Member-only story
Lillian Hellman: A Courageous Woman
Lillian Hellman stood in her truth.
In these conflicted times, when Joseph McCarthy wannabes sit on city councils, and school boards, as university trustees, and as state and national legislators, we need more people like Ms. Hellman, willing to stand up to small-minded bullies.
During the McCarthy hearings, the people of the House Committee on Un-American Activities grilled many Hollywood celebrities insisting they name those they thought to be communist sympathizers. If they refused, they were jailed and labeled communists themselves, or at the very least, blacklisted. This led to people dropping names indiscriminately regardless of whether they knew them to be sympathizers or not.
Just give them a name and you can go home.
Here is a brief video about McCarthyism. A frightening similarity to how the MAGA faction of the Republican Party is capitalizing on the very fear it is spreading.
“Senator Joseph McCarthy was one of the first to…
