The Red Scare in the US after WWII led to McCarthyism and censorship. Loyalty oaths were required from teachers and works such as The Grapes of Wrath were censored.
The rise of McCarthyism after World War II coincided with America’s new fear of Communism, often called the Red Scare. Fueled by events such as the spy trials of Alger Hiss and Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, the Red Scare was a reaction to the creation of the so-called Iron Curtain around Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union’s first test of nuclear weapons. In 1953, absurd claims swirling around the United States included an attempt by a member of the Indiana Textbook Commission to remove the story of Robin Hood from state schools because the character “stole from the rich and gave to the poor.” That was, he argued, a philosophy derived from basic communist doctrine.
Communists around every corner:
Censorship was an important element of the Red Scare. Writers, screenwriters and directors were investigated and blacklisted for their alleged communist beliefs.
More than 39 states required loyalty oaths from teachers to ensure they did not teach communist-oriented classes to students.
Many well-known works were censored on college campuses in the 1950s, including Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience, and John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.
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