ABSTRACT
The dawning of the twentieth century set the stage for events of a half-century later and for shifting views of the First Amendment. On September 6, 1901, a self-proclaimed anarchist shot and killed President William McKinley. Although five European heads of state had been anarchist victims in this decade, it was only his assassination that aroused the nation’s press and public. Inflammatory articles reminded readers that anarchist newspapers existed in their country and described nests of bomb throwers as being on the loose across America. Leon Czolgosz, the assassin, was a U.S. citizen, but he had a foreign-sounding name, which was sufficient cause for public and political outrage.
