1957 August 16

Stamford, Connecticut, Launches Anti-Obscene Magazine Campaign

 

The police chief of Stamford, Connecticut, sent a letter to about 100 newspaper and magazine retailers directing them to remove “obscene” magazines immediately or face arrest and a fine.

The chief had a list of allegedly obscene magazines being sold in the city, which was compiled by a single police officer who used his personal judgment in evaluating magazines.

Learn more: Nadine Strossen, Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex, and the Fight For Women’s Rights (1995)

Learn more at the National Coalition Against Censorship here.

Read about the fight against censorship in the 1950s and 1960s: Charles Rembar, The End of Obscenity: The Trials of Lady Chatterley, Tropic of Cancer and Fanny Hill (1968)

Learn about the 100 Year fight for free speech in America: Lee C. Bollinger and Geoffrey Stone, The Free Speech Century (2018)

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