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.
Morgan Freeman
Self
Rosetta LeNoire
Self
Dick Campbell
Self
Frederick O'Neal
Self
Ossie Davis
Self
Paul Robeson
Self (archive footage)
Joseph Wershba
Self
J. Edgar Hoover
Self (archive footage)
Jackie Robinson
Self (archive footage)
Hazel Scott
Self (archive footage)
Adam Clayton Powell III
Self - son of Hazel Scott
Sidney Poitier
Reverend Msimangu (archive footage)
Canada Lee
Stephen Kumalo (archive footage)
Gertrude Jeannette
Self
Erik Barnouw
Self - broadcast historian
