Red Channels

The Red Scare and the Hollywood blacklist of the 1950s destroyed the careers of many progressive and left writers and performers in film, music, and the arts. Black women performers who already faced racism and marginalization in the entertainment industry were particularly vulnerable to the blacklist. Pianist and composer Hazel Scott, actor and journalist Fredi Washington, actor Lena Horne, and musician and writer Shirley Graham, all of whom Red Channels, an anticommunist publication targeting the entertainment industry, named as so-called subversives, were among those most affected.