May 17, 1927: 96 years ago, May 16 1927, the Supreme Court upheld the Criminal [...]

96 years ago, May 16 1927, the Supreme Court upheld the Criminal Syndicalism Act conviction of suffragist & cofounder of the Communist Labor Party’s Oakland chapter Charlotte Anita Whitney. While she received a pardon, the ruling legitimized California’s assault on radical speech

Whitney was just one of a number of Oakland CLP leaders arrested and charged under the new Criminal Syndicalism Act in 1919, almost immediately after the party was formed. The act effectively criminalized all communist, anarchist, and radical left speech
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Although her conviction was upheld, Whitney’s supporters successfully lobbied California governor C.C. Young to pardon her in June 1927. She would go on to serve as an important leader of the Communist Party in San Francisco, but also continued to endure legal harassment

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