“I've been brash all my life and it's gotten me into a lot of trouble. But at the same time, speaking out has sustained me and given meaning to my life.”
— Hazel Scott
Today, and, if you join us by zoom, tonight, we’re taking up the legacy of McCarthyism and the histories of Black artists it hoped to bury in the 1950s. The tools of erasure and censorship were subpoenas, hearings, and blacklists. Among the casualties were writers, directors, actors, and a wider vision of who we are in on-screen storytelling.
Hazel Scott (1920 - 1981) was a piano prodigy educated at Juilliard and mentored by Billie Holliday. She headlined the famous nightclub Cafe Society when she was only 19 years old. Hollywood came calling, but Scott was soon blackballed after she organized other Black women on one film set to strike for clean, dignified costumes. Undeterred, Scott toured the country, always refusing to perform in front of segregated audiences. In spite of her resistance, Scott became the first Black person to star in a weekly television show in 1950 as a pianist, backed by jazz greats Max Roach and Charles Mingus.
When her name appeared on a published list of communist subversives, Scott believed she could clear her name by voluntarily appearing before the House Un-American Activities Committee. The committee, however, was more concerned with sending a message to enforce the racial status quo than finding the truth about her affiliations. Despite growing viewership, The Hazel Scott Show was canceled, and the studio destroyed the record of it by dumping the kinescopes in the Hudson River. Blacklisted from the entertainment industry, Scott found refuge in Paris, where she and James Baldwin organized a demonstration to coincide with the March on Washington in 1963. But her place in history as a legendary performer and television pioneer was effectively erased.
Today we live in the long shadow of this era with tools of repression surfacing again through hearings, executive orders, and intimidation, along with newer ones layered on top: censorship laws in dozens of states, the polarization of social media, and automated keyword screening that flags and censors content when “unacceptable” terms appear. Some of those terms are “diversity,” “equity,” “intersectionality,” “Black,” and “women.” The new normal, the world we have inherited, is one of censorship by orders and by acquiescence. We all have a role to play in making sure that the stories of Hazel Scott and other Black artists who were blacklisted are not forgotten. The act of remembering is not only one of recovery, but also of resistance.
TODAY’S PRACTICE
Tune in for the virtual broadcast TONIGHT at 7 pm ET of The Story of Us, “The New McCarthyism: Why Authoritarians Fear Storytellers” moderated by AAPF executive director Kimberlé Crenshaw and featuring Ava DuVernay, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Jacqueline Stewart. Featuring a performance by Tony award winner Kara Young as Hazel Scott.
Sign up here: https://bit.ly/UTB_TheStoryOfUs26
LEARN MORE
Read: The power and pain of Hazel Scott's story | American Masters | PBS
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