Scandalize My Name: Stories from the Blacklist

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.

Cast

Morgan Freeman

Self

Rosetta LeNoire

Self

N/A

Dick Campbell

Self

Frederick O'Neal

Self

Ossie Davis

Self

Paul Robeson

Self (archive footage)

N/A

Joseph Wershba

Self

J. Edgar Hoover

Self (archive footage)

Jackie Robinson

Self (archive footage)

Hazel Scott

Self (archive footage)

N/A

Adam Clayton Powell III

Self - son of Hazel Scott

Sidney Poitier

Reverend Msimangu (archive footage)