The Haymarket Affair

It was the time of world war 1, in August 1918, there was a group of immigrants who were Russian, they was arrested in New York City and they were charged because they were disrespectful to the Sedition Act of 1918, which made it a crime to use abusive language to the government of the United States. Or to the prosecution of the war. Their offense hand out pamphlets that complained the U.S. military's recent deployment of troops to Russia and that, in one case, supported a factories producing military goods. A few months later, the group which included a young rebel named Jacob Abrams was strained, sentenced, and was sent to prison for 15 to 20 years. Their beliefs were hardly unique. Unluckily, during the war to make the world safe for equality the federal government legislated some of the most severe boundaries on civil liberties at home in the country's history in 1919 and 1920, the attorney general reported 877 beliefs under the 1918 Sedition Act and other similar federal laws. In March 1919, while Abrams and his countrymen were appealing their case, the Supreme Court heard two other First Amendment cases dealing with the beliefs of antiwar socialists Scheck v. United States and Debs v. United States.

The United States of America is known to many as the Home of the Free. The United States has built itself on pride knowing that its citizens are protected against a government that abuses its power. Also, religious freedom and a separation of church and state are key fundamentals of America. However, the present day United States had to go through several conflicts in order to preserve the unalienable rights. One of these obstacles the United States had to overcome was the Salem Witch Trials.

So the need for more drastic, shock and awe type actions from people desiring to be heard on any particular matter has been brought to the forefront. This is where the Bill of Rights has drastically come into play. At this point the Supreme Court has to protect the freedoms without stripping Americans of their rights entirely but it also has to protect Americans from those who wish to do harm to others under the protection of freedom of speech or expression. Not only does the First Amendment provide for freedom of speech but also freedom of expression which is as equally controversial. By examining the First Amendment and the protections and exclusions it has provided over the years through three highly controversial cases, it will allow the reader some insight into the difficulties surrounding the protection of free speech. The cases that are to be examined are Snyder v. Phelps, Morse v. Frederick and Texas v. Johnson. All of these cases present a different freedom of speech or expression issue that was brought to the Supreme Court and therefore, set a standard for future rulings regarding that particular issue.

In Ferguson, Missouri there was a shooting that resulted in law enforcement siding the oppressor rather than the 18-year old whose life was taken in the incident. Michael Brown’s killer never faced consequences for his actions, which resulted in a protest that practiced civil disobedience, but resulted in violence by the people destroying the community of Ferguson.  Many protesters used this event as a chance to speak up because they were always silenced. These people couldn’t understand the consequences of their actions. Many feared saying anything that the individual had witnessed because signs

Black, the defendants’ attorney, picked up Parson and his wife from an apartment building not far from the court house. Parson had been in hiding since the attack and it was never deserved as to where he went. The police say he went to Arkansas, but it was never confirmed to be true. Parson as well as the other defendants pleaded not guilty to the accusations because the evidence against them was almost extremely weak. Although they prosecutors had little evidence the grand jury convicted the men for conspiracy of murder. It was not hard for the jury to make this conclusion since a majority of the accused men were Russian immigrants, and at the time they were being labeled as terrorist across the nation. Despite being accused Parson and Spies spent the night in a cell together laughing and looking back on how they never gave up on what they believed in.

Since the very beginning of the nation’s history, America has strongly upheld the right of its citizens to practice free speech. As working conditions in the United States only grew worse in the 20th century, more laborers exercised their rights to free speech in efforts to gain the respect they deserved in the workplace. The Boston Police Strike of 1919 proves as a perfect example of workers’ efforts to improve the setting of their employment. On September 9th, groups of policemen all facing the same plight gathered to protest the dreadful circumstances they faced in the workplace, many struggling with the poor salaries and unacceptable environment they faced in their jobs. In wake of the protest, Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge made

In the State of Wisconsin with the trial of Jamie Covington we found him guilty of first degree murder. Jamie ment to shoot Dallas because dallas was always above him and better. Dallas forgot his keys one evening and he went through the window because he forgot his keys, he claims that he had gone through the window before and he didn't think anything would happen. This is why everyone is being questions to see if he was guilty or no, which he is guilty. During this case the lawyers questioned many people, but their stories weren't adding up. They talked to Ronnie Cecop, Casey Kramer, and Lane Smith they were on the defence side. Then Morgan Dexter, Blair Allen, and Jamie Covington where the prosecution. Most of the people on the prosecution side were very nervous, didn't know some answers, but on the other side the people on the defence side knew every question and didn't seem nervous. All of these people had their strengths and weaknesses.

America the land of the free wasn’t always free for everyone, it was a place of slavery, racism, sexism and more. Since our beginning we have solved many of these problems, however, they haven’t disappeared completely. While civil liberties issues have been mostly resolved for race and gender, in the U.S there still exists issues with basic liberties in other aspects of life. This is proven through the use of logos and pathos within Susan B Anthony’s speech, “What to the American Slave is Your 4th of July” by Frederick Douglas, and the photograph Susan B Anthony’s grave.

In recent years, there has been an attack on a basic American right, a right so fundamental and deeply rooted that it defines the basis of American culture. With the ever growing and sweeping power of the U.S. government, society is beginning to feel like this right has been crushed and forgotten. Wars were fought and people sacrificed their lives in the name of protecting the right worth dying for. What defined one’s livelihood, gave one a personhood, ensured democracy, promoted labor, and maximizes the happiness of the people will all come crumbling down. What was once an indicator of the elite leaders of a democratic society has become nothing more than a pawn in a political game.

In South Braintree, Massachusetts, two men were tried and convicted of a crime because of their ethnic background. A robbery at the Slater-Morrill Shoe Factory had taken place. As the payroll distributors were exiting, two men attacked them, snatching a box containing the money. The men leaving the factory were both shot and killed, while the two attackers escaped in a getaway car. The two suspected attackers, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, faced discrimination inside and out of the courts. In the end, both even faced the deadly electric chair. To this day, it is undetermined who the robbers are. However, many factors prevented Sacco and Vanzetti from getting a fair trial. Injustice within the courts, panic during the Red Scare, and

One core value of American culture is this idea of guaranteed rights. These rights, according to our Constitution, are untouchable and granted to all Americans. However, in multiple instances over the years the government has infamously curtailed some of these rights. This usually occurs during times of struggle, like war or depression. Some of these instances are praised and others are highly controversial.

This dueling document, “Two Sides of Haymarket,” includes the two view. Which explains on the topic presented by a verdict of a murder and a judge who gives their own opinion about the laws that the people need to follow. In this article there is a clear explanation of the accident, which led to arrest and conviction of eight people for the murder of police officer Mathias J. Degan. Who died as a result of the explosion of a pipe bomb at a labor rally organized by anarchists in the Haymarket Square in Chicago on May 04,1886.

Through the various primary sources, a theme of hypocrisy is introduced, revealing the constant contradiction of freedom in America during the 19th century. This theme is exemplified in “America”, a poem written by James Whitfield. The poem begins with the lines, “America, it is to thee, / Thou boasted land of liberty, - / It is to thee I raise my song, / Thou land of blood, and crime, and wrong” (Whitfield “America” 1- 4). Within the first four lines of the poem, Whitfield introduces the notion that America, albeit boasting of freedom, is truly a land of wrongdoing. This idea is further enhanced later in the poem, as it is mentioned, “Oh no; they fought, as they believed, / For the inherent rights of man; / But mark, how they have been deceived / By slavery’s accursed plan” (Whitfield “America” 37 -

The story goes through and have the characters each tell us what knowledge they know and we as readers are left in the end to decide who is the one who actually killed the Samurai. We as readers are supposed to use our knowledge we retain from reading to make a decision on who the perpetrator is. Yet in the story the court is also trying to use their knowledge from what they have just heard to make a decision on who is guilty we don’t get to hear the verdict because the author like I said before wants us to use what we had learned from all of the stories and figure it out our self and discuss what we think is

However, even though there was evidence pointing to these four men as the perpetrator, the FBI, led by J. Edgar Hoover at the time, dragged its feet in the investigation and held evidence back. This was due to the fact that Hoover wasn’t fond of Martin Luther King and some circles say that he personally believed the bombing to have been committed by people interested in gaining sympathy for the civil rights cause. Whatever the case may be, it wasn’t until 1977 that a conviction could be obtained for just one of the men accused of the bombing. The bombing itself had the effect of uniting all of the civil rights organizations in the South and also giving a face, four faces to be precise, to the rest of the nation as a kind of message about the evils of racism.