Editing Actors' Equity Association (section)

==Causes==
In the 1940s, the AEA stood against [[Racial segregation|segregation]].<ref name=AEA90/><!-- This is unclear. Please state how the Association refused to participate. Not everyone knows what the blacklist mandated. --> When actors were losing jobs through 1950s [[McCarthyism]] and the [[Hollywood blacklist]], the AEA refused to participate. Although its constitution guaranteed its members the right to refuse to work alongside [[communism|Communists]], or a member of a Communist front organization, the AEA did not ban any members. At a 1997 ceremony commemorating the blacklist's 50th anniversary, [[Richard Masur]], then president of the Screen Actors Guild, apologized for its participation in the ban, saying: "Only our sister union, Actors' Equity Association, had the courage to stand behind its members and help them continue their creative lives in the theater. For that, we honor Actors' Equity tonight."<ref name="blacklist50th">Greg Krizman, webpage: [http://www.cobbles.com/simpp_archive/linkbackups/huac_blacklist.htm "Hollywood Remembers the Blacklist"], ''Screen Actor'', January 1998 (special edition).</ref>

In the 1960s, the AEA played a role in gaining public funding for the arts, including the founding of the [[National Endowment for the Arts]] (NEA).

The AEA fought the destruction of historic [[Broadway theater]]s.<ref name=AEA90/> It played a major role in the recognition of the impact the [[AIDS]] epidemic on the world of theater, co-founding [[Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS]].