n.

A list of persons or organizations that have incurred disapproval or suspicion or are to be boycotted or otherwise penalized.

tr.v., -list·ed, -list·ing, -lists.

To place on or as if on a blacklist. See synonyms at blackball.

blacklister black'list'er n.

Originally lists, prepared by merchants, which contained the names of those gone bankrupt. Today it also refers to people who, for any number of reasons, are unacceptable for employment in an organization. An individual can thus be blacklisted.

verb

To exclude from normal social or professional activities: blackball, boycott, ostracize, shut out. See accept/reject.

A list of persons or things considered undesirable or deserving punishment, as in Japanese beetles are on my black list of garden pests. The practice of making such lists is quite old. Notorious examples include the late 19th-century black lists of union members whom employers would not hire and the black lists of persons suspected of being Communists as a result of the hearings held by Senator Joseph R. McCarthy in the early 1950s. Today the term is also used more loosely, as in the example. [Early 1600s] Also see black book, def. 1.

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v

Definition: ban
Antonyms: accept, allow, ask in, permit, welcome

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In intelligence, a list of persons suspected or confirmed as security risks. A black list is an official counterintelligence listing of actual or potential enemy collaborators, sympathizers, intelligence suspects, and other persons whose presence menaces the security of friendly forces.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

Blacklisting, an employer practice of excluding politically "undesirable" individuals from the job market. Originating in the 1830s, blacklisting, along with use of agents provocateurs and injunctions, was a widely popular anti-union weapon. Employers usually provided blacklists upon request and sometimes circulated lists through employers associations. Blacklists continued to be used following the Civil War, especially as violence between labor and business escalated in the late nineteenth century. Despite attempts to curb blacklisting, employers could easily communicate with one another in secret, making black-lists a fact of life before the 1930s. In 1935 the National Labor Relations Act, or Wagner Act, brought a measure of effective control by establishing the right to collective bargaining.

The Cold War added a new dimension to blacklists. Investigations into Communist activities in America resulted in the expulsion of Communists from trade unions and of Communist-dominated unions from national labor organizations. The most glaring example of blacklisting resulted from congressional investigations, the most celebrated of which was that of the so-called Hollywood Ten, who went to jail rather than answer questions concerning their political affiliations. In the subsequent exhaustive probe into the entertainment world, uncooperative individuals were placed on a blacklist and barred from employment in motion pictures, television, and radio for the next decade. Although blacklisted writers managed to continue working under assumed names, most blacklisted actors left the country or found other employment. Some found work in the theater because legitimate theater organizations, such as the Actors' Equity Association and the League of New York Theatres, were able to enforce a mutually agreed-upon antiblacklisting resolution.

Bibliography

Ceplair, Larry, and Steven Englund. The Inquisition in Hollywood. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor, 1980.

Meltzer, Milton. Bread—And Roses: The Struggle of American Labor, 1865–1915. New York: Facts on File, 1991.

Vaughn, Robert. Only Victims: A Study of Show Business Blacklisting. New York: Putnam, 1972.

—Joseph A. Dowling/C. W.

This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.

A list of individuals or organizations designated for special discrimination or boycott; also to put a person or organization on such a list.

Blacklists have been used for centuries as a means to identify and discriminate against undesirable individuals or organizations. A blacklist might consist, for example, of a list of names developed by a company that refuses to hire individuals who have been identified as union organizers; a country that seeks to boycott trade with other countries for political reasons; a labor union that identifies firms with which it will not work; or a government that wishes to specify who will not be allowed entry into the country.

Many types of blacklists are legal. For example, a store may maintain a list of individuals who have not paid their bills and deny them credit privileges. Similarly, credit reports can effectively function as blacklists by identifying individuals who are poor credit risks.

Because the purpose of blacklists is to exclude and discriminate, they can also result in unfair and illegal discrimination. In some cases, blacklists have done great damage to people's lives, locking them out of employment in their chosen careers or denying them access to influential organizations. For example, if a labor union makes a blacklist of workers who refuse to become members or conform to its rules, it has committed an unfair labor practice in violation of federal laws. Blacklists may also necessitate disclosure laws. State and federal fair credit reporting acts, for example, require that access to information in a credit report must be given, upon request, to the person to whom the information applies.

The most famous instance of blacklisting in U.S. history occurred in the entertainment industry during the 1940s and 1950s. Motion picture companies, radio and television broadcasters, and other firms in that industry developed blacklists of individuals accused of being Communist sympathizers. Those firms then denied employment to those who were named on the blacklists.

Blacklisting in Hollywood came about largely through the work of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), which was formed to investigate the activities of Communist, fascist, or other supposedly subversive and "un-American" political groups. Though the committee purported to be concerned with all types of potential subversion, after World War II ended in 1945 and relations with the Soviet Union subsequently deteriorated, it focused largely on Communism as a threat to the internal stability of the United States. In highly publicized hearings in 1947, 1951-52, and 1953-55 the committee sought to ferret out Communist sympathizers, conspiracies, and propaganda in the entertainment industry.

The HUAC hearings produced lists of individuals who either had been identified by witnesses as Communists or had refused to answer questions in appearances before the committee on the grounds of the First Amendment, which protects free speech and free association, or the Fifth Amendment, which protects against self-incrimination. Entertainment industry companies, fearing that they would be perceived by the public as pro-Communist if they employed people named in the hearings, then used these lists as blacklists. They refused to hire hundreds of actors, writers, and other entertainment professionals named in the HUAC hearings. Many promising careers were thus ended and much potentially edifying art was lost.

Some of the first victims of Hollywood blacklisting were known as the Hollywood Ten. In the October 1947 HUAC Hearings Regarding Communist Infiltration of the Motion Picture Industry, ten Hollywood screenwriters and directors — Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner, Jr., John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Samuel Ornitz, Adrian Scott, and Dalton Trumbo— appeared under subpoena, or court order, before the committee. Each of them refused to answer questions regarding affiliation with the Communist party on the grounds that such questions violated their First Amendment right to privacy, or a right to remain silent, regarding their political beliefs or affiliations. The courts rejected this argument, found the Hollywood Ten guilty of contempt of Congress, and gave them prison sentences lasting from six months to one year.

Nine of the ten were blacklisted in the film industry. (Ironically, the man conducting the 1947 HUAC hearings, Representative J. Parnell Thomas (R-N.J.), joined Lardner in federal prison in 1950 after Thomas was convicted of stealing government funds.)

Subpoenaed witnesses in these hearings faced a dilemma: on the one hand, they could invoke constitutional protection such as the Fifth Amendment, thereby implying current or former membership in the Communist party, putting themselves on the blacklist, and ending their chances of ever working in the entertainment industry again; on the other hand, they could "name names," or identify their friends as Communists, thereby betraying those close to them. In many cases, people were blacklisted for past political affiliations that they had abandoned. During the anti-Communist hysteria that gripped the nation in the 1950s, Congress's investigations into the Hollywood film industry went unchecked and the resulting blacklists destroyed numerous promising careers.

See: Entertainment Law; Freedom of Association; Freedom of Speech.

Concerted action by employers to deny employment to someone suspected of unacceptable opinions or behavior. For example, individual workers suspected of favoring labor unions have often been blacklisted by all the employers in a region.

During the McCarthy era (see Joseph P. McCarthy) in the 1950s, the careers of many public figures suspected of communist activities were ruined by blacklisting.

(DOD) An official counterintelligence listing of actual or potential enemy collaborators, sympathizers, intelligence suspects, and other persons whose presence menaces the security of friendly forces.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - sort liste
v. tr. - blackliste, sortliste, sætte på den sorte liste

Nederlands (Dutch)
zwarte lijst, op de zwarte lijst zetten

Français (French)
n. - liste noire
v. tr. - mettre sur liste noire, mettre à l'index

Deutsch (German)
n. - schwarze Liste
v. - auf die schwarze Liste setzen

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - μαύρη λίστα, κατάσταση προγραφών
v. - βάζω στο μαύρη λίστα, προγράφω

Italiano (Italian)
mettere all'indice

Português (Portuguese)
n. - lista (f) negra (gír.)
v. - colocar na lista negra

Русский (Russian)
вносить в черный список

Español (Spanish)
n. - lista negra
v. tr. - poner en la lista negra

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - svart lista
v. - svartlista

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
黑名单, 记于黑名单中

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 黑名單
v. tr. - 記於黑名單中

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 요시찰 인물 명부
v. tr. - 블랙리스트에 싣다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - ブラックリスト

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) قائمه سوداء (فعل) أدرج أسمه في قائمه سوداء‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮רשימה שחורה - רשימת חשודים או מופלים לרעה‬
v. tr. - ‮כלל ברשימה שחורה‬

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