TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — At 100 years old, Oscar-winning actress Lee Grant is once again raising her voice—this time against Florida’s newly approved social studies standards, which critics say rewrite the harsh realities of McCarthyism.
Grant, one of the last living actors directly impacted by the anti-communist blacklists of the 1950s, warned that the new curriculum threatens to soften one of the darkest chapters in U.S. political history.
“It’s a lie and a distortion of the truth of history,” Grant told the Associated Press.
A Legacy Marked by Blacklisting
Grant’s career was just beginning to flourish when she was blacklisted in 1951. After refusing to identify colleagues during hearings by the House Un-American Activities Committee, she was barred from film and television work for 12 years.
“Me? Turn in friends? That’s not how I was raised,” she recalled.
Her refusal to cooperate followed an emotional moment at the memorial of a fellow actor who died shortly after being questioned by investigators. Grant publicly stated that the stress of being targeted “killed him”—a remark that placed her on the industry blacklist alongside cultural icons such as Orson Welles, Arthur Miller and Lena Horne.
“We lived in a democracy that was being used as a fascist tool to stop people from thinking,” she said of that era.
Although Hollywood shut its doors, theater companies continued to cast Grant, allowing her to survive professionally until the blacklist began to crumble in the 1960s.
She rebuilt her career in the years that followed, earning acclaim for In the Heat of the Night, winning an Academy Award for Shampoo in 1975, and later becoming an award-winning documentary filmmaker.
Florida’s Revised Standards Stir Debate
Florida’s Board of Education recently approved new guidelines for middle- and high-school social studies classes, to take effect in the 2026–27 school year. The standards stem from a law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis requiring expanded instruction on communism and what state officials describe as its “threat” to the United States.
A significant portion of the curriculum calls for teaching about anti-communist figures—including Sen. Joseph McCarthy, President Harry Truman and President Richard Nixon—and instructs educators to highlight what it labels “propaganda” used against anti-communist politicians.
The standards also argue that the term “McCarthyism” is often used unfairly as an insult and that labels such as “red-baiter” or “Red Scare” amount to “slander.”
Critics say the revisions attempt to recast McCarthy and his allies in a more favorable light, minimizing the oppressive tactics that destroyed careers, suppressed free speech and instilled fear throughout American cultural and political life.
A Warning From History
Grant said the new guidelines echo a troubling pattern—political leaders attempting to silence dissent by rewriting the past. She pointed to contemporary political rhetoric, including attacks on journalists, as a reminder that the mistakes of the McCarthy era can return if not confronted honestly.
“As an old blacklisted actor and director, I keep worrying,” she said.
