Second Red Scare

The Second Red Scare was a period of anti-communist political repression in the United States during the 1950s. During this period, U.S. authorities imprisoned hundreds of people and over 10,000 lost their jobs. Senator Joseph McCarthy began the Second Red Scare in February 1950 when he claimed that over 200 U.S. State Department officials were secretly communists. He later expanded his list to thousands of government officials. The Internal Security Act required communist and anti-imperialist organizations to report all of their members to the U.S. government. In 1954, Congress passed the Communist Control Act, preventing communists from having passports or holding government office. By 1953, 39 states completely criminalized membership in revolutionary organizations.

Smith Act

The 1940 Smith Act was first used against the CPUSA in July 1948. The United States indicted 12 of 13 national board members, including William Z. Foster, Eugene Denis, Robert Thompson, Benjamin Davis, Henry Winston, John Gates, Gilbert Green, and Gus Hall. All 12 defendants were convicted, and 11 were sentenced to the maximum five years in prison. Starting in 1951, trials began against local party leaders: 12 in California, six in Michigan, nine in Pennsylvania, and others were sentenced to five years. Prosecutors usually cited passages from the Communist Manifesto or State and Revolution to show that the defendants called for a violent revolution. 108 communists had been convicted by the end of 1956.