McCarthyism is the term describing a period of intense anti-Communist suspicion in the United States that lasted roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s. This period is also referred to as the Second Red Scare, and coincided with increased fears...

Second Red Scare

A Communist registration bill was passed in Wyoming ca. 1955 [1]

Internal Security Act

Communist registration acts were laws proposed and often enacted by the United States Congress and many American state legislatures during the Second Red Scare. These laws required members, sympathizers, and affiliated organizations of the Communist Party of the United States to register with the government, ostensibly for the purposes of public safety. Communist registration acts were ultimately made redundant with the Eisenhower's signing of the federal Communist Control Act of 1954, which outlawed the Communist Party altogether, and, incidentally, gave Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination to Communist Party members. A partial list of Communist registration acts is as follows:

McCarran Internal Security Act, also known as Subversive Activities Control Act (1950, federal)

Trucks Act (Michigan, ca. 1952)