Anita Whitney
Anita Whitney | |
---|---|
Born | San Francisco, California, U.S. | July 7, 1867
Died | February 4, 1955 San Francisco, California, U.S. | (aged 87)
Resting place | Mountain View Cemetery (Oakland, California)[1] |
Nationality | American |
Education | Wellesley College |
Charlotte Anita Whitney (July 7, 1867 – February 4, 1955), best known as "Anita Whitney", was an American women's rights activist, political activist, suffragist, and early Communist Labor Party of America and Communist Party USA organizer in California.
She is best remembered as the defendant in a landmark 1927
Early life
Anita Whitney was born in
Whitney attended both private and public school growing up in Oakland, California, across the Bay from San Francisco.[2] When her education in Oakland was complete, she attended a normal school in San Jose, California before leaving for the East Coast to attend Wellesley College from which she graduated in 1889.[2]
Following graduation, Whitney worked for a time as teacher. In 1893, Whitney visited a slum in New York City. Profoundly affected, she soon developed an interest in social work. In 1901, she took over as the new executive secretary of the United Charities of Oakland, California.[3] She continued in that capacity until 1908.[2]
The same impulse that drove her to seek betterment in the lives of the poor and downtrodden apparently also led her to campaign actively for women's suffrage. Two decades before women across the nation were entitled to vote, under the Nineteenth Amendment, Whitney took part in a series of early voting rights campaigns, from California to Connecticut. By 1911, Whitney's interest in the women's rights movement led her to become the California organizer of the National College Equal Suffrage League until 1913.[2] She would later serve as Vice President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.[4]
1920 criminal syndicalism trial
When
Following a speech at the Hotel Oakland to the Oakland Civic Club on behalf of the CLP,
Whitney was charged with five counts of having violated the state's Criminal Syndicalism law by her membership in the Communist Labor Party. Since Whitney freely admitted her status as a charter member of the CLP, the burden of the prosecution was in attempting to demonstrate the association of the organization with the
Whitney's defense attorney, Thomas H. O'Connor, was unable to obtain a
A parade of 20 prosecution witnesses were presented on the stand, reading into the record hundreds of pages of IWW songs and literature, Comintern manifestos, and giving testimony about red flags in evidence at CLP headquarters.[11] The defense called only single witness, Whitney herself. It also recalled one individual that had been forced to the stand by the prosecution, San Francisco communist leader Max Bedacht.[11] The defense attempted to show, through its testimony, that the Communist Labor Party was opposed to the use of terrorism, violence, or force to institute changes to the American system of government.[12]
Closing arguments were made on February 20, 1920, with the defense making the argument that the prosecution had failed to prove Whitney guilty of having committed a single illegal act.[13] The prosecution, on the other hand, argued at length that the Communist Labor Party was nothing more than "a political adjunct of the IWW" and called upon the jury "to uphold the sacred tenets of Americanism and to place, with its verdict, the seal of disapproval on the activities of the Communist Labor Party and its blood brother, the IWW."[13]
The jury deliberated six hours before finding Whitney guilty of the first count: having organized and joined an organization formed for the purpose of advocating criminal syndicalism. It disagreed on the other four counts.
The appeals process was begun. After 11 days imprisonment, Whitney was permitted to post $10,000 bail pending appeal only after three physicians gave testimony that continued incarceration would present a danger to her health.
An appeal was finally made to the
Some 14 months later, on May 16, 1927, Whitney's conviction was unanimously upheld by the Supreme Court in Whitney v. California. The ruling featured a landmark concurring opinion by Justice Louis Brandeis that only a "clear and present danger" would be sufficient for the legislative restriction of the right of free speech. His opinion would be employed again in cases revoking the restrictions against the communists after a subsequent wave of imprisonments during the 1950s.
Post-trial activity
Still dogged by criminal charges from her 1919 arrest, Whitney ran for California
In 1934, she helped establish the
Her popularity among the country's radical leftists never completely disappeared. Although trailed by a protracted record of political harassment and accusations by the California
Death
Anita Whitney died on February 4, 1955, aged 87, in San Francisco.
References
- ^ "Lives of the Dead: Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland: Charlotte "Anita" Whitney (1867-1955) - U.S. Communist Party Leader". 29 May 2010.
- ^ a b c d e Solon DeLeon with Irma C. Hayssen and Grace Poole (eds.), American Labor Who's Who. New York: Hanford Press, 1925; pg. 249.
- ^ Charities: A Weekly Review of Local and General Philanthropy, vol. 7, no. 1 (July–December 1901), pg. 348.
- ^ a b c Robert McHenry, Famous American Women: A Biographical Dictionary from Colonial Times to the Present. Courier Dover Publications, 1983; pg. 441.
- ^ Epstein, Lee, and Thomas G. Walker. Constitutional Law for a Changing America: Rights, Liberties, and Justice. Second Edition. CQ Press, 1995; pg. 219.
- ^ "Oakland Holds Anita Whitney as Syndicalist: Near-Riot Follows" "Oakland Holds Anita Whitney as Syndicalist: Near-Riot Follows". San Francisco Chronicle. November 29, 1919, pp. 1, 3.
- JSTOR 1006021.
- ^ Whitten, Criminal Syndicalism and the Law in California, pp. 43-44.
- ^ Whitten, Criminal Syndicalism and the Law in California, pg. 44.
- ^ a b Whitten, Criminal Syndicalism and the Law in California, pp. 44-45.
- ^ a b Whitten, Criminal Syndicalism and the Law in California, pg. 46.
- ^ Whitten 1969, p. 47.
- ^ a b c d e Whitten, Criminal Syndicalism and the Law in California, pg. 47.
- ^ a b Whitten, Criminal Syndicalism and the Law in California, pg. 48.
- ^ a b Whitten, Criminal Syndicalism and the Law in California, pg. 49.
- ^ a b Whitten, Criminal Syndicalism and the Law in California, pg. 50.
- ^ Whitten, Criminal Syndicalism and the Law in California, pp. 51-52.
- ^ Whitten, Criminal Syndicalism and the Law in California, pg. 51.
- ^ "Unthinkable". Time. 1927-07-04. Archived from the original on October 21, 2012. Retrieved 2007-09-26.
- ^ " Charlotte Anita Whitney". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 27 Apr. 2009.
Further reading
- Haig Bosmajian, Anita Whitney, Louis Brandeis, and the First Amendment. Cranbury, NJ: Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 2010.
- Ronald K.L. Collins and David M. Skover, "Curious Concurrence: Justice Brandeis's Vote in Whitney v California", Supreme Court Review, vol. 2005, no. 1 (2005), pp. 333–397. In JSTOR
- James H. Dolsen, The Defense of a Revolutionist by Himself: Story of the Trial of James H. Dolsen, Who Defended Himself on the Charge of Criminal Syndicalism, Superior Court, Oakland, California, March 23-April 23, 1920. Oakland, CA: James H. Dolsen, 1920.
- Lisa Rubens, "The Patrician Radical: Charlotte Anita Whitney", California History, vol. 65, no. 3 (Sept. 1986), pp. 158–171. in JSTOR
- Philippa Strum, Speaking Freely: Whitney V. California and American Speech Law. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2015.
External links
- "Woman Tests Free Speech" – A 1922 article in The New York Times.
- "The Case of Miss Whitney" – Time, November 2, 1925.
Works related to Whitney v. California at Wikisource