Honoring the Legacy of First Amendment Freedoms: From Greenwich Village to the East Village

While the U.S. Constitution, as signed on September 17, 1787, was a groundbreaking leap forward in human history, many were opposed, as they believed it would lead to a loss of individual liberties, a decrease in state sovereignty, and the potential for the rise of tyranny. To address these concerns, Congress drafted twelve amendments to the Constitution. Ten of these amendments were ratified as the Bill of Rights and added to the Constitution on December 15, 1791.

Our First Amendment is widely considered the most important but was actually the third of the twelve proposed by Congress. This amendment protects the fundamental freedoms of speech, religion, assembly, and petition. Few neighborhoods embody the spirit of free expression like Greenwich Village and the East Village. For generations, the rights provided under this amendment have been exercised, violated, and fought over throughout our neighborhoods.

Thomas Paine

Paine was a political theorist, revolutionary, and writer, whose works helped inspire the American Revolution, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Considered one of America’s Founding Fathers, his 1776 pamphlet Common Sense was so widely read it is said that proportionally it is the all-time best-selling American piece of literature. After living in France in the 1790s where he was deeply involved in the French Revolution, Paine returned to the United States and lived at 309 Bleecker Street and then at 59 Grove Street. Paine inspired considerable controversy in the United States, where he was attacked as a radical, a foreigner, and an atheist. Read more here.

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn: Labor Activist and ‘Rebel Girl’ of the Village

In 1905, Flynn became a public speaker for the growing labor rights movement when she was just fifteen years old. She was a compelling speaker, providing energy and hope to discouraged workers. She was so compelling that her speeches infamously often led to riots. The first time she was arrested for one of her speeches she was only sixteen. Her run-ins with the police would continue throughout her life, including a two-year prison sentence (1952-1954) for an alleged attempt to overthrow the government under the Smith Act. In 1940 the ACLU expleed Flynn, along with all Communist members, but in 1976 the ACLU issued a posthumous reversal of their decision to expel her, stating that it did not align with their support of freedom of expression for all. Read her full story here.

3000 Beatniks and the Right to Free Speech

On April 9, 1961 the Beatnicks “rioted” in Washington Square Park after the Committee to Preserve the Dignity and Beauty of Washington Square Park and the Washington Square Association supported Parks Commissioner Newbold Morris’s efforts to ban playing music in the park. Eventually, after legal battles and appeals, the right to sing and play music freely in Washington Square Park without a permit was upheld. Read the full story here.

Lenny Bruce Convicted of Obscenity After Greenwich Village Gig

Comedian Lenny Bruce was arrested many times throughout his career on obscenity charges, but his first conviction on November 4, 1964 occurred after a show at Cafe Au Go Go at 152 Bleecker Street. He was accused of violating New York Penal Code 1140, prohibiting obscene material that could aid in the “corruption of morals of youth and others,” and faced a maximum punishment of three years in prison. Lenny, along with club owner Howard Solomon, were sentenced to four months in a workhouse.

In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed years of precedent in a landmark case, Miller v. California, which broadened First Amendment protection for material like Lenny Bruce’s, based on an argument of the material’s underlying literary, artistic, and social value. Lenny’s comedy helped to change the perception of what should be acceptable to be heard on stage. Read more here.

Where Radicalism Found a Home: Emma Goldman in the Village

At her prime, she was called “the most dangerous woman in America.” Disgusted by authoritative powers and regimes, Goldman spent her early adulthood developing her anarchist beliefs here in our neighborhoods where she worked as a midwife and nurse, witnessing firsthand the importance of birth control and economic freedom for women. In 1892, Goldman and her partner,  Alexander Berkman, attempted to assassinate industrialist Henry Clay Frick in response to his rough treatment of striking factory workers in Homestead, Pennsylvania. While Frick survived the bullet, Berkman was consequently sentenced to 22 years in prison (and served 14 years). Goldman evaded jail time but gained national infamy. Read more here.

Barney Rosset and the Grove Street Press

Founder and owner of the Grove Street Press, Barney Rosset made it his life’s mission to share literature which he deemed important but which authorities might have deemed obscene. He led the successful legal battle to publish Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer and the uncensored version of D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover. In 1964 his right to publish Miller’s work was argued all the way to the Supreme Court, and is considered a landmark ruling on First Amendment free speech rights. Read more here.

Radical Social Movements in the Village and the Battle for Free Speech

Our October 25, 2022, our program moderated by past ACLU president Susan Herman explored the struggle for reproductive rights and labor union organizing. Watch the video:

Bonus Post – Beyond the Village and Back: Bowne House in Flushing, Queens — Birthplace of Religious Freedom in America

Bowne House was built by John Bowne (March 9, 1627-1695), a Quaker and the family patriarch, whose defense of religious freedom led to the creation of the principles later codified in the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments of the United States Constitution. After emigrating from England to Boston in 1649, he eventually settled in Flushing, then under Dutch rule. Over the course of 300 years, the family, and the home itself, left an indelible mark on American culture, participating in events of both regional and national significance. Read the full story and explore its connection to Greenwich Village here.