blacklisting

(and blacklist)

  refers to late 40s and early 50s McCarthyism and the HUAC's (House UnAmerican Activities Committee) formal and informal discrimination and 'blacklisting' (effectively banning from employment) of various actors, artists and film-makers based upon their personal, political, social, or religious beliefs (i.e., "Communist sympathizers"); the blacklist was a roster of illegal artists who were not to be hired during the years 1947-1951. The Hollywood Ten were a group of playwrights and moviemakers who refused to answer questions claiming their First Amendment rights, and were charged with contempt - they included Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Albert Maltz, Adrian Scott, Samuel Ornitz, Dalton Trumbo, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner Jr., John Howard Lawson, and Alvah Bessie; also informally blacklisted recently were Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave for outspoken attitudes