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On May 5, 1920, two Italian immigrant workers with ties to the anarchist movement, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, were arrested and charged with the robbery and murder of a paymaster and his guard in South Braintree, Massachusetts. Coming at the height of the "Red Scare" following World War I, their trial and subsequent conviction proved a vivid example of the virulent anti-communist and anti-labor hysteria whipped up by the United States government during this time.
Following their conviction, a massive international defense campaign was mounted on their behalf. With a few notable exceptions, labor organizations throughout the world came to their support. Hundreds of thousands of workers, from Chicago to Johannesburg and from Copenhagen to Tokyo, joined in mass demonstrations, strikes, and meetings to protest their conviction and death sentence. However, on August 23, 1927 Sacco and Vanzetti were executed by the state of Massachusetts.
We have also provided a selected Bibliography of materials from the Holt Labor Library collection, useful Web Sites, and a list of Archives holding primary materials, to assist you in your research.
Cannon, James P. Notebook of an Agitator. New York: Pioneer Publishers, 1958. The first 31 pages reprints articles Cannon, National Secretary of the International Labor Defense, wrote for the "Labor Defender" and the "Daily Worker" in defense of Sacco and Vanzetti.
Ehrmann, Herbert B. The Case That Will Not Die: Commonwealth vs. Sacco and Vanzetti. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1969. Written by the last surviving major lawyer involved in the case.
Fast, Howard. The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti: A New England Legend. New York: The Blue Heron Press, Inc., 1954. A novel that "...tells the story of the last hours of Sacco and Vanzetti - of how a terrible sentence was passed upon them and carried out, and of what this sentence meant to millions of people the world over." -from book jacket.
Feuerlicht, Roberta Strauss. Justice Crucified: The Story of Sacco and Vanzetti. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1977. The author's research included interviewing Vanzetti's sister in Italy and obtaining 100 letters from Vanzetti to his family that had never been published in English.
Labor Defender. Special edition on Sacco and Vanzetti, vol. 1, No. 7, July 1926. Includes "Sacco and Vanzetti: An Appeal to American Labor," by Eugene V. Debs and letters from Sacco and Vanzetti to supporters.
Russell, Francis. Sacco & Vanzetti: The Case Resolved. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1986. Based on new interviews and availability of the FBI files, the author followed-up his 1962 book, Tragedy in Dedham.
Shachtman, Max. Sacco and Vanzetti: Labor's Martyrs. New York: International Labor Defense, 1927. The International Labor Defense was actively involved in the international campaign to save the lives of Sacco and Vanzetti.
Sinclair, Upton. Boston: A Novel. New York: Albert & Charles Boni, 1928. Novel exposes the social and political bias of the Sacco and Vanzetti case.
Vanzetti, Bartolomeo. The Story of a Proletarian Life. The Anarchist Syndicalist Alliance, [n.d.]. Previously published by the Sacco-Vanzetti Defence Committee, Boston, 1924. Vanzetti's autobiography translated by Eugene Lyons.
- song lyrics by Joan Baez.
- by Woody Guthrie from Smithsonian Folkways. Play Real Audio selections.
- download film footage, also includes interviews and letters.
- click on Sacco-Vanzetti for collection of digitized articles, cartoons, and documents.
- from the Anarchists Library.
- FBI documents regarding the case (PDF format - Acrobat Reader required).
- by Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman. [Published in The Road to Freedom (New York), Vol. 5, Aug. 1929].
- additional links, FAQs, and bibliography from infoshop.org "your online anarchist community."
- the Feb. 1928 Atlantic Monthly article - use the search feature on the top menu bar to search for more articles.
- official records created by Massachusetts state
government.
220 Morrissey Blvd.
Boston, MA 02125
Phone
Fax
- International Labor
Defense records, .
515 Malcolm X Boulevard
New York, NY
Phone
The Holt Labor Library provides these links for your convenience. While every effort has been made to ensure that the information is accurate, the Holt Labor Library makes no guarantees as to the accuracy or completeness of the information on these sites, and is not liable for any inaccuracy, error, or omission, regardless of cause.