Radical Publishers and Censorship in the Village
Recent times have reminded us that the free press is a fragile institution. The publishing history in our neighborhoods reminds us that it is also an indispensable one. Our neighborhoods have long exerted a magnetic pull on independent spirits and malcontents. It should come as no surprise that many of them exercised their freedom of press vigorously, giving voice to controversial views, often in the face of considerable opposition. Today, we take stock of a few notable examples.
The Crisis
The Crisis was the very first magazine devoted to African Americans. Founded by W.E.B. Du Bois as the house magazine of the NAACP (then headquartered at 70 Fifth Avenue), it has been called “the most widely read and influential periodical about race and social justice in U.S. history.” The magazine drew unprecedented attention to the lives and plight of African Americans, providing a forum for DuBois’ uncompromising philosophy of racial equality. Particularly during its years at 70 Fifth Avenue (1914-1923), The Crisis provided a showcase for Black writer-activists such as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurtson, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, and Arthur Schomberg. According to DuBois, the publication’s mission was to pursue “the world-old dream of human brotherhood” — a dream that remains a radical and elusive proposition to this day.
The Masses and the Liberator
The Masses was a socialist magazine based at 91 Greenwich Avenue from 1913 to 1917 (in a building that has since been demolished). It published work by prominent radicals, including Villager Max Eastman, who also served as its editor. The magazine published work that promoted labor rights, women’s suffrage, and access to birth control. After the passage of the Espionage Act in 1917, contents of the magazine were officially deemed “treasonable” by the state, which then charged its editor and writers with obstructing conscription into the United States military. The matter went before the court twice, both times ending in mistrial. By then, however, The Masses had concluded its publication, and Max and his sister Crystal had launched its successor, The Liberator, out of 138 West 13th Street (extant). This radiclal journal focused on politics, art, and literature. Also socialist in orientation, it became a platform for the Communist Party of America from 1922 until it merged with other publications in 1924.
Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly
Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly published out of a since-demolished house at 14 Great Jones Street. It served as a platform for sisters Victoria and Tennesse Woodhull’s modern ideas, which included sexual education for teenagers, fair wages, women’s suffrage, and licensed prostitution. The year was 1870, and the ideas did not go over well. Nonetheless, the sisters were not shy about publicizing them. On January 11, 1871, Victoria testified before the House Judiciary Committee in favor of the women’s right to vote, becoming the first woman to ever address a congressional committee. The sisters also frequently gave public lectures on their views. In 1872, Victoria secured the nomination for President of the United States from the Equal Rights Part (a party that the sisters founded themselves). Later that year, she published an article about an adulterous affair between prominent clergyman and free-love critic Henry Ward Beecher and a friend’s wife. This got her arrested for sending obscene materials through the mail, setting back her electoral chances, and led to strife between the sisters. The incident left the sisters destitute and spelled the end of their publication.
Il Mondo
Il Mondo was the most prominent Italian anti-fascist voice in the country during the years leading up to WWII. It was launched in 1939 by publisher Giuseppe Lupis, a journalist and prominent member of the Italian Democratic Socialist Party who left Italy in 1926, fleeing Mussolini’s crackdown on political opponents. Its headquarters at 80 Fourth Avenue was located in the midst of a longstanding publishing hub abuzz with leftist and labor organizing — the neighborhood south of Union Square. Il Mondo worked to rally Italian-American opposition against Italian Fascism and to sway American policy toward undermining the Italian regime. Even before the U.S.’s entry into the war, Il Mondo was calling out Fascist sympathizers in America. Its investigative reporting brought mainstream attention to the rise of fascism within the United States and provided its opponents with evidence in their fight against it.
Grove Press
Perhaps no person or entity was more responsible for dismantling censorship and restrictions on literature with controversial sexual or political themes in the 20th century than Grove Press and its publisher Barney Rosset. Called “the era’s most explosive and influential publishing house,” this publisher had its headquarters in six different addresses in the neighborhood (64 University Place, 80 University Place, 52 East 11th Street, 841 Broadway, 795 Broadway, and 61 Fourth Avenue). Though founded in 1947 on Grove Street in the West Village, the press did not rise to prominence until Barney Rosset purchased it in 1951 and redirected its focus towards European avant-garde literature and theater that had until then seen limited publication and distribution in the United States. Grove was also known for publishing overtly political works by the likes of Che Guevara and Malcolm X, as well as 1950s American Beat literature from controversial authors such as William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. Grove press jumped into several censorship battles by publishing books previously banned on the grounds of obscenity, including D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer, and William S. Burroughs’ Naked Lunch. The ensuing legal decisions went a long way toward enshrining the right to a free press in this country.
Read more about publishers in our neighborhoods here, and take our tour of publishers located in the publishing hub South of Union Square here.
See a panel discussion on radical social movements and the battle for free speech here.