Topic: Freedom of Speech

Dec 24,

1908

Protect the City’s Morals! NYC Mayor Revokes All Movie Licenses

Apr 7,

1911

Free Speech League Incorporated, First Free Speech Organization in U.S.

Mar 3,

1915

Protests Greet “Birth of a Nation” Opening in New York City

Apr 2,

1917

President Wilson Seeks Declaration of War, To Make World Safe for Democracy – Warns of Repression

Apr 7,

1917

President Wilson Issues Secret Loyalty Order

Jun 15,

1917

Espionage Act Passes – Instrument of World War I Suppression of Dissent

Jul 24,

1917

A Brief Halt to WW I Repression: “Masses v. Patten”

Sep 5,

1917

Government Raids Socialist Party Offices; Publications Halted

Sep 11,

1917

Emma Goldman Speech Banned in New York – Appears On Stage Gagged

Oct 6,

1917

“Free Speech in Wartime” Defended by Senator Robert M. LaFollette

Jun 16,

1918

Eugene V. Debs Gives Anti-War Speech – Gets 10 Years in Prison

Aug 22,

1918

Jacobs Abrams Distributes Radical Leaflets – Heads to First Amendment History

Sep 14,

1918

Eugene Debs Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Anti-War Speech

Mar 1,

1919

National Civil Liberties Bureau Issues Comprehensive Report on WW I Rights Violations

Mar 3,

1919

Supreme Court Creates “Clear and Present Danger” Test; Does Not Protect Dissent

Mar 10,

1919

Debs Conviction For Anti-War Speech Upheld by Supreme Court

May 1,

1919

California Criminal Syndicalism Law Takes Effect

Jul 4,

1919

Police Threats Cancel Civil Liberties Bureau Meeting at Carnegie Hall

Nov 8,

1919

Benjamin Gitlow Arrested – Makes Civil Liberties History in 1925

Nov 10,

1919

“Abrams” – Justice Holmes Delivers Landmark Dissent on Freedom of Speech

Apr 24,

1920

“Revolutionary Radicalism” Report Slurs Pacifists, Civil Libertarians, Liberals

Dec 13,

1920

Brandies Dissents as Supreme Court Upholds Minnesota Conviction of Anti-War Leader

Aug 1,

1921

New York Motion Picture Commission Begins Work – Censorship Ahead

Nov 13,

1921

New York Police Halt Birth Control Meeting at Town Hall

Sep 1,

1922

Sweeping Injunction Denies Railroad Workers First Amendment Rights

Dec 1,

1922

Guns, Threats Stop Union Meeting in Vintondale, PA

Jun 8,

1925

“Gitlow:” Supreme Court Incorporates Free Speech Clause into 14th Amendment

Nov 28,

1925

American Legion Leader Says “Reds” Forfeit Right of Free Speech

May 21,

1926

ACLU Banned from New York City Schools

Nov 20,

1926

Protests Greet Planned Speech by Communist/Atheist Anthony Bimba in Boston

Feb 10,

1927

ACLU Loses Suit Over Right to Speak in NYC Schools

May 16,

1927

Historic Brandeis Opinion in “Whitney v. California”

May 9,

1928

“There is Nothing to Repress” – ACLU Leader Laments State of Civil Liberties

May 14,

1928

Roger Baldwin’s Conviction Overturned by New Jersey High Court

Nov 16,

1928

Rep. Fiorello LaGuardia Affirms Freedom of Speech

Nov 27,

1928

ACLU Wins Right to Speak in NYC Schools

Dec 27,

1928

Post Office Bans Anti-Fascist Italian Language Newspaper

Apr 19,

1929

Supt. of NYC Schools Bars Talk on “Free Speech” by ACLU’s Roger Baldwin

Aug 3,

1929

Stromberg Arrested for Violating California Red Flag Law

Dec 30,

1929

ACLU Challenges “Political Lecturing” by Judges

Nov 30,

1930

Clarence Darrow, Jane Addams Attend Gala “Blacklist” Dinner in Chicago

Dec 15,

1930

Fish Committee Hearings on Communist Propaganda in the U.S. – Targets ACLU

May 18,

1931

Supreme Court Declares California “Red Flag” Law Unconstitutional

Apr 20,

1932

Reed Harris Reinstated by Columbia University, But He Resigns

Aug 18,

1933

Jewish Paper Protests American Publication of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”

Dec 30,

1935

“Patriotism Cannot be Legislated” – NYC Mayor La Guardia Vetoes Compulsory Flag Law

May 19,

1938

ACLU Lawyer Arthur Garfield Hays Evicted From Jersey City

Nov 19,

1938

ACLU to Aid Nazi Groups on First Amendment Rights

Mar 31,

1941

Supreme Court Allows Time, Place and Manner Restrictions on Parades – But No Limits on Content

Mar 9,

1942

“Fighting Words” Doctrine Established by Supreme Court

Jun 14,

1943

You Can’t Be Compelled to Salute the Flag: “West Virginia v. Barnette”

Apr 4,

1944

“Strange Fruit,” The Novel, Banned in Boston

Jan 3,

1945

HUAC Made a Permanent Committee – Assault on Freedom of Belief and Association Continues

Jan 8,

1945

Supreme Court Strikes Down Texas Restriction on Labor Union Organizing

Mar 12,

1947

Cold War Begins: Truman Doctrine Announced

Oct 24,

1947

Committee for the First Amendment Opposes HUAC Investigation of Hollywood

Jul 13,

1948

Groups Protest NYC Public Schools Ban on “The Nation” Magazine

Jul 22,

1948

NYC Seeking New Rules to Govern Use of Sound Trucks, Loudspeakers

Nov 1,

1948

Smith Act Trial Begins – First Amendment Test Lies Ahead

May 16,

1949

Supreme Court: First Amendment Protects Provocative Speech

Sep 22,

1950

Anti-Korean War Protester Waves “Peace” Flag; Gets Two Months in the Workhouse

Jul 11,

1951

Cicero, Illinois, Race Riot – Whites Protest Racial Integration

Apr 28,

1952

Supreme Court Upholds Illinois “Group Libel” Law

May 26,

1952

“The Miracle!” Movies Protected by First Amendment

Feb 10,

1953

Theodore Schroeder, Early Free Speech Advocate, Dies

Feb 8,

1957

Free Speech Scholar Zechariah Chafee, Jr. Dies

Mar 25,

1957

Stop that Poem! Customs Seizes Copies of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl”

Nov 13,

1959

“The Lovers” Opens in Cleveland, Heads for Supreme Court

Jan 16,

1960

Justice Department: Nazi “Hate Speech” Protected by First Amendment

Mar 29,

1960

The Ad That Produced a Landmark First Amendment Case

May 23,

1961

Emergency Civil Liberties Committee Denounces HUAC Investigation

Jun 25,

1963

North Carolina Passes Campus Speaker Ban

Sep 14,

1963

Pete Seeger Refuses to Sign Loyalty Oath, Is Barred from “Hootenanny” TV Show

Sep 16,

1964

Berkeley Bans Off-Campus Political Advocacy on Campus, Sparks Free Speech Movement

Oct 1,

1964

Jack Weinberg Arrested; Berkeley Free Speech Movement Escalates

Dec 2,

1964

Free Speech Movement Historic Moment – Mario Savio Denounces “The System”

Dec 16,

1965

Mary Beth Tinker, 8th Grader, Suspended for Wearing Protest Arm Band to School

Mar 9,

1966

Other Side of the Wall: Speakers Defy North Carolina Speaker Ban

Apr 26,

1968

“Fuck the Draft” – Robert Paul Cohen Arrested

Feb 24,

1969

Mary Beth Tinker Wins Landmark Case on Students’ First Amendment Rights

May 10,

1970

Protester Hangs American Flag Upside Down, With Peace Symbol, Heads to Supreme Court

Jun 7,

1971

“Fuck the Draft” Ruled Protected Speech

Nov 19,

1972

Free Speech Protects Right to Warn Drivers About Police Radar

Jun 25,

1974

U.S. Flag with Peace Symbol is Protected Speech

Oct 4,

1976

Nazi Group Requests Skokie Demonstration Permit – National Controversy Erupts

Jul 9,

1978

Nazis Skip Skokie – Demonstrate in Chicago Instead

Oct 20,

1979

Women Against Pornography March on Times Square

Dec 30,

1983

Minneapolis Mayor Vetoes Anti-pornography Ordinance

Oct 1,

1985

Annual Free Speech Day in California: Commemorates Free Speech Movement

Mar 10,

1987

ACT UP, HIV/AIDS Advocacy Group, Founded

Oct 6,

1990

Robert Mapplethorpe and Gallery Curator Indicted for Obscenity in Cincinnati

Jun 8,

1992

Court Upholds Professor’s Free Speech Rights on African-American Inferiority

May 3,

1993

United Nations World Press Freedom Day

Feb 8,

1996

President Clinton Signs Communications Decency Act; ACLU Immediately Sues

Jun 26,

1997

Communications Decency Act Held Unconstitutional

May 3,

2006

Victims of WW I Repression Pardoned in Montana

Jan 25,

2016

Longest-Ever Picket of White House (30+ Years) Ends; Concepcion Picciotto Dies

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