ABSTRACT
Perhaps the darkest hour in higher education in America transpired during the late 1940s and 1950s when the great “red scare” enveloped the nation and Congress and state legislatures searched for communists and communist sympathizers behind every pillar and post. Universities were among the most favored hunting grounds. Careers were destroyed and reputations were tarnished by investigations that infringed on individual privacy rights, freedom of speech, expression, and association. This chapter discusses those rights of teachers in academe with regard to the First Amendment: loyalty oaths, free speech, expression and association, and the right against self-incrimination, the Fifth Amendment.
