The Case of Sacco & Vanzetti

1. The Case of Sacco & Vanzetti

2. Essential Questions • What does the Red Scare teach us about our judicial system in time of fear? • How do immigrants challenge our commitment to our judicial system? • How open are we as a nation to diverse ideas?

3. The Red Scare: 1918-1920 • Response to of Soviet Union • Fear of Communism and anarchy spreading in US • Terrorists bombs sent throughout the country • Thought to be done by Communists and anarchists

4. Communism & Anarchy Communism Anarchy political ideology promoting a society without government Rather than submission to law, or to any authority, people would enter into free agreements between the various groups in order to achieve true economic and political freedom. • political ideology promoting a violent revolution in order to redistribute property and create collective ownership of property • elimination of a society’s social class system in a way that would benefit the working classes

5. Anarchist in the United States • Emma Goldman, Lithuanian born immigrant, 1869-1940 • Agitated for union membership in US steel mills • Worked against World War I conscription • Promoted women’s birth control • Initially supported Soviet Union, but eventually saw it as another dictatorship

6. Communists in the United States • John Reed, 1887-1920 • Popular writer & activist • Opposed US entry into World War I, writer for The New Communist • Leader of the Communist Labor Party in the US • Eyewitness to Russian Revolution, becomes leader in Soviet government

7. What’s so scary about communism & anarchy?

8. Fear of Immigrants – 1920 & Today

9. The Crime: Armed Robbery, Murder & Association with Radicals? • At 3:00 P.M. on April 15,1920, a paymaster and his guard were carrying a factory payroll of $15,776 through the main street of South Braintree, Massachusetts. • On the evening of May 5, 1920, two Italians, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, fell into a police trap that had been set for a suspect in the Braintree crime. Sacco & Vanzetti were carrying guns at the time of their arrest and when questioned by the authorities they lied. As a result they were held and eventually indicted for the South Braintree crimes. • Both associated with anarchists involved in labor strikes, political agitation, and antiwar propaganda.

10. Why does Massachusetts hesitate? What does international labor protest? About Sacco & Vanzetti... ." Broadside, January 25, 1925 (Boston, 1925), Massachusetts Historical Society.

12. The Trial • Fred H. Moore, the well-known socialist lawyer politicizes the case using mass media. Effective but Expensive! • Found Guilty of Robbery & Murder! • Traditional Boston lawyer takes over appeals. • Protests throughout America and around the world by Italian government, liberals, radical anarchists, socialists, and communists in protesting the verdict against Sacco and Vanzetti.

13. In the words of Sacco & Vanzetti • Thanks to you from the bottom of my heart for your confidence in my innocence; I am so. I did not spittel a drop of blood, or steal a cent in all my life.  Bartolomeo Vanzetti from theCharlestown State Prison, 1921-24 July 22, 1921.  Charlestown Prison • August 4, 1927. MY DEAR FRIENDS AND COMRADES: From the death cell we are just inform from the defense committee that the governor Fuller he has decided to kill us Aug. the 10th.  We are not surprised for this news because we know the capitalist class hard without any mercy the good soldiers of the rivolution. Nicola Sacco from the Charlestown State Prison

14. The Funeral • Executed on August 10, 1927, after all recourse in the Massachusetts courts had failed. • Public attention from around the world and influential people, finally persuaded the governor of Massachusetts, Alvan T. Fuller, to consider the question of executive clemency for the two men. • An advisory committee, the "Lowell Committee," concluded that the trial and judicial process had been just "on the whole" and that clemency was not warranted.