McCarthyism forcibly eliminated radical alternatives, leaving black liberalism as the only option

Evidence

Much of this radical energy would fall victim to the Cold War and the push for consensus. In January of 1948, the U.S. attorney general, Tom Clark, made clear the stakes: “Those who do not believe in the ideology of the United States shall not be allowed to stay in the United States.” McCarthyism led to the persecution of figures like Du Bois and Robeson. Du Bois was arrested as “an agent of a foreign principal” in February of 1951. At the age of 82, he was handcuffed and fingerprinted. The national media made him out to be a common criminal. Robeson lost his ability to travel abroad and to perform. He died broken and alone. The upshot was that any hint of communism or socialism shaping black politics had to be purged, and the radical elements of black political life marginalized. Black liberalism had to stand alone. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 406

Categorization

• XREF: Builds the causal chain the reader needs: why the black political field narrowed, explaining why Democratic loyalty became the default trap.
• SHARE: The detail of 82-year-old Du Bois handcuffed and fingerprinted as ‘an agent of a foreign principal’ is striking enough to send to anyone studying Cold War civil rights.