Benjamin Gitlow

AKA: Ben Gitlow

Released

Date of birth:22. 12. 1891

Date of death:19. 07. 1965

Age:73^{† Deceased}

Gender:Male

Race:White

Era:1910s

State:New York

Time Imprisoned:

5 Years 10 Months 4 Days

Support

Anti-Militarism Anti-War Socialism Anarchism Communist Party USA

Biography

Benjamin Gitlow Son of Russian-Jewish immigrants and a former New York State assemblyman; founding member of the Communist Labor Party of America in 1919 and business manager of The Revolutionary Age, which published "The Left Wing Manifesto" in July 1919. Arrested by NYPD November 1919 along with Alan Larkin under New York's Criminal Anarchy Law of 1902. Convicted February 11, 1920; sentenced 5-10 years at Sing Sing. Conviction famously upheld 7-2 in Gitlow v. New York, 268 U.S. 652 (1925) — the case that "incorporated" the First Amendment against the states. Pardoned by Governor Al Smith December 1925.