User:JacobWilt/sandbox

James Farmer (January 12, 1920 – July 9, 1999): In 1942 Farmer founded the Congress of Racial Equality or CORE, a pacifist organization dedicated to achieving racial harmony and equality through nonviolent protest and passive resistance, and was chosen to be its first national director in 1953. When Farmer's followers once asked, "When are you going to fight back?" Farmer's response was, "We are fighting back, we're only using new weapons." Farmer's teachings allowed sit-ins and the Freedom Rides to occur, attempts to battle segregation in restaurants and on transportation. These attempts allowed CORE to gain national traction, as people throughout the country were inspired to be volunteers for the organization to advocate for civil rights. Farmer later considered this surge of followers as "his proudest achievement." Farmer was not present for the 1963 March on Washington since he was incarcerated in Louisiana for "disturbing the peace" after attempts to arrange protests. He launched a failed Congressional bid in 1968 and later faced criticism for his decision to be employed by President Richard Nixon, to which Farmer claimed was an opportunity for African-Americans to directly influence federal policies. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998 for his efforts during the Civil Rights Movement, shortly before his death in 1999.

John Lewis (born February 21, 1940): Became a leader in the Civil Rights Movement as president of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and as a participant with other civil rights leaders such as Diane Nash, James Bevel, and Bernard Lafayette in the Nashville Student Movement (1959–1962). John Lewis was one of the original 13 Freedom Riders. While in college, Lewis would participate in sit-ins at segregated restaurants. These sit-ins inspired others throughout the country to initiate sit-ins to protest segregation at lunch counters. Lewis, at 23 years of age, represented SNCC with a speech at the August 28, 1963 March on Washington, the youngest Big Six member to do so. Lewis has represented the 5th District of Georgia in the United States House of Representatives since 1987, a district which includes almost all of Atlanta. He was a recipient of both the John F. Kennedy Library's Profile in Courage Award for Lifetime in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2010.

Whitney Young (July 31, 1921 – March 11, 1971) spent most of his career working to end employment discrimination in the South, and he was inspired to do so after his experience fighting in World War II and personally becoming a victim of this discrimination. In 1961, Young was elected the National Urban League's executive director, a position he held until his untimely death in 1971. As executive director, Young turned the National Urban League from a relatively passive civil rights organization into one that aggressively fought for justice, and he did so by introducing new educational policies and programs that did not estrange the white members of the league.

New York's Criminal Anarchy Law was passed in 1902 following the assassination of President William McKinley by an anarchist in Buffalo, New York, in September 1901. Under the Criminal Anarchy Law, people seen as activists for the destruction of American government through means of revolution could be arrested in an attempt to prevent American Bolsheviks from gaining a national following.

His defense contended that the Manifesto represented historical analysis rather than advocacy. Moreover, he claimed that he should not be arrested for his writing since the manifesto's distribution was not the inciting incident for any actions against the government. The prosecution refuted Gitlow's claim, stating, "Prosecutions have been for the use of words or printed arguments urging actions which if carried out by the reader or hearer would have resulted in the commission of a crime." The prosecution claimed that the Manifesto's intent was to convince American readers to commit crimes, and that in itself should be punishable by law. It took the jury three hours to convict Gitlow on February 11, 1920 and sentenced to 5 to 10 years in prison. He served more than two years at Sing Sing prison before his motion to appeal was granted and he was released on bail. State courts of appeal upheld his conviction.

In his dissent, Holmes, the author of Schenck's clear and present danger test, wrote that he believed it was still the appropriate test to employ in judging the limits of freedom of expression. Joined by Brandeis, he argued that Gitlow presented no present danger because only a small minority of people shared the views presented in the manifesto and because it directed an uprising at some "indefinite time in the future." Moreover, he responded to Sanford's kindling metaphor by refuting the claim that the Manifesto is an example of "incitement." Holmes states, "Every idea is an incitement. It offers itself for belief and if believed it is acted on unless some other belief outweighs it or some failure of energy stifles the movement at its birth. The only difference between an expression of opinion and an incitement in the narrower sense is the speaker's enthusiasm for the result. Eloquence may set fire to reason, but, whatever may be thought of the redundant discourse before us, it had no chance of starting a present conflagration."

On November 9, 1925, Gitlow surrendered to New York Authorities for transportation back to Sing Sing Prison to finish his sentence. On December 11, 1925, New York Gov. Al Smith pardoned him, saying that while Gitlow had been "properly and legally convicted", he needed to consider "whether or not he has been sufficiently punished for a political crime." He concluded that "no additional punishment would act as a deterrent to those who would preach an erroneous doctrine of Government." Gitlow was later briefly elected General Secretary of the American Communist Party in 1929.