Biography
Marie Equi was a physician and outspoken radical who linked her medical work to activism for labor rights, women’s equality, and anti-militarism, becoming a prominent figure in West Coast protest politics. Her opposition to World War I led to arrest and conviction under wartime sedition provisions; although she initially faced a longer term, her punishment was commuted to “a year and a day” by Woodrow Wilson. She began serving her sentence at San Quentin in October 1920 and was released in August 1921, after which her case remained a touchstone in debates over the criminalization of dissent
