In this episode, SNCC Legacy Board Member and Curator of the Civil Rights Movement Archive, Bruce Hartford, leads a reflection on the impact of McCarthyism in this eye-opening conversation with Dottie Zellner, Mary Louise Patterson, and William Minter. Centering stories of their upbringing to discuss the impact of McCarthyism and the Red Scare in the 1950s on individuals, families, and social movements in the United States States; surveillance, harassment, and fear tactics used by the government and law enforcement during this period are revealed in each family story of bravery and organized resistance.

Their discussion uncovers the ways McCarthyism was used by right-wing political groups used McCarthyism to undermine labor movements, civil rights progress, and academic/educational institutions. Through the promotion of a conservative, anti-communist agenda, a new socio-cultural climate colored this era a bright red.

Dive into this episode and learn more about how these specific tactics of fear and repression were revealed in the intimate stories of real families, and how they have resurfaced in more recent political movements like the Tea Party and MAGA.

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