McCarthyism Timeline

The Hatch Act of 1939 banned membership in subversive organizations, which was interpreted by many as being anti-labor legislation.

The Alien Registration Act or Smith Act of 1940 made it illegal to 'knowingly or willfully advocate, abet, advise or teach' the violent overthrow of the government. Hundreds of communists and others were prosecuted under this law between 1941 and 1957.

Truman's Executive Order 9835 required that all federal civil-service employees be screened for 'loyalty', screening them for possible association with organizations deemed 'totalitarian, fascist, communist, or subversive'. Truman, a Democrat, was probably reacting in part to the Republican sweep in the 1946 Congressional election.

Image source: Executive Order 9835

Eleven leaders of the Communist Party were convicted under the Smith Act in 1949 in the Foley Square trial. By 1957, 140 leaders and members of the Communist Party had been charged under the law, of whom 93 were convicted.

The McCarran Internal Security Act has been described by scholar Ellen Schrecker as 'the McCarthy era's only important piece of legislation'. Truman vetoed it, writing 'In a free country, we punish men for the crimes they commit, but never for the opinions they have,' but his veto was overridden. Its major provisions were found unconstitutional in 1965 and 1967.

By 1952, several states had enacted statutes against criminal anarchy, criminal syndicalism, and sedition; banned communists from public employment; demanded loyalty oaths from public servants; and restricted the Communist Party. In 1950, Michigan enacted life imprisonment for subversive propaganda; in 1951, Tennessee enacted the death penalty for advocating violent overthrow of the government.

In 1951, 23 other leaders of the Communist Party were indicted under the Smith Act, including Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Image source: Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders

In 1952, the Immigration and Nationality, or McCarran–Walter, Act was passed, adding immigration restrictions during the McCarthy era.

Image source: Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952

When President Dwight Eisenhower took office in 1953, he strengthened and extended Truman's loyalty review program, while decreasing the avenues of appeal available to dismissed employees.

Image source: Dwight D. Eisenhower

Jointly drafted by Republican John Marshall Butler and Democrat Hubert Humphrey, the Communist Control Act of 1954 sought to outlaw the Communist Party but never had any significant effect. In 1954 it was used to prevent Communist Party members from appearing on the New Jersey state ballot, and in 1960 it was cited to deny CPUSA recognition as an employer under New York unemployment compensation.

In 1958, an estimated one of every five employees in the United States was required to pass some sort of loyalty review, showing how far loyalty screening had spread beyond the federal government.

In 1940, the American Civil Liberties Union ejected founding member Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, saying that her membership in the Communist Party was enough to disqualify her as a civil libertarian. In the mid-20th century, such attitudes were not confined to arch-conservatives.

Image source: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

On November 25, 1947, the day after the House approved contempt citations for the Hollywood Ten, Eric Johnston, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, issued a press release on behalf of the heads of the major studios that came to be known as the Waldorf Statement.

The term McCarthyism was published for the first time in late March 1950 in The Christian Science Monitor, along with a political cartoon by Herblock in The Washington Post. The first recorded use was on March 28, 1950: 'Their little spree with McCarthyism is no aid to consultation'.

On June 1, 1950, Senator Margaret Chase Smith, a Maine Republican, delivered a speech to the Senate she called a 'Declaration of Conscience', an early rebuke of McCarthy's tactics.

Image source: Declaration of Conscience

The 1952 Arthur Miller play The Crucible used the Salem witch trials as a metaphor for McCarthyism, suggesting that the process of McCarthyism-style persecution can occur at any time or place.

Image source: The Crucible

Though he did not block the State Department from carrying out an order to remove allegedly subversive books, President Eisenhower publicly criticized the initiative, telling Dartmouth College graduates in 1953: 'Don't join the book burners!'

On October 20, 1953, Murrow's show See It Now aired an episode about the dismissal of Milo Radulovich, a former reserve Air Force lieutenant accused of associating with Communists.

Image source: I Can See Clearly Now

A Gallup poll found that at his peak in January 1954, 50% of the American public supported McCarthy, while 29% had an unfavorable opinion. His support fell to 34% in June 1954.

On March 9, 1954, See It Now aired another episode on the issue of McCarthyism, this one attacking Joseph McCarthy himself, contributing to the erosion of his public support.

Image source: Edward R. Murrow

In 1956, the Warren Court heard Slochower v. Board of Higher Education, ruling that the privilege against self-incrimination would be reduced to a hollow mockery if its exercise could be taken as equivalent to a confession of guilt. The 1956 Cole v. Young decision also limited the reach of loyalty programs.

Image source: American Civil Liberties Union

McCarthyite viewpoints led to collisions between radicals and supporters of public-health programs, most notably in the case of the Alaska Mental Health Bill controversy of 1956.

Image source: Alaska Mental Health Enabling Act

Another key decision was in the 1957 case Yates v. United States, which sharply limited Smith Act prosecutions. Also in 1957, the Supreme Court ruled in Watkins v. United States, limiting Congress's investigative power over witnesses.

Almost uniquely among the many victims of blacklisting, John Henry Faulk decided to sue AWARE in 1957 and finally won the case in 1962, marking a turning point against blacklisting.

In its 1958 decision in Kent v. Dulles, the Supreme Court ruled that the right to travel is part of personal liberty and cannot be denied without due process, curbing one tactic of the era.

Image source: Kent v. Dulles

In 1960, Dalton Trumbo, one of the best known members of the Hollywood Ten, was publicly credited with writing the films Exodus and Spartacus, signaling the effective end of the Hollywood blacklist.

Image source: Dalton Trumbo

The McCarran Act's Communist registration requirement was declared unconstitutional in the 1965 Supreme Court ruling in Albertson v. Subversive Activities Control Board.

The McCarran Act's Subversive Activities Control Board, which enforced the law's investigation requirement for persons alleged to be involved in 'subversive activities', was officially abolished through Congressional legislation in 1972. The act's detention provision had been repealed in 1971.

Image source: Subversive Activities Control Board

Sociologist Edward Shils criticized an excessive policy of secrecy during the Cold War that led to the misdirection of McCarthyism, which was addressed during the 1994–1997 Moynihan Commission.

The 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck by George Clooney starred David Strathairn as broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow, dramatizing Murrow's confrontation with McCarthyism.

Image source: Good Night, and Good Luck