Socialist, Civil Libertarian Norman Thomas Forcibly Evicted From Jersey City
Socialist Party leader and six-time candidate for president Norman Thomas was an active participant in the campaign to secure for labor unions the right to organize in Jersey City, New Jersey. On this day he was forcibly evicted from the city in one of many repressive anti-free speech incidents.
Mayor Frank (“I Am the Law”) Hague fought the organizing campaign by denying workers and union organizers their basic First Amendment rights. ACLU Co-General Counsel Arthur Garfield Hays was forcibly evicted from the city on May 19, 1938.
The Jersey City struggle became one of the most famous union organizing and First Amendment controversies of the late 1930s. Because of Mayor Hague’s repressive tactics, his critics began comparing him to Adolph Hitler. The campaign eventually succeeded with the landmark Supreme Court decision in Hague v. C.I.O., decided on June 5, 1939, which affirmed the freedom of assembly under the First Amendment.
Read about “Boss” Hague: Steven Hart, American Dictators: Frank Hague, Nucky Johnson, and the Perfection of the Urban Political Machine (2013)
Learn about the right of freedom of assembly: John D. Inazu, Liberty’s Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly (2012)
Learn more about Mayor Hague: http://www.cityofjerseycity.org/hague/
And more about freedom of assembly: http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/category/assembly
Read a biography of Norman Thomas: W. A. Swanberg, Norman Thomas: The Last Idealist (1976)