“Revolutionary Age” Challenges Post Office Ban
Revolutionary Age, a monthly Marxist newspaper that was founded in 1929 and edited by Benjamin Gitlow, challenged a Post Office ban on this day.
Six previous issues had been banned by the U.S. Post Office. Arthur Garfield Hays, co-General Counsel of the ACLU, handled a lawsuit challenging the ban.
Benjamin Gitlow is famous for his case, Gitlow v. New York, decided on June 8, 1925, in which the Supreme Court for the first time incorporated the freedom of speech and press protections of the First Amendment and made them applicable to the states.
Later in life, Gitlow abandoned Communism and became a prominent anti-Communist during the Cold War, drawing upon his “insider” accounts of what the American Communist movement was really like.
Read all the issues of Revolutionary Age: http://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/revolutionary-age/index.htm
Learn more: Marc Lendler, Gitlow v. New York: Every Idea an Incitement (2012)
Learn more: Benjamin Gitlow, The Whole of Their Lives: Communism in America: A Personal History and Intimate Portrayal of its Leaders (1948)