Biography
William Buwalda was a United States Army soldier with some fifteen years of service who, in 1908, attended a lecture by the anarchist Emma Goldman in San Francisco and shook her hand afterward. For that he was court-martialed and sentenced to five years in a military prison, and sent to Alcatraz. The sentence provoked a national free-speech outcry; it was commuted after he had served about ten months. Embittered by his treatment, Buwalda returned to the War Department the medal he had been awarded for his service in the Philippines.
In chapter 34 of her memoir Living My Life, Emma Goldman recounts these distinct arrests during a lecture tour. These are her retrospective descriptions; the chapter does not independently give a full calendar date for each episode.
Goldman reports that Buwalda protested her arrest and was also arrested, then discharged with a reprimand at police headquarters. This is separate from his previously completed military imprisonment and pardon, and supplies no additional measured time served.
Source: Emma Goldman, Living My Life, volume 1, chapter 34. Existing dates, custody periods and totals from other records remain unchanged.
PBS’s timeline dates the commutation of William Buwalda’s military sentence from five years to three years to May 22, 1908. This legal reduction is distinct from his later pardon and does not establish a physical release on May 22.
A May 4, 1908 San Francisco dispatch printed by the El Reno Daily American identifies Private Buwalda with the First Battalion of Army engineers and reports his confinement in a guardhouse awaiting court-martial after shaking Emma Goldman’s hand. The dispatch’s “today” wording is not used to establish an exact arrest day.
El Reno Daily American, May 4, 1908, page 1, “Shook Hands with Emma”.
