Memorializing Sacco and Vanzetti in Boston

While going through transcripts of addresses given at memorial events, I found this quote from 1928 that struck me as unusually relevant. ‘Men and women … are still anxious to do something to right the wrong, to do honor to the memory of Sacco and Vanzetti.’li These words were spoken by liberal scholar Robert Morss Lovett, Esq. on the one-year anniversary of Sacco and Vanzetti’s execution to a crowd of 2,000 people in Boston. As has been shown by the ongoing interest in the immigrant workers’ case in Boston, through attendance at the Society’s memorial events and the people that packed the Dante to hear Zinn’s lecture, we are still anxious to right the wrongs committed by the state against Sacco and Vanzetti. As of this writing, though, friends of Sacco and Vanzetti seem to have triumphed against the two immigrants’ foes. Nearly all of scholarship upholds the unjust nature of the trial, if not the innocence of the pair. The executive branch of the state government has declared the trial unjust. The judicial branch of the state government has set up an exhibit on its own shortcomings in the matter. The municipal government has publicly approved the work of a group that seeks ‘to preserve the memory of Sacco and Vanzetti’s struggle to radically change society’ and ‘draw connections between the struggles of Sacco and Vanzetti and similar struggles today. ‘lii If all goes as planned, the installation of Borglum’s bas-relief will become a reality within a year. What more could a local devotee of the martyred anarchists want?

I found the answer to this question every time I mentioned the names Sacco and Vanzetti and received blank looks. These empty stares met me at least twice as often as affirmations of knowledge on the case that had torn apart our town and shaken the world in the 1920s. Only scholars, radicals, and a diminishing category of people of a certain age know the story that should be part of our collective consciousness. The seven-year suffering and ultimate electrocution of two immigrant dissidents has been omitted from the official historical narrative transmitted to every subsequent generation. By erasing Sacco and Vanzetti and the socio-political theater in which their lives were ended, the lessons of their case have been obscured. Eighty years later, we are seeing alarming repeats of the conditions that made martyrs of Sacco and Vanzetti. I mentioned the example of eight anarchists in the Twin Cities facing terrorism charges for organizing supportive infrastructure for out-of-town protestors, but here in Boston, two anarchists were arrested in June on charges of disturbing the peace and damaging public property for their use of Crayola brand sidewalk chalk.liii Our local politicians may have taken a stand against the scapegoating of immigrants, but raids are still conducted in Massachusetts. Every night in this country at least 26,000 people sleep in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities while hundreds of thousands are deported each year,liv all for the crime of being born in a different part of the world. As anyone who has been in general population in any jail or prison in this country can tell you, justice for the poor remains elusive while white-collar criminals enjoy the comforts of their homes in ankle bracelets, when they are apprehended at all.

Installing Borglum’s 7’ x 3.5’ plaque in an oft-frequented location in Boston is a step in the right direction toward doing justice to the memory of the two slain idealists, but the legacy of Sacco and Vanzetti requires more than public artwork. The case should be part of the history curricula in public schools and connections need to be made to the repressive social and economic factors that have not gone away after 80 years. Study of the Sacco and Vanzetti case demands an examination of the present governing systems; perhaps this is why the legacy of the case continues to be obscured by authorities, known only to those who seek it out. As labor organizer and writer Lucy Parsons wrote in 1905, ‘Anarchists know that a long period of education must precede any great fundamental change in society.’lv

In all my months of researching the commemoration of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti and the Borglum bas-relief created in their memory; in all the countless times I weaved my way up to, in and out of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department at Boston Public Library and past the plaster work on the wall; despite being entirely visually familiar with the piece; despite blowing a kiss to my slain comrades every time I passed their image, I never really stopped to ponder the words sculpted onto the piece. I would persistently tune out most information pertaining to the case itself or to anything the two did or said while they were alive, as these were irrelevant to my research. One evening, however, up to my neck in sources, I realized that I was not entirely sure what the plaque said, despite quite possibly knowing more about it now than anyone else alive. And so I pulled out one of the pictures of the work and very carefully read Bartolo Vanzetti’s words, written on the last day of his life. And then I began to cry because I realize how little has changed in 80 years.

What I wish more than all in this last hour of agony is that our case and our fate may be understood in their real being and serve as a tremendous lesson to the forces of freedom so that our suffering and death will not have been in vain.

Acknowledgements:

My research was made possible only with outside guidance, advice and assistance. I would like to thank Kimberly Reynolds, archivist at Boston Public Library, for not only making organized sense of the behemoth that is the Aldino Felicani Collection, but for being so helpful, patient and pleasant while making its contents available. Researcher and writer Stephanie Schorow was very generous in meeting with me and sharing the sources she had found on the subject a decade earlier and giving renewed meaning to my project. Special Collections Librarian Sarah Shoemaker at Brandeis helped me to accomplish all of my goals for the single day I was able to spend in Waltham. My thanks go to Robin Borglum Carter for the work she has put into the Borglum Archives and for making herself accessible to field inquiries about them. Keeper of the Anarchist Archives, as well as fellow Society member, Jerry Kaplan has always been very gracious in sharing knowledge, information and sources. And, of course, Professor James Green’s input and guidance has been invaluable from the start of this project.

Newspaper and magazine articles:

“Ashes,” Time Magazine, October 5, 1927. Retrieved 14 October 2008, available from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,769393,00.html.

“Ask Sacco-Vanzetti Memorial,” Boston Sunday Herald, August 24, 1947.

Associated Press Photo, August 22 1937.

Grillo, Thomas, “Sculpture to remind of Sacco, Vanzetti,” The Boston Globe, August 20, 1997.

Hurley, Mary, “Memorial site eyed for Sacco, Vanzetti,” The Boston Globe, January 17, 1999.

Kahn, Ric, “Out of Line,” Boston Globe, November 16, 2008. Retrieved 18 December, 2008, available from http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/11/16/out_of_line/?page=2

Lavoie, Denise. “Sacco, Vanzetti case exhibited in Boston,” USA Today, September 23, 2007. Retrieved 14 October 2008, available from http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-09-23-1822387430_x.htm.

“Massachusetts Refuses a Plaque in Memory of Sacco and Vanzetti,” Life Magazine, September 6, 1937.

Miller, Leslie, “Boston accepts Sacco and Vanzetti memorial,” South Coast Today, 24 August 1997.

“MOURN SACCO AND VANZETTI; Two Thousand Attend Orderly Memorial Meeting in Boston,” New York Times, August 24, 1928.

“Offer of Sacco-Vanzetti Memorial is Scouted by Governor and Mayor,” The Boston Herald, August 23, 1937.

“Sacco Aftermath,” Time Magazine, September, 5, 1927.

“Sacco and Vanzetti Memorial Offer Left Open Despite Bradford Rejection,” The Christian Science Monitor, October 4, 1947.

Schorow, Stephanie, “Sacco and Vanzetti: Who will keep them alive?” The Improper Bostonian, June 14-27, 2000.

Books:

Avrich, Paul, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995.

Avrich, Paul, Sacco and Vanzetti: the Anarchist Background. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1991.

Boston Public Library, and Paul Avrich Collection (Library of Congress). Sacco-Vanzetti, Developments and Reconsiderations, 1979: Conference Proceedings. Boston: Trustees of the Public Library of the City of Boston, 1982.

Loewen, James W. Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong. New York: New Press, 1999.

Parsons, Lucy E. and Gale Ahrens, Freedom, Equality & Solidarity: Writings & Speeches, 1878-1937. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr, 2004.

Russell, Francis. Sacco & Vanzetti: The Case Resolved. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.

Shaff, Howard and Audrey Karl Shaff, Six Wars at a Time: The Life and Times of Gutzon Borglum, Sculptor of Mount Rushmore. Sioux Falls, S.D.: Center for Western Studies, Augustana College, 1985.

Watson, Bruce, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Men, the Murders, and the Judgment of Mankind. New York: Viking, 2007.

From the archives:

Baldwin, Roger N. of the American Civil Liberties Union, “Statement,” August 23, 1937. Felicani, (Aldino) Sacco and Vanzetti Collection. Rare Books and Manuscripts, Boston Public Library, Boston.

Borglum, Mary to Prof. G. Louis Joughin, June 4, 1944. The Borglum Archives, Corpus Christi, TX.

Circular letter from the Sacco-Vanzetti Memorial Committee, August 13, 1929. Felicani, (Aldino) Sacco and Vanzetti Collection. Rare Books and Manuscripts, Boston Public Library, Boston.

Citizens National Committee for Sacco and Vanzetti, August 23, 1927. Statement. Francis Russell Collection, Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections Department, Brandeis University Libraries.

Felicani, Aldino, Gardner Jackson et al. to Governor Hurley. August 22, 1937. Felicani, (Aldino) Sacco and Vanzetti Collection. Rare Books and Manuscripts, Boston Public Library, Boston.

Felicani, Aldino to Gardner Jackson, July 1, 1960. Gardner Jackson Collection, Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections Department, Brandeis University Libraries.

Huntley, Margaret S. to Gardner Jackson, December 18, 1929. Francis Russell Collection, Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections Department, Brandeis University Libraries.

Jackson, Gardner Esq. address at Town Hall in New York City, August 23, 1929. Felicani, (Aldino) Sacco and Vanzetti Collection. Rare Books and Manuscripts, Boston Public Library, Boston.

Jackson, Gardner to Mary Borglum, September 9, 1947. The Borglum Archives, Corpus Christi, TX.

Jackson, Gardner, to Mary Borglum, July 5, 1952. The Borglum Archives, Corpus Christi, TX.

Kelley, Frank R., Commissioner, Parks & Recreation Department to Aldino Felicani, September 11, 1957. Felicani, (Aldino) Sacco and Vanzetti Collection. Rare Books and Manuscripts, Boston Public Library, Boston.

Lovett, Robert Morss Esq. address at Town Hall in New York City, August 23, 1929. Felicani, (Aldino) Sacco and Vanzetti Collection. Rare Books and Manuscripts, Boston Public Library, Boston.

Minutes of the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee, August 31 1927. Felicani, (Aldino) Sacco and Vanzetti Collection. Rare Books and Manuscripts, Boston Public Library, Boston.

The Official Bulletin of the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee, September 1927. Felicani, (Aldino) Sacco and Vanzetti Collection. Rare Books and Manuscripts, Boston Public Library, Boston.

Sacco-Vanzetti National League, 7 November 1927. Meeting minutes. Francis Russell Collection, Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections Department, Brandeis University Libraries.

Sacco-Vanzetti National League, October 3, 1928. Executive Committee Meeting Minutes. Francis Russell Collection, Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections Department, Brandeis University Libraries.

Sacco-Vanzetti National League, April 4, 1930. Executive Committee Meeting Minutes. Francis Russell Collection, Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections Department, Brandeis University Libraries.

Internet sources:

Adams, Carol and Rev. David Carol Olson, “The Sacco-Vanzetti Memorial Sculpture,” Community Church of Boston website. Retrieved November 21, 2008, available from http://www.commchurch.org/saccovanzetti.htm

Bold, Christine, "'Staring the world in the face': Sacco and Vanzetti in the WPA Guide to Massachusetts," The Massachusetts Historical Review NA 2003. Retrieved November 21, 2008, available from http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/mhr/5/bold.html

Carter, Robin, “MYSTERY,” email message to researcher Stephanie Schorow, January 28, 2000. Hard copy in the author’s possession.

“City of Boston passes resolution in commemoration of Sacco & Vanzetti.” Retrieved November 21, 2008, available from http://saccoandvanzetti.org/sn_display1.php?row_ID=37

Community Church of Boston website, “About Us.” Retrieved November 21, 2008, available from http://communitychurchofboston.org/home/?page_id=2

Fact sheets, “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement FY07 Accomplishments,” retrieved November 21, 2008, available from http://www.ice.gov/doclib/pi/news/factsheets/fy07accmplshmntsweb.pdf

Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society Mission, retrieved November 21, 2008, available from http://www.saccoandvanzetti.org/sn_display1.php?row_ID=8

Zinn, Howard lecture, ‘The Meaning of Sacco and Vanzetti,’ November 7, 2008. Retrieved November 21, 2008, video available from http://saccoandvanzetti.org/zinn_11-7-08.wmv

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[i] Howard Zinn lecture, ‘The Meaning of Sacco and Vanzetti,’ November 7, 2008. Retrieved November 21, 2008, video available from http://saccoandvanzetti.org/zinn_11-7-08.wmv

[ii] Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti: the Anarchist Background (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1991), 3.

[iii] Bruce Watson, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Men, the Murders, and the Judgment of Mankind (New York: Viking, 2007), 249.

[iv] Thomas Grillo, “Sculpture to remind of Sacco, Vanzetti,” The Boston Globe, August 20, 1997.

[v] Bruce Watson, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Men, the Murders, and the Judgment of Mankind (New York: Viking, 2007), 56.

[vi] Francis Russell, Sacco & Vanzetti: The Case Resolved (New York: Harper & Row, 1986).

[vii] Oreste Fabrizi in Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995), 140.

[viii] Bruce Watson, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Men, the Murders, and the Judgment of Mankind (New York: Viking, 2007), 266.

[ix] For information and news on their plight, see http://rnc8.org/

[x] Minutes of the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee, August 31 1927. Felicani,

(Aldino) Sacco and Vanzetti Collection. Rare Books and Manuscripts, Boston Public Library, Boston.

[xi] The Official Bulletin of the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee, September 1927, page 5. Felicani, (Aldino) Sacco and Vanzetti Collection. Rare Books and Manuscripts, Boston Public Library, Boston.

[xii] Citizens National Committee for Sacco and Vanzetti, August 23, 1927. Statement. Francis Russell Collection, Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections Department, Brandeis University Libraries.

[xiii] Sacco-Vanzetti National League, 7 November 1927. Meeting minutes. Francis Russell Collection, Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections Department, Brandeis University Libraries.

[xiv] Howard Shaff and Audrey Karl Shaff, Six Wars at a Time: The Life and Times of Gutzon Borglum, Sculptor of Mount Rushmore (Sioux Falls, S.D.: Center for Western Studies, Augustana College, 1985), 5-6.

[xv] Mary Borglum to Prof. G. Louis Joughin, June 4, 1944. The Borglum Archives, Corpus Christi, TX.

[xvi] Howard Shaff and Audrey Karl Shaff, Six Wars at a Time: The Life and Times of Gutzon Borglum, Sculptor of Mount Rushmore (Sioux Falls, S.D.: Center for Western Studies, Augustana College, 1985), 252.

[xvii] “MOURN SACCO AND VANZETTI; Two Thousand Attend Orderly Memorial Meeting in Boston,” New York Times, August 24, 1928.

[xviii] Sacco-Vanzetti National League, October 3, 1928. Executive Committee Meeting Minutes. Francis Russell Collection, Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections Department, Brandeis University Libraries.

[xix] Huntley, Margaret S. to Gardner Jackson, December 18, 1929. Francis Russell Collection, Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections Department, Brandeis University Libraries.

[xx] Sacco-Vanzetti National League, April 4, 1930. Executive Committee Meeting Minutes. Francis Russell Collection, Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections Department, Brandeis University Libraries.

[xxi] “Ask Sacco-Vanzetti Memorial,” Boston Sunday Herald, August 24, 1947.

[xxii] Howard Shaff and Audrey Karl Shaff, Six Wars at a Time: The Life and Times of Gutzon Borglum, Sculptor of Mount Rushmore (Sioux Falls, S.D.: Center for Western Studies, Augustana College, 1985), 252.

[xxiii] Circular letter from the Sacco-Vanzetti Memorial Committee, August 13, 1929.

Felicani, (Aldino) Sacco and Vanzetti Collection. Rare Books and Manuscripts, Boston Public Library, Boston.

[xxiv] Gardner Jackson, Esq. address at Town Hall in New York City, August 23, 1929. Felicani, (Aldino) Sacco and Vanzetti Collection. Rare Books and Manuscripts, Boston Public Library, Boston.

[xxv] “Ask Sacco-Vanzetti Memorial,” Boston Sunday Herald, August 24, 1947.

[xxvi] Mary Borglum to Prof. G. Louis Joughin, June 4, 1944. The Borglum Archives, Corpus Christi, TX.

[xxvii] Aldino Felicani, Gardner Jackson et al. to Governor Hurley. August 22, 1937. Felicani, (Aldino) Sacco and Vanzetti Collection. Rare Books and Manuscripts, Boston Public Library, Boston.

[xxviii] Ibid.

[xxix] “Offer of Sacco-Vanzetti Memorial is Scouted by Governor and Mayor,” The Boston Herald, August 23, 1937.

[xxx] Christine Bold, "'Staring the world in the face': Sacco and Vanzetti in the WPA Guide to Massachusetts," The Massachusetts Historical Review NA 2003. Retrieved November 21, 2008, available from http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/mhr/5/bold.html

[xxxi] Roger N. Baldwin of the American Civil Liberties Union, “Statement,” August 23, 1937. Felicani, (Aldino) Sacco and Vanzetti Collection. Rare Books and Manuscripts, Boston Public Library, Boston.

[xxxii] “Ask Sacco-Vanzetti Memorial,” Boston Sunday Herald, August 24, 1947.

[xxxiii] Ibid.

[xxxiv] Gardner Jackson to Mary Borglum, September 9, 1947. The Borglum Archives, Corpus Christi, TX.

[xxxv] “Sacco and Vanzetti Memorial Offer Left Open Despite Bradford Rejection,” The Christian Science Monitor, October 4, 1947.

[xxxvi] Carter, Robin, “MYSTERY,” email message to researcher Stephanie Schorow, January 28, 2000.

[xxxvii] Ibid.

[xxxviii] Commissioner Frank R. Kelley, Parks & Recreation Department to Aldino Felicani, September 11, 1957. Felicani, (Aldino) Sacco and Vanzetti Collection. Rare Books and Manuscripts, Boston Public Library, Boston.

[xxxix] Aldino Felicani to Gardner Jackson, July 1, 1960. Gardner Jackson Collection, Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections Department, Brandeis University Libraries.

[xl] Carol Adams and Rev. David Carol Olson, “The Sacco-Vanzetti Memorial Sculpture,” Community Church of Boston website. Retrieved November 21, 2008, available from http://www.commchurch.org/saccovanzetti.htm and Leslie Miller, “Boston accepts Sacco and Vanzetti memorial,” South Coast Today, 24 August 1997. Retrieved 21 November 2008, available from http://archive.southcoasttoday.com/daily/08-97/08-24-97/a03sr012.htm

[xli] Community Church of Boston website, “About Us.” Retrieved November 21, 2008, available from http://communitychurchofboston.org/home/?page_id=2

[xlii] Carol Adams and Rev. David Carol Olson, “The Sacco-Vanzetti Memorial Sculpture,” Community Church of Boston website. Retrieved November 21, 2008, available from http://www.commchurch.org/saccovanzetti.htm

[xliii] Bruce Watson, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Men, the Murders, and the Judgment of Mankind (New York: Viking, 2007), 365.

[xliv] Boston Public Library, and Paul Avrich Collection (Library of Congress). Sacco-Vanzetti, Developments and Reconsiderations, 1979: Conference Proceedings (Boston: Trustees of the Public Library of the City of Boston, 1982), 33.

[xlv] Bruce Watson, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Men, the Murders, and the Judgment of Mankind (New York: Viking, 2007), 365.

[xlvi] Carol Adams and Rev. David Carol Olson, “The Sacco-Vanzetti Memorial Sculpture,” Community Church of Boston website. Retrieved November 21, 2008, available from http://www.commchurch.org/saccovanzetti.htm

[xlvii] City Council President James Kelly opposed the use of Browne funds saying, ‘The message [the sculpture] sends out is our judicial system just doesn’t work. I don’t think elected officials should be sending that kind of message.’ Schorow, Stephanie, The Boston Herald, August 20, 1997.

[xlviii] Thomas Grillo, “Sculpture to remind of Sacco, Vanzetti,” The Boston Globe, August 20, 1997.

[xlix] Mary Hurley, “Memorial site eyed for Sacco, Vanzetti,” The Boston Globe, January 17, 1999.

[l] “City of Boston passes resolution in commemoration of Sacco & Vanzetti.” Retrieved November 21, 2008, available from http://saccoandvanzetti.org/sn_display1.php?row_ID=37

[li] Robert Morss Lovett, Esq. address at the Scenic Auditorium in Boston, August 23, 1928. Felicani, (Aldino) Sacco and Vanzetti Collection. Rare Books and Manuscripts, Boston Public Library, Boston.

[lii] Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society Mission, retrieved November 21, 2008, available from http://www.saccoandvanzetti.org/sn_display1.php?row_ID=8

[liii] Ric Kahn, “Out of Line,” Boston Globe, November 16, 2008. Retrieved 18 December 2008, available from http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/11/16/out_of_line/?page=2

[liv] Fact sheets, “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement FY07 Accomplishments,” retrieved November 21, 2008, available from http://www.ice.gov/doclib/pi/news/factsheets/fy07accmplshmntsweb.pdf

[lv] Lucy E. Parsons and Gale Ahrens, Freedom, Equality & Solidarity: Writings & Speeches, 1878-1937, (Chicago: Charles H. Kerr, 2004), 31.