Scandalize My Name: Stories from the Blacklist

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.

7.7

54 min

Cast

Morgan Freeman

as Self

Rosetta LeNoire

as Self

Dick Campbell

as Self

Frederick O'Neal

as Self

Ossie Davis

as Self

Paul Robeson

as Self (archive footage)

Joseph Wershba

as Self

J. Edgar Hoover

as Self (archive footage)

Jackie Robinson

as Self (archive footage)

Hazel Scott

as Self (archive footage)

Adam Clayton Powell III

as Self - son of Hazel Scott

Sidney Poitier

as Reverend Msimangu (archive footage)

Canada Lee

as Stephen Kumalo (archive footage)

Gertrude Jeannette

as Self

Erik Barnouw

as Self - broadcast historian

Gregory Abbott

as Newsreel Narrator (voice) (archive sound)

Harry Belafonte

as Self

Director

Alexandra Isles