On August 23, 1927, Nicola Sacco and Barolomeo Vanzetti were executed in one of the most controversial legal cases in American history. Two men were shot and robbed in Braintree, MA, and two poor Italian immigrants were arrested for the crime. Although neither Sacco nor Vanzetti had criminal records, they both had pistols on them at the time, and followed a violent anarchist leader. Following their arrest, the seven-year case on the crime would drive national and international protests demanding their exoneration. There were numerous elements in the trial that influenced the guilty verdicts for the men including, but not limited to, weak evidence. The Sacco Vanzetti trial displays the social injustices and prejudice in American society during the time. It is evident that even though they are innocent, the court used Sacco and Vanzetti as scapegoats in this crime because of their beliefs and background. The “Red Scare” was consuming many American’s lives following World War 1. After the war ended, anarchist bombings began, and a general fear of socialists, anarchists, communists, and immigrants swept the nation. There had always been resentment to immigrants in America, and these attacks just intensified these feelings. Americans were concerned that, because the Russian Revolution occurred, that it would happen in America next. The government began sweeping immigrants up and deporting them. Many innocent people were arrested because of their views against democracy. Although Sacco and Vanzetti were on trial for murder, their beliefs of how society should be run was the main focus in the trial. Nicola Sacco and Barolmeo Vanzetti arrived in America as Italian immigrants in 1908. Sacco was seventeen working at a shoe... ... middle of paper ... ... the second trial which included both Sacco and Vanzetti, Thayer said to reporters, "Did you ever see a case in which so many leaflets and circulars have been spread...saying people couldn't get a fair trial in Massachusetts? You wait till I give my charge to the jury, I'll show them!"[122]. Even years after the case, there were a number of people who have come forward to the press with comments Thayer made concerning the Sacco- Vanzetti case. In 1924, professor P. Richardson, a lawyer in Massachusetts quoted Thayer as saying, "Did you see what I did with those anarchistic bastards the other day. I guess that will hold them for a while.... Let them go to the Supreme Court now and see what they can get out of them (Watson 252)." Sacco and Vanzetti were being made an example of what Thayer was capable of doing to immigrants who stood for what they believe in.
demand a ransom. The money was to be thrown off a moving train at a
of water to the west of the Outer Banks of North Carolina for the Pacific
Before the “Red Scare”, the United States was a huge world power and was thriving in every facet possible. Its people could do as they pleased for the most part, and did not have to fear persecution for their beliefs or associations. The entertainment was reaching its prime with celebrities creating the greatest films and writings the country had ever seen (Pearson). This all changed in 1947, when President Harry Truman upset the waters. Earlier in the year, Truman ordered background checks of all the civilians in service. The results that this investigation found was unnerving. Alger Hiss, a high-ranking State Department official, was revealed as a Soviet spy. He was then convicted on espionage charges and served three years in prison. ...
There are a number of differences between Bernardo Bertolucci's movie "The Spider Stratagem" and the story on which it is based, Jorge Louis Borges' "The Theme of The Traitor and The Hero;" however, overall Bertolucci does a pretty accurate portrayal of the essence, at least, of Borges' story. Besides changing the "setting" of the plot, there is also much more information relayed in the movie. This is very much due to that the story is simply a suggestive piece, while the movie had to fill in all of the blanks. In the movie, Bertolucci had to add characters, motivations, and many vast details that are left out of the story.
Italians came to America for a new start and with the visions of achieving the American Dream. In the late 1800’s and through history, people saw America as the “land of opportunity”, “the land of milk and honey” or “The Promised Land”. They believed that America was the place that they could turn their life around and get a job to support their family better than they could in their native country. The jobs that they found were not always easy. The first Italians to America often became fruit merchants in New York and wine growers in California. Many agricultural states atte...
The First and Second Red Scare of the United States paved the way for a long standing fear of communism and proved to be one of America’s largest periods of mass hysteria. Throughout the years authors and analysts have studied and formed expository albeit argumentative books and articles in an attempt to further understand this period of time; the mindset held during this period however is shown to be completely different compared to now.
As a result, Palmer led an attack on alien coming to America illegally. One of the methods to solve the problem was to round up suspected anarchists and communists and ship them back to their home country. Others suggested things such as firing lines and hangings. According to the text even after the Red Scare fell in a rapid demise “in early 1920, government officials from the Department of Labor insisted on due process and full hearings prior to anyone else being deported (p. 648).” The Red Scare however was not forgotten and many foreign-born citizens lived in uneasiness as they always feared hostility and were looked at with suspicious.
Palmer later frightened the public by telling them the radicals were planning a revolution. The Red Scare led to the best-known criminal cases in American history. In 1920, two Italian-born anarchists, rebels against any authority, established order, or ruling power, Nicco Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were arrested for the murder of a factory paymaster and his guard. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), founded in 1920, to help defend civil rights. ALCU unsuccessfully got the verdict overturned. Sacco and Vanzetti were executed, put to death, and convicted in 1927.
Last but not least, the Italian-American’s contributed greatly to America’s past and left quite an imprint on our ‘melting pot’ culture. The Italian-Americans came to America following a dream; whether it be temporarily ‘escaping’ South Italy or a lifelong aspirations toward music. There perseverance and bravery left an impact stronger than words can express which assisted our future successes. Slowly yet steadily, Italians rose up the social ladder, opening up like a blossoming flower to their fellow Americans. Establishing their roots, then blossoming into a beautiful flower, revealing all beyond everyone’s expectations. Today, Italians have surpassed all the other ethnic groups in average job income and job prestigious, a true example of hard work paying off. As for, “Chi la dura la vince,”-He who perseveres wins at last...
One of the most serious fears of the beginning of that period – was fear of communism, which was gradually spending in other countries of the world. American citizens were not ready to support the spread of the Soviet-Style Communism in their country. Directly or indirectly this fear resulted in negative attitude towards foreigners and increased the levels of xenophobia and nativism. “A wave of American labor strikes in 1919 convinced conservative Americans that the democratic system was in a fight to the death with anarchism and communism, beginning the Red Scare.” (Price 1999). U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer initiated struggle against radicals and communism supporters without consideration of their legal rights. There was a wave of mass arrests, deporting of foreigners, beating and assaults. An important role was played by the Sacco-Vanzetti murder case, when two Italians, one was atheist and the second was socialist, were accused of being the murders of the factory paymaster
Vivian Gonzalez Mr. Martinez-Ramos A.P. United States History May 3, 2000 McCarthyism was one of the saddest events of American history. It destroyed people’s lives and shattered many families. It threw innocent people into a whirlwind of mass confusion and fictional portrayals of their lives. McCarthyism spawned for the country’s new found terror of Communism known as the red scare. McCarthyism was an extreme version of the red scare, a scare whose ends did not justify the means. The Red Scare happened twice in the history of this great country. When the communist took over Russia in 1919, the American people were unnerved. They were afraid of a communist take over in the states. When the First World War ended in 1918, there was still an ideological war going on in a very divided United States. "The red scare was another sort of war—one against dissent and nonconformity. It changed the psyche and face of the United States as surely as did World War Two (Fariello, 24). This was a time in American History where panic and terror controlled the lives and the laws of this country (Fariello, 28). When in 1919 the newly appointed Attorney General, A. Mitchel Palmer, was abruptly awoken from his house by a bomb, everyone was seeing red, so to speak. Instantaneously fingers were being pointed in the immediate direction of the Communist Party. The Communist Party had reason, good reason to go after Palmer. He had used legislation passed in 1917 to deport many "communist" that were a threat to the American way of life. As was clearly seen in the Legislation passed in 1952. The Immigration and Nationality Act tightened previous restriction on aliens and heavily reduced immigration from nonwhites countries. It allowed for the denaturalization and deportation of citizens deemed "subversive," as well as the deportation of residents aliens for political activity. Removed deportation case from the courts by setting up own board unhampered by due process(Fariello, 18). American politicians were under the distorted impression that everyone that was not Anglo-American or came from Western Europe was a threat to national security. In response to this they passed a series of laws declining the immigration of people from Eastern and Southern Europe. They also passed laws deporting many of our own residents because of fear. "In t...
The red scare was brought upon by men like Joseph McCarthy, who were eager to exploit people’s fear of Russia for personal benefit and power. Anyone who was associated with communism was highly scrutinized to be a Russian spy. Instead of fighting for the rights of the accused individuals, many social action groups ridded themselves of these very people. Durr realized that red baiting would destroy liberal groups which were fighting for justice. The NCAPT refused to dismiss people who were believed to be communist, but other groups were driven by fear and fired large numbers of people. “Everybody began to purge. The NAACP purged, the unions purged, everybody purged” (191). Instead of fighting stereotypes many groups fell prey to them, and in doing so lost their ability to challenge the status quo. Therefore “the whole liberal movement of the United States died...(because) it became exclusively anti communistic” (186).
The red scare was a time where people were falsely accused of being communist spies, and would be sent to prison. If somebody hated their neighbor, a co-worker, or even a teacher they could just accuse them of being a communist spy. Some cases were even so severe as in the case with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. They were accused for stealing information on the atomic bomb and giving the information to the...
The American anticommunist attitude began in 1919, with the Red Scare. In 1917, Russia experienced the culmination of multiple social revolutions as the Bolsheviks seized control of the government. Discarding the old Russia, the Bolsheviks ushered in an era of communism under Marxist philosophy. The world responded with suspicion and a healthy dose of hostility. Little over a year later, the United States experienced a crisis as mail-bombs detonated in eight separate cities. Even though they were less than 70,000 professed communists in the Untied States, they attracted the full weight of public ire. Mitchell Palmer, the leader of this anticommunist crusade, believed that communism was eating its way into the homes of the American workman stating: “tongues of revolutionary heat were licking the alters of the churches, leaping into the belfry of the school bell, crawling into the sacred corners of American homes, seeking to replace marriage vows with libertine laws, burning up the foundations of society,” (The Palmer Raids). The Palmer Raids peaked in December 1919, when Palmer arrested 249 resident communist aliens and deported them to the Soviet Union. Essentially, the Red Scare nurtured American fear of communism and created initial hostility between Communist Russia and the United States.
Within the early and mid-1900s, there were several moments in American history in which we feared that our democracy would be overridden by communist influence and infiltrated by communist groups. These two events were labeled the Red Scare, a time in which “reds”; or communists, were feared to be taking an active participation and role within our democratic government. The first Red scare occurred in the early 1919-1924 after the First World War and the second Red Scare occurred after the World War Two between 1947-1954. Both events, while happening in two totally different eras, carried effects that would impact American society for several future generations and impact the racial prejudice treatment towards those who carried communist beliefs and believed in a supremacist government.