For Freedom of Speech
“The South Side was a hotbed of racial and ethnic tensions in 1977. Rockwell Hall was in the Marquette Park neighborhood, the home of first or second-generation workers from Eastern Europe. Their neighborhood was almost all white, and they intended to keep it that way.”
-Phillipa Strum |
The NSPA"In 1968, Collin had founded in Chicago what would become the National Socialist Party of America. A half-Jewish son of a Dachau survivor, Collin was a mustachioed man standing five-feet-eight inches high and weighing about 165 pounds. As a result, the 24-year-old, who wore jackboots and adorned his brown shirts and belt buckles with swastikas and other Nazi regalia, vaguely resembled a chubby parody of Adolf Hitler."
-Howard Reich
"In the summer of 1976, violence ensued in Marquette Park when 'Collin’s calls to ‘drive back the nigger’ fell on the ears of young white boys, bored with summer and receptive to Collin’s call because of their parents’ fears.' The NSPA and civil rights groups had been holding demonstrations regularly in Marquette Park. As violence associated with these demonstrations escalated, the Chicago Park District began to enforce an insurance requirement. The ACLU determined that the NSPA's First Amendment rights were being violated and filed Collin v. O'Malley on their behalf. With the Chicago parks off-limits, they sent a request to demonstrate in Skokie. " the City of Chicago made an effort to stop the racial fighting and chaos in Marquette Park by making it necessary to post a $250,000 insurance bond in order to get a permit to demonstrate. Of course, for most groups (including the civil rights groups and the National Socialist Party of America), $250,000 was a staggering sum of money that would prove impossible to procure. The City of Chicago’s bond requirement essentially made it impossible for any small, underfunded organization to demonstrate in the park."
-Michael Burney, Stephanie Fajuri, and Adam Savin |
David Hamlin, director of the Illinois ACLU
"ACLU on Skokie 1"- www.youtube.com by hadroid |
An Interview of David Goldberger, one of the attorneys for the ACLU who defended Frank Collin
"Frank Collin (Jewish, Nazi)"- www.youtube.com by tomdagoy |
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