widely contested trial, as Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were convicted in a trial that received mass protests from around the world (Sharrett). The trial of Sacco and Vanzetti took place during the height of the Red Scare and the massive migration of immigrants to the United States, where a substantial percentage of immigrants were from Italy. With the large influx of newcomers and the end of the first World War, many nativist sentiments arose where immigrants were held accountable for the
American people to fear and despise certain groups. These groups usually included eastern and southern Europeans. The arrest and trial of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti was fixated more on the battle between Anarchy and American traditions rather than the actual evidence the prosecution presented. The Red Scare played a massive part in this. The Sacco and Vanzetti case reflects the fears of immigration, immigrant crime and anarchy. Within a week of going into war on April 1917, acts of political
height of the Red Scare, a shoemaker, Nicola Sacco (1891-1927), and a fish peddler, Bartolomeo Vanzetti (1888-1927), were accused of robbing and murdering the paymaster and guard of a shoe company in South Braintree, Massachusetts. Known as anarchists and draft evaders, the accused men faced a hostile judge and a public convinced of their guilt. Despite Sacco 's corroborated testimony that he was at the Italian consulate in Boston at the time of the murder, the two were found guilty on the basis of witness
Case Study of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti Italian anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were arrested near Boston in 1920 and charged with the murder of a shoe factory paymaster and the guard of the factory. Frederick Parmenter and the guard were carrying $16,000 in payroll money for the South Braintree shoe factory on April 15, 1920. They were attacked, robbed, and shot. The two killers escaped in a getaway car. A similar crime was committed in the
what they are now doing to me.” These were the last words of Vanzetti just before his death. Two innocent men executed because of their background information, the location they were in during a crime and the prejudice trials they had to face trying to prove their innocence. Nicola Sacco was born on June 11, 1888, in Torremaggiore, Italy while Bartolomeo Vanzetti was born on April 22, 1891, in Villafelletto, Italy (www.workerslibery.org). These two men were both anarchist and Italian immigrants
periods of change, however, the Twenties were accompanied by a reaction against these changes, as the older culture tried to reassert itself as the dominant group. The result was a decade marked by striking cultural conflict. Those who considered themselves traditional Americans, committed to traditional ways of life, launched a cultural war against those who presented a threat to it. There were many common themes that connected the three essays, “Sacco and Vanzetti”, “The Scopes Trial and the American
immigrants were a “threat to the American way of life” (ATF chapter 11) Social and economic fault lines developed between natives and immigrants, through out the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, going unnoticed until the late 1920’s when the Sacco and Vanzetti case brought awareness of issue to much of the United States. Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti “two obscure Italian aliens, became the focal point of one of the most controversial episodes in American history”;(ATF CH11p257) when they were arrested
business of America was business,” which was the truth as America plunged into a prosperous economic growth fueled by the consumer culture and other new ideas. The booming economy was led by the automobile industry. This was started by Henry Ford, who pioneered two developments that made this industry growth possible — standardization and mass production. Standardizing the parts made it easier for mass production by the assembly-line to produce cars faster and efficiently. This made his product inexpensive
On March 13, 1925 the state of Tennessee passed the Butler Act. This law prohibited teaching the Theory of Evolution in Tennessee public schools. Any teacher who taught a theory that denied the story of the Divine Creation would be punished by a fine. The American Civil Liberties Union offered legal defense to any Tennessee teacher who would break the law and fight it in court. John Thomas Scopes was a teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, and he intentionally taught his class about the theory of evolution
technology such as automobiles, radios, and advertisement had taken America by storm. Rural areas were on the decline. American cities had attracted not only rural and urban citizens, but also people from all over the world. In America during the 1920s, citizens struggled with accepting other races and ethnicities into their widely populated country. At the beginning of the century, Americans were disappointed with the outcome of the European war. This resulted them to go against all things foreign