Canada Lee, one of America's greatest black actors and a courageous civil rights activist, died in dishonor and penury in 1952, denounced as a Communist by the U.S. government, the entertainment industry and the media.

To Canada, the bitterest betrayal was by the American icon Ed Sullivan, a man who befriended Canada and used his powerful entertainment column to aid Canada's rise to stardom – only to later condemn the actor as a Communist to his millions of readers. Once a household name, Canada Lee is now a forgotten footnote in the history of the McCarthy era.

Born in 1907, Lee was a violin prodigy, jockey and prizefighter before he stumbled into acting. He was discovered by Orson Welles and shot to stardom in Welles' Broadway production of Native Son. As his career skyrocketed, Lee used the power of his name to fight for civil rights. He was a popular speaker at rallies by groups fighting for liberal causes; many of these groups later were denounced as Communist fronts by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), McCarthy and the FBI. Lee eluded the blacklist until a bizarre turn of events in 1949.

The FBI arrested a government girl named Judy Coplon for passing secret FBI files to her Russian boyfriend, a KGB agent. During her trial, it was discovered that one of the secret FBI files found in Judy's purse when she was arrested reported that Canada Lee was a Communist. The story made headlines in Washington, D.C. Ed Sullivan picked up the story and denounced Canada in his nationally syndicated column. Lee's career was destroyed; he died as a result of complications due to high blood pressure.