1918 September 14

WW I Conscientious Objectors Chained in Solitary Confinement, Dark Unsanitary Cells

 

Roger Baldwin, Director of the National Civil Liberties Bureau (NCLB), on this day issued a report on the conditions in the jail on Governors Island, NY, where conscientious objectors (COs) to participation in World War I were held chained in solitary confinement in dark, unsanitary cells.

Conscientious objectors who were also held in military training camps around the county were also subject to physical abuse.

The issue of COs was the first issue for the National Civil Liberties Bureau during the war, although it was very quickly joined by the issues of freedom of speech and press, as a wave of repression swept the country in the first months of American involvement in the war. On the NCLB in the first months of the war, see July 2, 1917 and November 1, 1917.

On January 19, 1920, Roger Baldwin transformed the National Civil Liberties Bureau into the ACLU, with himself as its Director.

Learn more: Lillian Schlissel, ed., Conscience in America: A Documentary History of Conscientious Objection in America, 1757 to 1967 (1968)

Read: Louisa Thomas, Conscience: Two Soldiers, Two Pacifists, One Family – A Test of Will and Faith in World War I (2011)

Learn about the rights of COs today at the GI Rights Hotline here.

Find a Day

Go
Abortion Rights ACLU african-americans Alice Paul anti-communism Anti-Communist Hysteria Birth Control Brown v. Board of Education Censorship CIA Civil Rights Civil Rights Act of 1964 Cold War Espionage Act FBI First Amendment Fourteenth Amendment freedom of speech Free Speech Gay Rights Hate Speech homosexuality Hoover, J. Edgar HUAC Japanese American Internment King, Dr. Martin Luther Ku Klux Klan Labor Unions Lesbian and Gay Rights Loyalty Oaths McCarthy, Sen. Joe New York Times Obscenity Police Misconduct Same-Sex Marriage Separation of Church and State Sex Discrimination Smith Act Spying Spying on Americans Vietnam War Voting Rights Voting Rights Act of 1965 War on Terror Watergate White House Women's Rights Women's Suffrage World War I World War II Relocation Camps

Topics

Tell Us What You Think

We want to hear your comments, criticisms and suggestions!