Upper School Events

Sacco and Vanzetti Trial, "the case that will not die"

The 1920s trial of Italian immigrants and anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti has been called "the case that will not die" and "a story of America in its first stage of terror." This class will explore why and how a payroll robbery and murder at a shoe factory in South Braintree, Massachusetts captured the sustained attention of the United States and the world. Our focus will include the post-WWI Red Scare and anti-immigrant sentiment that set the stage for the case; the extent to which anti-radical and anti-immigrant sentiment infected court proceedings; and world reaction to the case. We will also consider how artists, including Edna St. Vincent Millay, Ben Shahn, and Woody Guthrie, have helped to keep the case alive, and the renewed attention to this case in the years since September 11, 2001.

Presented by BB&N parent Barbara F. Berenson, a senior attorney for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court who has created an exhibit on the Sacco and Vanzetti case for the John Adams Courthouse, and has taught courses on this case to middle- and high school teachers and others.

No advance preparation is necessary. However, if you have time, you may wish to visit http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/saccov/saccov.htm. This website, part of a highly-regarded famous trials website, http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/ftrials.htm, contains an excellent summary and chronology of the case, biographies of the participants, excerpts from trial testimony, and much more.