Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Baker Downtown Center 975 High St., Eugene, ORa
A CSWS Road Scholar Community Presentation
In June 1950, a group calling itself American Business Consultants published Red Channels: A Report on Communist Influence in Broadcasting, a publication that came to be known as the “bible” of the blacklist. Although broadcasting as an industry was largely male-dominated, over 30 percent of those named in Red Channels were women. In the months that followed, these women, who held diverse political perspectives, found their lives and livelihoods jeopardized by the blacklist and their voices decisively silenced. This presentation follows the lives of several women writers in particular, focusing on the work they had done prior to the blacklist and the creative potential that was stifled by the anti-communist crusade.