On Aug. 27, 1927 -- amid worldwide protests and pleas from some of the most prominent leaders in the arts and sciences -- two Italian immigrants to the United States were executed in Massachusetts' Charlestown State Prison. The official record stated that they had committed robbery and murder. But for those who objected to their conviction and execution, the pair's crime was having "alien blood," "imperfect knowledge of English," and "unpopular social views" -- so posited Harvard professor (and later Supreme Court Justice) Felix Frankfurter.
The lives and deaths of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti will be explored in a symposium Monday, Oct. 13, 1:30-4:30 p.m. in Rm. 127 of the Law School, 127 Wall St. The event is free and open to the public.
Titled "Sacco & Vanzetti and the American Experience," the symposium will examine the lives of both men; the case's historic and legal setting; arguments about their guilt or innocence that continue today; and the impact the case had on Italian Americans, who considered the treatment of their countrymen unfair and prejudicial. The symposium also will look at poetry, plays, music and other art inspired by Sacco and Vanzetti.
Participants include Law School Dean Anthony T. Kronman, who will give the opening welcome, and New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. and U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro, both of whom will offer opening remarks. Two sessions will follow. After opening remarks, "The Legal and Historical Setting of the 'Trial'" will be discussed by Neil Thomas Proto of Georgetown University and David M. Rabban of the University of Texas. Robert W. Gordon, the Fred A. Johnston Professor of Law and History at Yale, will serve as moderator. At 3 p.m. a discussion on "The Literary and Cultural Echoes of the Controversy" will take place between Daniel Aaron of Harvard University and Richard Gambino of Queens College. Jean-Christophe Agnew, professor of American studies and of history at Yale, will moderate.
For additional information, call 432-4854.