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McCarthy could antagonize these witnesses until he found some inconsistency or they reduced into incoherence. Instead, McCarthy showed the public low-level government servants and artists who were not equipped with the same talents as Hughes. Hughes’ eloquence, the senators decided, was too much of a threat to place in front of national television cameras.
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He spoke about watching white friends file into a movie theater, walking under a sign that read, “Colored not admitted.” “My interest in anything that may be considered political,” Hughes said, “has been born out of this whole problem of myself… and how I can adjust to this whole problem of helping to build America when sometimes I cannot even get into school… or check out a book.” Hughes spoke so calmly, so defiantly, so convincingly, that he would not be called for a public testimony. He spoke about getting stoned on the way home from school. Hughes spoke about his early perceptions of America. “Have you ever been a believer of communism?” prodded one senator. Hughes sat in that Senate chamber in a similar position to those other artists - many of whom were also Black: he had to find a way to defend a lifetime worth of poems, stories, and ideas - all with his legacy firmly in jeopardy. McCarthy called over 500 witnesses, mostly artists and activists, before the Subcommittee on Investigations many of their careers never recovered, and some were even imprisoned for invoking their 5th amendment rights. But McCarthy quickly turned his attention to private citizens, particularly those who possessed the ability to shape American culture. Just after his Wheeling speech had subjected every government employee - over 4 million of them - to “loyalty tests.” Anyone who gave an unsatisfactory answer was immediately investigated as a “subversive.” Public paranoia and media complicity largely gave McCarthy carte blanche to purge hundreds of public officials from their positions, although none were ever formally charged. This hearing was the latest in a line of private inquiries ordered by McCarthy that were completely shut off to journalistic oversight. This time, however, McCarthy was peering down upon Hughes from his seat as the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Investigations.
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Just one year before the infamous McCarthy-Welch Exchange, influential Black author Langston Hughes, nicknamed the “poet laureate of Harlem,” sat in that same Senate chamber. This new wave of Communist paranoia simultaneously launched McCarthy into political stardom and his movement, known colloquially as the ‘Red Scare,’ into widespread support. This message struck a particular chord with the American psyche, which, because of World War II six years prior, was just as battered as the Western Front. He warned of an impending Communist takeover that would funnel the same chaos from the Soviet Union into American homes, businesses, and government. In 1950, McCarthy - a then-unknown legislator from Wisconsin - had risen to prominence with a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, in which he claimed to own a list of 205 government officials with Communist agendas (he never produced this list).
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This exchange represented the climactic moment of a four-year campaign by McCarthy. As McCarthy continued his relentless crusade, the lawyer’s mentor, Joe Welch, interjected with his famous line: “Let us not assassinate this young lad further… you’ve done enough. McCarthy attacked a young lawyer who he suspected of having Communist sympathies - his proof of widespread Communist influence. Feeling pressured to provide evidence of a Communist infiltration, McCarthy - out of turn - delivered his sermon, one that was nearly identical to the ones Americans had grown accustomed to hearing. The flash of press cameras reflected off his reading glasses in a moment mirrored on millions of televisions in American homes. On a scorching June day in 1954, Senator Joseph McCarthy sat slumped in his chair at the center of a congested Senate chamber.