Sacco and Vanzetti

Americans Struggle with Postwar Issues

The 1920s US History II

Nicola Sacco & Bartolomeo Vanzetti• Italian

Immigrants

• Anarchists

• Dodged draft during WWI

Sacco & Vanzetti: May 1920

• Arrested and charged with robbery and murder of a factory paymaster and his guard in South Braintree, MA

• Witnesses had said that the criminals had appeared to be Italian

Sacco and

Vanzetti• Asserted their

innocence and provided alibis

• Evidence against them was circumstantial

• Jury still found them guilty and sentenced them to death

Vanzetti• "I would not wish to a dog or a snake, to the most

low and misfortunate creature of the earth — I would not wish to any of them what I have had to suffer for things that I am not guilty of. But my conviction is that I have suffered for things that I am guilty of. I am suffering because I am a radical, and indeed I am a radical; I have suffered because I am an Italian, and indeed I am an Italian... If you could execute me two times, and if I could be reborn two other times, I would live again to do what I have done already". (Vanzetti spoke on 19 April 1927, in Dedham, MA, where their case was heard in the Norfolk County courthouse.)

Trail Response• The Sacco and Vanzetti case aroused

protests all over the world. After the announcement of the guilty verdict, violent protests broke out. In Paris, a bomb exploded at the house of the American ambassador. In Rome, and mob threatened the American embassy. Some protests were peaceful. In Uruguay, citizens mounted a general strike and a boycott of American goods.

Ben Shahn• Ben Shahn (1898-1969) was outraged

at the brazen injustice of the Sacco and Vanzetti case. Shahn created a series of 23 protest paintings. His works helped galvanize support for Sacco and Vanzetti and made the artist famous. Ben Shahn went on to have a distinguished career as a painter and graphic artist.

Ben Shahn: Sacco and Vanzetti

Ben Shahn: Passion for Justice

http://www.njn.net/artsculture/shahn/mural1.html