ABSTRACT
After Emma Goldman and her partner, Alexander Berkman, were arrested for obstructing the draft on June 15, 1917, they struggled to secure the funding needed to post bond and be released from jail. Having just secured Berkman’s release two days prior to the June 27 start of their trial, Goldman decided there was no way the two anarchists would receive a fair hearing by a judge or jury. Accepting her fate, she decided to turn the courtroom into a forum for her ideas by representing herself. This chapter examines how newspapers covered Goldman’s trial and considers the extent to which she succeeded in turning the courtroom into a forum for her ideas. The trial resulted in extensive newspaper coverage, via both day-to-day reports and extensive discussions about her ideas and the boundaries of free expression in editorials, columns, and letters to the editor that were published on opinion pages throughout the nation. While many of Goldman’s freedom of expression-related arguments during the trial did not find their way into journalists’ reports, her trial led to an extensive, national discourse regarding the meaning of free expression.
