Free Speech Canto LIII By Michael Ceraolo

Free Speech Canto LIII

She was born Charlotte Anita Whitney

(she was always called by her middle name)

in Oakland, California in 1867,

                                             and

she could be used as a textbook example

of what was called privilege even then:

several ancestors came on the Mayflower;

others came only a few years later,

                                                    including

one who was among the founders of Harvard

There were Revolutionary War officers,

                                             inventors,

                                             public officials

(including by marriage a Supreme Court justice)

on both sides of the family during

the ensuing two-hundred-plus years

She graduated not only from high school

but also from college (Wellesley),

                                                 placing her

among the small fraction of Americans who did so

And after college she continued the traditions

of charitable and public-service work

                                                        But

she was radicalized by what she saw

and joined the Socialist Party

when she was in her mid-40s

In January 1919

California enacted a law

banning 'criminal syndicalism',

the purpose of which,

                                 according

to the law's sponsor, was to

"stop the propaganda of an organization

known as the Industrial Workers of the World"

because the organization advocated

"a change in industrial ownership or control"

Anita Whitney was not,

                                  and had never been,

a member of that proscribed organization,

                                                              but

she was one of the founding members

of the California branch

of the Communist Labor Party,

                                             which

had been created by a schism

in the Socialist Party over the

Bolshevik revolution and other issues

The state Party's founding meeting

took place on November 9, 1919,

                                                 and

received much press coverage

On November 28, 1919

she gave a lecture at the Hotel Oakland

to another organization she had helped to found,

the Oakland Center of the California Civic League

(the police chief had pressured the League

to cancel Whitney's appearance,

                                                but

the audience voted 94-48

to hear her speak),

                             and she

was arrested immediately after the speech

when she started to leave the hotel

"It is not I

but the constitutional rights of all of us

that are on trial"

                          and

those rights lost at trial

for a number of reasons:

her attorney died during the trial

and she was denied the opportunity

to replace him with counsel

she had confidence in;

much irrelevant information

was allowed to be entered as evidence;

and the jury did not want to acquit

on all charges,

                       because that

"would have been equivalent to saying

that the jury sanctioned the I.W.W.

and the Communist Labor Party

                                                 and

believed them to be lawful, worthy organizations"

As the law mandated,

Anita was sentenced to one-to-fourteen years in prison

Two years later,

the District Court of Appeal

upheld her conviction

The state Supreme Court twice refused

to hear a further appeal

A few more years later,

the U.S. Supreme Court

heard oral argument,

decided not to decide,

decided to rehear the case,

heard oral arguments a second time,

                                                      and

seven years after the end of the criminal trial,

unanimously upheld her conviction

for violating the 'criminal syndicalism' law

A month after the final outcome was decided,

the governor pardoned her,

                                        she

having served only a minimal amount of the sentence

Criminal syndicalism laws wouldn't be overturned

for more than forty years, and California would finally

get around to repealing the law in 1991