: Compare Salem witch hunts to Red Scare
In the graphic organizer, one side describes The Red Scare and the other the Salem Witch Trials as told in Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible. Fill out the missing spaces on either side of the graphic organizer with your comparisons. Label under “CN: Red Scare” for your binder.