Chronology of the Mid-Twentieth-Century Cultural Left

1911
The Masses magazine founded, lasting through 1917.
1918
Liberator founded in March. In 1924 it is united with Labor Herald and Soviet Russia Pictorial, becoming Worker’s Monthly.
1919
Communists expelled from the Socialist Party.
1920
Journalist John Reed dies of typhus in Baku in the USSR.
1922
After an underground existence, various Communist parties unite to form the Workers Party of America as a legal party, which later becomes the Workers (Communist) Party and then the Communist Party, USA, in 1929.
1926
The New Masses founded, lasting until 1947.
1927
Execution of Sacco and Vanzetti in Boston. New Playwrights Theater launched.
1929
Stock market crash. In the spring and summer the workers at the Loray Mill in Gastonia, N.C., go on strike; this becomes the subject of a half dozen radical novels. In November, the editorial board of New Masses forms the first John Reed Club in New York. Workers Laboratory Theater founded (changing its name to Theater of Action in 1934). Publication of Daughter of Earth, by Agnes Smedley.
1930
The International Union of Revolutionary Writers meets in November in Kharkov in the USSR. Workers’ Film and Photo League organized (components of which would evolve after 1935 into Nykino and Frontier Films). Publication of Michael Gold’s Jews without Money.
1931
Rebel Poet, official organ of Rebel Poets, the Internationale of Song, founded in January, edited by B. C. Hagglund and Jack Conroy, and lasting until October 1932. Scottsboro Boys arrested and tried in Alabama. Group Theater offers its first production. Workers Theater is published, changing its name to New Theater in 1934.
1932
Theater Union organized. Workers’ Dance League launched.
1933
The Anvil is founded by Jack Conroy and lasts until 1936.
1934
Dynamo, a journal of revolutionary poetry, is founded in January, lasting until December 1936. New Masses also relaunched in January 1934 as a weekly. Partisan Review is founded in February as a publication of the John Reed Club of New York. A national convention of thirty John Reed Clubs, representing more than 1,200 members, is held. San Francisco General Strike occurs.
1935
First American Writers Congress in New York City. Popular Front policy announced.
1936
Spanish Civil War begins. Moscow Trials begin. National Negro Congress held in Chicago. South Side Writers Group forms.
1937
Second American Writers Congress held. Partisan Review relaunched in December independent of the Communists. New Challenge publishes one issue as a pro-Communist Black literary publication.
1939
Hitler-Stalin Pact signed on August 24. Black and White, West Coast literary magazine led by Communist Party members, founded and lasts until 1940. Third American Writers Congress held.
1940
The Rapp-Coudert Committee of the New York State Legislature investigates Communist teachers at Queens, Hunter, Brooklyn and City College of New York. Dozens of teachers are fingered by informers and fired for being members of the Communist Party, or hiding their membership. Leon Trotsky assassinated in August. Negro Playwrights Company formed. The Clipper succeeds Black and White, lasting until 1941.
1941
Fourth American Writers Congress held. Germany invades the USSR on June 21.
1942
Communist Party membership hits peak of 85,000. Communist Party becomes Communist Political Association (CPA). Pro-Communist Negro Quarterly launched and lasts until 1944.
1943
Launching of Hollywood Writers Mobilization.
1944
Negro Story launched and lasts until 1946.
1945
Communist Party reformed; Earl Browder deposed and expelled in February 1946.
1946
Jewish Life is launched, renamed Jewish Currents in 1958. Founding of Hollywood Quarterly.
1947
House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) investigates Hollywood, resulting in conviction of the “Hollywood Ten” for “contempt of Congress.” Mainstream, a literary journal, launched by pro-Communist writers and lasts for one year. Organization of the Committee for the Negro in the Arts.
1948
In March, Masses & Mainstream (from merger with the New Masses) appears, lasting until 1956 when its name is changed to Mainstream. Henry Wallace’s Progressive Party campaign is launched. Communist Party leaders arrested under the Smith Act.
1949
CIO expels all known Communists and Communist-led unions. Harlem Quarterly launched and lasts until 1950.
1950
Alger Hiss convicted of perjury. Hollywood Ten begin prison sentences. Freedom newspaper launched in Harlem and lasts until 1955.
1951
HUAC investigation in Hollywood creates blacklist of hundreds of screenwriters, actors, etc. Communist Party leaders sentenced to prison.
1952
Culmination of Prague Trials.
1953
Death of Stalin on 5 March. In June, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg executed for alleged espionage.
1954
Michael Wilson’s Salt of the Earth and Kazan/Schulberg’s On the Waterfront released. John O. Killens’s Youngblood is published.
1955
Montgomery Bus Boycott begins.
1956
Nikita Khrushchev’s 20th Congress speech in February admits Stalin’s terror. USSR suppresses rebellion in Hungary in November. By 1958, Communist Party membership drops to a few thousand.
1959
Cuban Revolution. Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun performed.
1961
Freedomways launched and lasts until 1976.
1962
SDS issues the Port Huron Statement.
1963
Martin Luther King Jr. leads March on Washington. Betty Friedan publishes The Feminine Mystique. Umbra Black poetry journal launched and lasts until 1975.
1965
Death of Joseph Freeman.
1967
Death of Michael Gold.
1971
Publication of Between the Hills and the Sea, by Katya and Bert Gilden.
1976
Death of Walter Lowenfels.
1980
Death of Muriel Rukeyser.
1987
Death of John O. Killens.
1990
Death of Thomas McGrath.
1999
Death of Aaron Kramer.
2000
Death of Ring Lardner Jr., last of the “unfriendly witnesses” of the Hollywood Ten.