“I did what everyone else in the community did, I kept my damn mouth shut, because this was the rule in this country, and your mothers and fathers and your cousins and your aunts and your uncles all participated in this – all the American people participated in this disgraceful period that we went through– and I participated in it too, by keeping my mouth shut.”
~John Henry Faulk

There were more than enough arch villains to go around halfway through the Twentieth Century, but the name usually associated with America’s 1950’s nightmare is McCarthyism. In fact, our post World War Two communist hysteria did not begin or end with Senator Joe McCarthy, nor did he personally orchestrate every case of political persecution of the period. For the popular radio personality John Henry Faulk, though, the villain was AWARE, Incorporated — a private group that took on the role of virtual judge and executioner of alleged dissidence in the television and radio industry.

At around the same time that Faulk was challenging the fear that gripped the country, Pacifica Radio was also feeling the squeeze on its own freedom of speech. Even after being investigated by the Senate Internal Securities Subcommittee, the FBI, and other government agencies, Pacifica continued to offer a home to legions of blacklisted artists and thinkers throughout the McCarthy Era, and well into the 1960’s, when many of them were considered too hot to handle by the mainstream media. So, when John Henry Faulk spoke at the University of Texas Austin on November 6, 1969, it was only natural for his stirring talk to find its way to Pacifica’s airwaves, and into the Pacifica Radio Archives. Couched in his trademark folksy Texas humor, Faulk’s insights demonstrate once again the value of a critical alternative interpretation of history. This week on From the Vault, we’ll hear Faulk recount his harrowing story in a speech entitled, “What Happens to a Democratic Society When Fear is Rampant.”

From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.

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