Langston Hughes on Trial
Clip: Season 32 Episode 1 | 4m 39s
Author Langston Hughes was called before Sen. McCarthy’s Subcommittee on Investigations.
In 1953, the author Langston Hughes was called before Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Subcommittee on Investigations to answer questions about Communist influences in his writing. The private, closed-door interrogation pitted Hughes against the Subcommittee’s chief counsel, Roy Cohn. We dramatized the actual hearing transcripts of Hughes’s testimony, made public 50 years later.
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Corporate sponsorship for American Experience is provided by Liberty Mutual Insurance and Carlisle Companies. Major funding by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
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Langston Hughes on Trial
Clip: Season 32 Episode 1 | 4m 39s
In 1953, the author Langston Hughes was called before Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Subcommittee on Investigations to answer questions about Communist influences in his writing. The private, closed-door interrogation pitted Hughes against the Subcommittee’s chief counsel, Roy Cohn. We dramatized the actual hearing transcripts of Hughes’s testimony, made public 50 years later.
Problems with Closed Captions? Closed Captioning Feedback
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Joseph McCarthy: Senator of Anti-Communism
The McCarthy hearings are now emblematic of the 1950s "Red Scare." (1m 6s)
Senator Margaret Chase Smith was the first senator to stand up to Joseph McCarthy. (1m 17s)
McCarthyism: Anatomy of an Investigation
McCarthy declared to Congress that scholar Owen Lattimore was a "top Russian spy." (5m 50s)
Roy Cohn: Chief Counsel for McCarthy
Senator Joseph McCarthy hired Roy Cohn in 1953 as Chief Counsel. (1m 5s)
Teaser | McCarthy | American Experience
The rise and fall of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who led a Cold War crusade against Communists. (1m 48s)
Trailer | McCarthy | American Experience
the rise and fall of Joseph McCarthy, who led a Cold War crusade against Communists. (30s)
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship
Support for PBS provided by:
Corporate sponsorship for American Experience is provided by Liberty Mutual Insurance and Carlisle Companies. Major funding by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.