Emma Goldman Wants to Return to US - Milwaukee Sentinel
The Milwaukee Sentinel published a story detailing Emma Goldman's attempt to return to the U.S. following her 1919 deportation to Russia.
Less than 300 people attended former anarchist Emma Goldman’s lecture at the Pabst, an event to sell copies of her new autobiography. During the great Red Scare of 1919, the government had reached the end of its tolerance for Goldman’s ferocious rhetoric and deported her to Russia. She attempted to live in France or England but was rejected. She lobbied to return to United States but was turned away. Fifteen years later, Goldman, 64, was no longer feared by the American government, and she was allowed to be in this country for 90 days to accommodate her book tour. Even though Mayor Daniel Hoan was assured Goldman would confine her remarks to denouncing European dictatorships, he refused to introduce her at the Pabst.
Emma Goldman - 1917
Emma Goldman in 1917
Two decades earlier, Goldman’s rallies attracted as many as 500 people to venues like Turner Hall or a room above Gerhardt’s rowdy tavern at 27th and Vliet. A Goldman appearance always called for extra patrolmen to maintain order if necessary. Her messages often accused the government of using force, violence and coercion to maintain power. “We are in the midst of revolution,” she said. “Force can only be met with force.”
Goldman visited Milwaukee a dozen times between 1895 and 1920 and used her talents as a writer and charismatic speaker to advocate for worker’s rights, freedom for women and free love. Posters announcing her lectures were torn down, but word-of-mouth drew audiences anyway. Regularly arrested, harassed and barred from speaking, Goldman reminded listeners that her First Amendment rights vanished whenever she challenged the government.
Destroy the System
“The rich want to keep the working man a slave,” Goldman said. “It’s time for workers to destroy the system which makes their oppression possible.” When she was hung in effigy at 19th and Wells, the crowd was orderly, and no arrests were made. “Anyone who preaches anarchy and bloodshed must be watched very carefully,” stated an article in one of the newspapers.
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In 1901 she met disgruntled laborer Leon Czolgosz at a rally in Ohio. Clearly infatuated with Goldman, Czolgosz visited her at a newspaper publisher’s home and tried to see her several more times. Not long afterward, Czolgosz shot and killed President William McKinley in New York. Goldman was arrested and charged as an accessory to the murder of the president.
“I expected friends to work on my behalf. I forgot that most of them are caught in the nationwide police dragnet,” she said. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll take charge of the case myself.” Goldman was released from prison after two weeks as there was no evidence linking her to the assassination. Even so, she was now a more controversial figure than ever.
Goldman stepped up her rhetoric and addressed crowds at the Labor Union Hall on N. Sixth Street and Freie Gemeinde hall on 12th and North. No references were made regarding the plot to kill McKinley.
In December 1902, a local group of revolutionaries planned to host Goldman at the South Side Turner Hall. Manager Rudolph Zimmermann refused to allow her on the premises and a hasty arrangement was made for Goldman at Turner Hall Downtown.
“What does anarchist Emma Goldman see in Milwaukee that so often brings her back?” queried the Milwaukee Sentinel in 1914. Speaking in Hebrew to a crowded auditorium at North Side Turner Hall at Eight and Walnut, she fumed that the rights of private property were not respected, and the government could seize the land at any time.
Riot in Bayview
Emma Goldman - Pabst Theatre Ad
The Pabst advertises the appearance of Emma Goldman in 1934 during her book tour.
In 1917 angry Italian immigrants met above a saloon on S. Wentworth Avenue in Bayview. When speakers encouraged the use of violence to achieve societal changes, the room erupted in a riot that spilled out onto the street. A hail of gunfire left a pair of detectives wounded and two Sicilian men dead from police bullets. Eleven additional rioters were jailed as the combatants dispersed.
The Italians retaliated by planting a bomb near St. Ann’s church in the Third Ward. A church worker took the 20-pound package to the police station on E. Wells Street. The officers immediately recognized the device as a bomb but kept it inside the building and moved it about for an hour. They were deciding how to dispose of the package when it exploded. Nine policeman and a civilian were killed instantly. The bomber was never caught but explosive experts said the box had been packed with dynamite, a small vial of sulfuric acid, and three mercury blasting caps. When the box was opened, the tension from a coiled spring caused the acid to ignite the blasting caps and detonating the dynamite.
At the trial of the Bay View rioters, their attorney stated that they were not advocating violence but instead urging followers to prepare for an inevitable revolution. Although the defendants were in police custody at the time the bomb went off, they were found guilty and sentenced to 25 years in prison. A bomb was placed at the home of prosecuting attorney Winfred Zabel, but it failed to detonate.
After the trial, Emma Goldman wrote “The Milwaukee Frame-Up,” a lengthy article that suggested police were secretly targeting anarchists. She asked readers for donations to pay the convicted anarchists’ legal fees.
Emma Goldman died in Chicago six years after her appearance at the Pabst. Thirteen mourners held a memorial service at a room on W. Wells Street. Nodding at all the empty wooden chairs in the dusty hall, a man who knew her in the past said Goldman’s “life was too lonely, and frequently devoid of friends.”
