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THE GREAT PINK SCARE

Privacy: Then & Now

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 Archival studio portrait: headshot of a balding, professorial-looking man with wire-rimmed glasses and a suit sitting sideways, looking very serious A fancy wrought iron archway gate says Smith College 1875 Black and white magazine cover circa 1950s shows a clean-shaven, athletically built, shirtless young man, posing with his hands on his hips, a checkerboard background behind him
In the 1950s in America, it was more dangerous to be discovered as a homosexual than it was to be discovered as a Communist. – Barry Werth, author, The Scarlet Professor In 1960, three Smith College professors were charged with possessing and dispersing obscene literature, and convicted as felons. In the end, brilliant careers were destroyed and young lives ruined. This story, and that of the devastating persecution that haunted these men, brings awareness to the present-day clash between an individual's right to privacy and concerns for national security.
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