Free Speech & Political Dissent
Free Speech & Political Dissent explores the question just how “free” is free speech? How do we protect space for dissent? From “gag rules” prohibiting abolitionist views on the congressional floor to anarchists and communists being deported or imprisoned for sedition; and from obscenity laws to women’s right to birth control, Americans have often pushed the boundaries of politically acceptable speech, and faced robust resistance.
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Just how “free” is free speech? Throughout American history, this question has been tested when individuals’ words have instigated broader reactions to the U.S. government. What follows are three videos on political dissent in American history from different time periods. Each video illuminates a moment in time when a historical flashpoint on free speech and political dissent was put to the test.
- Geof R. Stone explains The Sedition Act of 1918
- Claire Potter discusses the extradition of Emma Goldman
- Barbara Krauthamer explains pro-abolitionist gag orders
Contributing Scholars:
Brett Gadsden, Associate Professor of African American Studies and History, Northwestern University
Barbara Krauthamer, Dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts and Professor of History, University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Krauthamer is an eminent historian of slavery and emancipation in the 19th century American South, a devoted mentor, and an innovative leader. Krauthamer is widely recognized as a leading historian of African American slavery and emancipation in the United States.
Claire Potter, Professor of History, The New School for Social Research and co-executive editor of Public Seminar, a digital magazine of politics and culture based at The New School. Her main research and teaching areas are in United States political history after 1970, the history of gender and sexuality, mass culture, media and internet studies.
Geoffrey R. Stone, Edward H. Levi Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Chicago. Stone is a noted First Amendment scholar, the author of many books on constitutional law, and has written amicus briefs for constitutional scholars in a number of Supreme Court cases.
From the PEN archives
- “48th PEN International Congress – Alienation and the State I” (1986) with Susan Sontag, Jiri Grusa, Toni Morrison, György Konrád, Salman Rushdie, Derek Walcott, Herberto Padilla
- “The Right to Dissent” symposia with Amnesty International (1987)
- “Silenced Voices: American Writers” with June Jordan, Manuel Ramos Otero, E.L. Doctorow, Jamake Highwater, Dolores Prida (1988)
- “Something to Hide: Writers Against the Surveillance State” with Irakli Kakabadze, Wallace Shawn, Chenjerai Hove, Francine Prose, György Dragomán, Ingo Schulze, Péter Esterháy, and Anthony Romero (2008)
Primary Sources
- Text of the 1918 Espionage Act
- Paul Robeson’s Testimony to the House Unamerican Activities Committee, 1956
- FBI Records on the Black Panther Party, 1969-1976
- Emma Goldman’s Speech to the Jury
- Emma Goldman on Trial for Delivering a Lecture on Birth Control, 1916