Charlotte Anita Whitney
Encyclopedia
Charlotte Anita Whitney best known as "Anita Whitney," was an American
women's rights activist, political activist, suffragist, and early Communist Labor Party
and Communist Party USA
organizer in California. She is best remembered as the defendant in a landmark 1920 California
criminal syndicalism
trial.
, California
on July 7, 1867, the daughter of a preeminent family whose members included the American Supreme Court
Justice Stephen Johnson Field
and the multi-millionaire speculator and magnate Cyrus W. Field. Her father was a lawyer.
Whitney attended both private and public school growing up in Oakland, California
, across the Bay from San Francisco. When her education in Oakland was complete, she attended a normal school
in San Jose, California
before leaving for the East Coast to attend Wellesley College, from which she graduated in 1889.
Following graduation, Whitney worked for a time as teacher.
In 1893, Whitney visited a slum in New York City
. Profoundly affected, she soon developed an interest in social work. In 1901, she took over as the new Executive Secretary of the United Charities of Oakland, California. She continued in this capacity until 1908.
The same impulse that drove her to seek betterment in the lives of the poor and downtrodden apparently also led her to campaign actively for women's suffrage
: two decades before women across the nation were entitled to vote
, Whitney took part in a series of early voting rights campaigns ranging from California to Connecticut
. By 1911, Whitney's interest in the women's rights movement led her to become the California organizer of the National College Equal Suffrage League, a position which she retained until 1913. She would later serve as Vice President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association
.
broke out in Europe
, Whitney, who was a pacifist, became a member of the anti-war Socialist Party of America
, joining the party meetings of the Oakland
branch. When the more radical members of the Socialist Party bolted the 1919 Emergency National Convention
of the Socialist Party in Chicago
and elected to create an American Communist party, Whitney, who did not think the Socialist Party sufficiently progressive
, threw herself into the Communists' cause, drumming up support for the new Communist Labor Party throughout California.
Following a speech to a group of Oakland leftists on behalf of the CLP, Whitney was arrested on November 28, 1919, and charged with "criminal syndicalism." A pre-trial hearing was held in the case on January 6, 1920 — less than a week after the U.S. Department of Justice's mass crackdown on alien radicals known as the "Palmer Raids
" — and the case went to trial in Oakland on January 27.
Whitney was charged with five counts of having violated the state's Criminal Syndicalism law through her membership in the Communist Labor Party. Since Whitney freely admitted her status as a charter member of the CLP, the burden of the prosecution was in attempting to demonstrate the association of the organization with the syndicalist Industrial Workers of the World
and the Communist International, based in Moscow, organizations held to be illegal under California law. Once having established the criminal nature of the CLP, prosecutors argued that they would thereby establish the guilt of the defendant.
Whitney's defense attorney, Thomas H. O'Connor, was unable to obtain a continuance
in the case on the grounds that his daughter had fallen ill with influenza
in the ongoing flu epidemic. O'Connor was himself stricken on the second day of the trial and was unable to continue the trial after the third, dying of the illness a little over a week later, as did a woman on the original jury. Citing reasons of expense, Judge James G. Quinn swore in an alternate juror and demanded that Whitney's assistant counsel, J.E. Pemberton, proceed with the case.
A parade of 20 prosecution witnesses were presented on the stand, reading into the record hundreds of pages of IWW songs and literature, Comintern manifestos, and giving testimony about red flags in evidence at CLP headquarters. The defense called but a single witness, Whitney herself, as well as recalling one individual forced to the stand by the prosecution, San Francisco communist leader Max Bedacht
. The defense attempted to show through their testimony that the Communist Labor Party was opposed to the use of terrorism, violence, or force to institute changes to the American system of government.
Closing arguments were made on February 20, 1920, with the defense making the argument that the prosecution had failed to prove Whitney guilty of having committed a single illegal act. The prosecution, on the other hand, argued at length that the Communist Labor Party was nothing more than "a political adjunct of the IWW" and called upon the jury "to uphold the sacred tenets of Americanism
and place with their verdict the seal of disapproval on the activities of the Communist Labor Party and its blood brother, the IWW."
The jury deliberated six hours before finding Whitney guilty of the first count, having organized and joined an organization formed for the purpose of advocating criminal syndicalism, while disagreeing on the other four counts. A motion for bail was denied. On February 24, 1920, the other four counts, upon which the jury had deadlocked, were dismissed. Whitney was given an indeterminate sentence of from 1 to 14 years in prison at San Quentin penitentiary.
The appeals process was begun. After 11 days imprisonment, Whitney was permitted to post $10,000 bail pending appeal, but only after three physicians gave testimony that continued incarceration would present a danger to her health. The first appeal was filed on February 28 in the District Court of Appeal in the First Appellate District, San Francisco, citing 16 grounds for appeal and points of error. No verdict was rendered on the case for over two full years, when the decision of the trial court was affirmed.
On June 5, 1922, a petition for a rehearing of the evidence in the case was made before the California Supreme Court. The petition was denied, with two justices dissenting.
Appeal was finally made to the U.S. Supreme Court on July 13, 1922. It would be more than three years before the case was actually heard, with Walter Nelles
of New York City making the argument for the plaintiff in error on October 18, 1925. On October 19 this appeal was summarily dismissed on technical grounds.
An effort was then made to obtain a pardon
from California Governor
Friend Richardson
and an "Anita Whitney Committee" was established to push Governor Richardson in this direction. This effort was met with the refusal of the Governor to offer executive clemency to the convicted communist activist.
The appeals process was still not at an end, however. In December 1925, Whitney's legal team succeeded in overcoming the jurisdictional technicalities which sabotaged its previous effort and won a petition for a rehearing before the Supreme Court. The case was argued again on March 15, 1926.
Some 14 months later, on May 16, 1927, Whitney's conviction was unanimously upheld by the Supreme Court in Whitney v. California
, 274 U.S. 357 (1927). The ruling featured a landmark concurring opinion by Justice Louis Brandeis
that only a "clear and present danger" would be sufficient for the legislative restriction of the right of free speech. This opinion would be employed again in cases revoking the restrictions against the Communists after a subsequent wave of imprisonments during the 1950s.
In 1935, she was again convicted by the California court systemthis time related to election fraud, since eight circulators had made false attestations during a pre-election petition campaign, although the state watchdogs saw fit to add additional charges of "lecturing without a permit" and "distributing radical literature." Her stature among radicals only enhanced by the conviction, Whitney was named the national chairwoman of the Communist Party in 1936.
California's Communists nominated Whitney for the U.S. Senate twice.
Anita Whitney's popularity among the country's radical leftists never completely disappeared. Although trailed by a protracted record of political harassment and accusations by the California Tenney Committee, compounded by the anti-communism
promoted locally by actor and future governor Ronald Reagan
in Los Angeles
and across the nation by Wisconsin Senator McCarthy, her 1950 campaign for Senator won close to 99,000 votes.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
women's rights activist, political activist, suffragist, and early Communist Labor Party
Communist Labor Party
The Communist Labor Party of America was one of the organizational predecessors of the Communist Party USA. The group was established at the end of August 1919 following a three-way split of the Socialist Party of America...
and Communist Party USA
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
organizer in California. She is best remembered as the defendant in a landmark 1920 California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
criminal syndicalism
Syndicalism
Syndicalism is a type of economic system proposed as a replacement for capitalism and an alternative to state socialism, which uses federations of collectivised trade unions or industrial unions...
trial.
Early life
Anita Whitney was born in San FranciscoSan Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
on July 7, 1867, the daughter of a preeminent family whose members included the American Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
Justice Stephen Johnson Field
Stephen Johnson Field
Stephen Johnson Field was an American jurist. He was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court of the United States Supreme Court from May 20, 1863, to December 1, 1897...
and the multi-millionaire speculator and magnate Cyrus W. Field. Her father was a lawyer.
Whitney attended both private and public school growing up in Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, across the Bay from San Francisco. When her education in Oakland was complete, she attended a normal school
Normal school
A normal school is a school created to train high school graduates to be teachers. Its purpose is to establish teaching standards or norms, hence its name...
in San Jose, California
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
before leaving for the East Coast to attend Wellesley College, from which she graduated in 1889.
Following graduation, Whitney worked for a time as teacher.
In 1893, Whitney visited a slum in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Profoundly affected, she soon developed an interest in social work. In 1901, she took over as the new Executive Secretary of the United Charities of Oakland, California. She continued in this capacity until 1908.
The same impulse that drove her to seek betterment in the lives of the poor and downtrodden apparently also led her to campaign actively for women's suffrage
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
: two decades before women across the nation were entitled to vote
Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits any United States citizen to be denied the right to vote based on sex. It was ratified on August 18, 1920....
, Whitney took part in a series of early voting rights campaigns ranging from California to Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
. By 1911, Whitney's interest in the women's rights movement led her to become the California organizer of the National College Equal Suffrage League, a position which she retained until 1913. She would later serve as Vice President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association
National American Woman Suffrage Association
The National American Woman Suffrage Association was an American women's rights organization formed in May 1890 as a unification of the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association...
.
1920 Criminal Syndicalism trial
When World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
broke out in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Whitney, who was a pacifist, became a member of the anti-war Socialist Party of America
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...
, joining the party meetings of the Oakland
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
branch. When the more radical members of the Socialist Party bolted the 1919 Emergency National Convention
1919 Emergency National Convention
The 1919 Emergency National Convention of the Socialist Party of America was held in Chicago from August 30 to September 5, 1919. It was a seminal gathering in the history of American radicalism, marked by the bolting of the party's organized left wing to establish the Communist Labor Party of...
of the Socialist Party in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and elected to create an American Communist party, Whitney, who did not think the Socialist Party sufficiently progressive
Progressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
, threw herself into the Communists' cause, drumming up support for the new Communist Labor Party throughout California.
Following a speech to a group of Oakland leftists on behalf of the CLP, Whitney was arrested on November 28, 1919, and charged with "criminal syndicalism." A pre-trial hearing was held in the case on January 6, 1920 — less than a week after the U.S. Department of Justice's mass crackdown on alien radicals known as the "Palmer Raids
Palmer Raids
The Palmer Raids were attempts by the United States Department of Justice to arrest and deport radical leftists, especially anarchists, from the United States. The raids and arrests occurred in November 1919 and January 1920 under the leadership of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer...
" — and the case went to trial in Oakland on January 27.
Whitney was charged with five counts of having violated the state's Criminal Syndicalism law through her membership in the Communist Labor Party. Since Whitney freely admitted her status as a charter member of the CLP, the burden of the prosecution was in attempting to demonstrate the association of the organization with the syndicalist Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
and the Communist International, based in Moscow, organizations held to be illegal under California law. Once having established the criminal nature of the CLP, prosecutors argued that they would thereby establish the guilt of the defendant.
Whitney's defense attorney, Thomas H. O'Connor, was unable to obtain a continuance
Continuance
In American procedural law, a continuance is the postponement of a hearing, trial, or other scheduled court proceeding at the request of either or both parties in the dispute, or by the judge sua sponte. In response to delays in bringing cases to trial, some states have adopted "fast-track" rules...
in the case on the grounds that his daughter had fallen ill with influenza
Influenza
Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae , that affects birds and mammals...
in the ongoing flu epidemic. O'Connor was himself stricken on the second day of the trial and was unable to continue the trial after the third, dying of the illness a little over a week later, as did a woman on the original jury. Citing reasons of expense, Judge James G. Quinn swore in an alternate juror and demanded that Whitney's assistant counsel, J.E. Pemberton, proceed with the case.
A parade of 20 prosecution witnesses were presented on the stand, reading into the record hundreds of pages of IWW songs and literature, Comintern manifestos, and giving testimony about red flags in evidence at CLP headquarters. The defense called but a single witness, Whitney herself, as well as recalling one individual forced to the stand by the prosecution, San Francisco communist leader Max Bedacht
Max Bedacht
Max Bedacht Sr. was a German-born American revolutionary socialist political activist, journalist, and functionary who helped establish the Communist Party of America. Bedacht is best remembered as the long-time head of the International Workers Order, a Communist Party-sponsored fraternal benefit...
. The defense attempted to show through their testimony that the Communist Labor Party was opposed to the use of terrorism, violence, or force to institute changes to the American system of government.
Closing arguments were made on February 20, 1920, with the defense making the argument that the prosecution had failed to prove Whitney guilty of having committed a single illegal act. The prosecution, on the other hand, argued at length that the Communist Labor Party was nothing more than "a political adjunct of the IWW" and called upon the jury "to uphold the sacred tenets of Americanism
Americanism
Americanism may refer to:* Americanization* A word or phrase considered typical of American English, English as spoken in the United States* An attitude or conviction which gives special importance to the nation, national interest, political system, or culture of the United States* Americanism ,...
and place with their verdict the seal of disapproval on the activities of the Communist Labor Party and its blood brother, the IWW."
The jury deliberated six hours before finding Whitney guilty of the first count, having organized and joined an organization formed for the purpose of advocating criminal syndicalism, while disagreeing on the other four counts. A motion for bail was denied. On February 24, 1920, the other four counts, upon which the jury had deadlocked, were dismissed. Whitney was given an indeterminate sentence of from 1 to 14 years in prison at San Quentin penitentiary.
The appeals process was begun. After 11 days imprisonment, Whitney was permitted to post $10,000 bail pending appeal, but only after three physicians gave testimony that continued incarceration would present a danger to her health. The first appeal was filed on February 28 in the District Court of Appeal in the First Appellate District, San Francisco, citing 16 grounds for appeal and points of error. No verdict was rendered on the case for over two full years, when the decision of the trial court was affirmed.
On June 5, 1922, a petition for a rehearing of the evidence in the case was made before the California Supreme Court. The petition was denied, with two justices dissenting.
Appeal was finally made to the U.S. Supreme Court on July 13, 1922. It would be more than three years before the case was actually heard, with Walter Nelles
Walter Nelles
Nelles, Walter . A graduate of Harvard Law School, professor of law at Yale University, founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union during World War I....
of New York City making the argument for the plaintiff in error on October 18, 1925. On October 19 this appeal was summarily dismissed on technical grounds.
An effort was then made to obtain a pardon
Pardon
Clemency means the forgiveness of a crime or the cancellation of the penalty associated with it. It is a general concept that encompasses several related procedures: pardoning, commutation, remission and reprieves...
from California Governor
Governor of California
The Governor of California is the chief executive of the California state government, whose responsibilities include making annual State of the State addresses to the California State Legislature, submitting the budget, and ensuring that state laws are enforced...
Friend Richardson
Friend Richardson
Friend William Richardson , was an American newspaper publisher and politician. A member of the Progressive Party and later the Republican Party, Richardson was elected as the California State Treasurer from 1915 to 1923, and shortly afterwards as the 25th governor of California from 1923 to 1927...
and an "Anita Whitney Committee" was established to push Governor Richardson in this direction. This effort was met with the refusal of the Governor to offer executive clemency to the convicted communist activist.
The appeals process was still not at an end, however. In December 1925, Whitney's legal team succeeded in overcoming the jurisdictional technicalities which sabotaged its previous effort and won a petition for a rehearing before the Supreme Court. The case was argued again on March 15, 1926.
Some 14 months later, on May 16, 1927, Whitney's conviction was unanimously upheld by the Supreme Court in Whitney v. California
Whitney v. California
Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 , was a United States Supreme Court decision upholding the conviction of an individual who had engaged in speech that raised a threat to society.-Facts:...
, 274 U.S. 357 (1927). The ruling featured a landmark concurring opinion by Justice Louis Brandeis
Louis Brandeis
Louis Dembitz Brandeis ; November 13, 1856 – October 5, 1941) was an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to 1939.He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Jewish immigrant parents who raised him in a secular mode...
that only a "clear and present danger" would be sufficient for the legislative restriction of the right of free speech. This opinion would be employed again in cases revoking the restrictions against the Communists after a subsequent wave of imprisonments during the 1950s.
Post-trial activity
Still dogged by criminal charges from her 1919 arrest, Whitney ran for California State Controller in 1924waging a relentless political campaign that garnered over 100,000 votes.In 1935, she was again convicted by the California court systemthis time related to election fraud, since eight circulators had made false attestations during a pre-election petition campaign, although the state watchdogs saw fit to add additional charges of "lecturing without a permit" and "distributing radical literature." Her stature among radicals only enhanced by the conviction, Whitney was named the national chairwoman of the Communist Party in 1936.
California's Communists nominated Whitney for the U.S. Senate twice.
Anita Whitney's popularity among the country's radical leftists never completely disappeared. Although trailed by a protracted record of political harassment and accusations by the California Tenney Committee, compounded by the anti-communism
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
promoted locally by actor and future governor Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and across the nation by Wisconsin Senator McCarthy, her 1950 campaign for Senator won close to 99,000 votes.
Death and legacy
Anita Whitney died on February 4, 1955, aged 87, in San Francisco, California.Further reading
- James H. Dolsen, The Defense of a Revolutionist by Himself: Story of the Trial of James H. Dolsen, Who Defended Himself on the Charge of Criminal Syndicalism, Superior Court, Oakland, California, March 23-April 23, 1920. Oakland, CA: James H. Dolsen, 1920.
External links
- "Woman Tests Free Speech"A 1922 New York Times article.
- "The Case of Miss Whitney" Time Magazine, November 2, 1925.