What happens to Americans who have fought for racial equality, when their government shifts rightward and brands their ideals as traitorous? This talk with Dr. Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall will focus on a collection of Jewish writers in Hollywood in the 1930s to the 1950s, each of whom battled the anti-Black racism of their time. They did so, in different ways, because of their political beliefs and because of anxiety about their status as members of a minority group at a time of pernicious antisemitism. Together we will consider a group of men and women who stood up for what they thought were American values – before later being attacked by the House Un-American Activities Committee as “un-American.” Join us as we explore what exactly it means to be American or un-American.

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