1
25
1
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25609/archive/files/5e9c2d33d3bb6cd764313cd837a72c5e.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=G6z%7EASf6zScsAlTuFLFLSuK3xHXVu6owpZtQr6fZ0agic6-eRvmiS0MHwXTy9ft2jEAT7SF73WPCKC4ZUIOgBJB-Zrf4jnVFgqjx%7EwoZSLsjb06gegXCrMGAfSMzSq4UPUtlAmIKuVA2iEASgKww7ZZ9%7EVw3gLutLmDRcf7RwxPgKUkAtjWyDLZQAbmPO594KvDfW4TH6fJV1aKXG%7Eb2aP6ox2wZAbYJTcwFLgeyEp5s%7EXdhzWrJiowWZGUPpl5U8nB-9FRgZRBxICVD%7EGEth9TOVymfC%7EuX-eBHJTpfgawHZey-d4p5ExXUqOjORrqa6MGgiE3Sx31Zvx2ubS4WfA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
de89d6edece33e8f51629d1329f45a79
PDF Text
Text
Nazi march attempt
drew world attention
Steve Silverman
This event in Skokie history started
with a robust roar and ended with a
weak whimper.
During the 30-plus years that the
Skokie Review has been covering the
village, the most traumatic time and
most newsworthy story occurred in
1977 and 1978 when a group of Chicagobased neo-Nazis decided they wanted
to stage a rally on the steps of the
Skokie Village Hall.
The group, called the National Socialist Party of America, had chosen
Skokie as the spot to hold a rally because the village has always been
thought of as predominantly Jewish,
even though it has a large Roman
Catholic population.
Frank Collin, the leader of the neo-Nazi group, was actually born Jewish
with the name Frank Cohn. He had
originally asked the Chicago Park District for a parade permit in Marquette
Park, but when the park district asked
for a $250,000 insurance bond, the
Nazis were effectively stopped.
COLLIN HAD the alternative to
take the Chicago Park District to federal court on the grounds that his right
to hold a peaceful demonstration had
been denied, but that legal battle could
have taken months or years.
The Chicago Park District’s officials and lawyers had concocted an almost perfect scheme - no permits to
demonstrate would be issued until the
demonstrators could prove that they
had insurance, which was impossible
to obtain.
The only way into Chicago’s parks
was through the courtroom, where
Chicago’s army of lawyers waited.
After a brief attempt at gaining a
permit to march on the grounds of the
Skokie Park District, Collin turned his
attention to the village.
He wrote a letter to the village
board, and informed the board that he
and 50 followers would assemble on
the sidewalk in front of the Skokie Village Hall for one-half hour on Sunday,
May 1, 1977. The rally would be confined to the sidewalk and the demonstrators would be in neo-Nazi uniform,
with swastikas on display, but no
speeches would be given.
THE PLANNED protest struck the
nerve center of Skokie’s population.
Both Jews and Gentiles were outraged
by the attempt of the Nazi group to
march in the village.
While the park district had attempted to dissuade the group by making them post an even more expensive
insurance bond than Chicago had
asked for, the village board chose a
different tact. They attempted to stop
the march through the legislative process.
The village board challenged Collin
with a series of restraining orders and
ordinances. As a result of the board’s
attempt to stop Collin, an inevitable
confrontation between the village and
Collin’s defenders, the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) was impossible to deflect.
The order to prevent Collin and his
group from demonstrating that Village
Atty. Harvey Schwartz asked for was
based on the belief that Skokie’s security was at risk.
By
YET, THE ACLU and its attorney,
David Goldberger, did not concern
themselves with the possibility of violence.
“This is a classic First Amendment
case, your Honor. It tests the very
foundations of democracy. The village
of Skokie moves for an order enjoining
speech before it has occurred even
though that speech is to occur in an orderly fashion, in front of the village
hall, for a period of between twenty
and thirty minutes on a Sunday afternoon. Such an order, whatever we
might feel about the content of the
speech, violates the very essence of
the First Amendment.”
The village fought the First Amendment argument with the reasonable
belief that a demonstration by Collin
and his group would throw the community into a rage that might not be controlable, therefore Collin should not be
permitted to demonstrate.
THAT POINT of view was made
even stronger when Skokie resident
and holocaust survivor Sol Goldstein
testified in the hearing.
Goldstein personified the anger that
was rampant throughout the village.
When he took the witness stand, he
found himself less than 10 feet away
from Collin. Goldstein fixed Collin with
a stare that actually made Collin
squirm and he held that derisive look
throughout his testimony.
After describing the horrors that he
had seen in Germany during the Nazi
years, Goldstein was asked if he would
physically attack Collin if he was to appear in the village. “I may,” Goldstein
replied.
Wosik issued an injuction against
Collin and the NSPA from demonstrating in the village on May 1,1977.
BUT THE RULING was eventually
overturned by higher courts, and Collin was given his right to march in the
village.
The final step in the legal process
came when U.S. District Court Judge
Bernard Decker ruled on Feb. 23, 1978
that three ordinances based on insurance, use of military uniforms in political demonstrations and group libel
were groundless.
“It must be made clear from the
outset that the defendants (Skokie)
have no power to prevent plaintiffs
(Collin and the NSPA) from stating
their philosophy, including their
opinions of black and Jewish people,
however noxious and reprehensible
that philosophy may be. The Supreme
Court has held that “ . . .above all
else, the First Amendment means that
government has no power to resrtict
expression because of its message, its
ideas, its subject matter or its content.”
WITH THAT ruling, and the subsequent affirmation by the United States
Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit,
Collin had the opportunity to walk
vright up to the steps of the Skokie Village Hall on June 25,1978.
But just as he had won the court
battle, Collin deferred his right to demonstrate. He had decided that he really
wanted to march in Marquette Park
and never wanted to go into Skokie at
all.
And so on the day that the march
was supposed to go forward, Collin did
not show up in the village. He failed to
exercise his court-ordered right to appear at the Skokie Village Hall.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Attempted Nazi March in Skokie, 1977 and 1978, Digital Collection
Description
An account of the resource
<p>During the late 1970s, a small group of neo-Nazis based in Chicago attempted to hold a rally in the Village of Skokie, Illinois, a community that was known to have a large Jewish population. Local officials resisted the group’s efforts through by passing a series of ordinances aimed at preventing demonstrations or parades by hate groups. The ordinances were ultimately overturned following a series of state and federal lawsuits because they infringed on the group’s First Amendment rights and the neo-Nazis were issued a permit to demonstrate in Skokie. However, instead of facing the growing number of organized counter-demonstrators, the group held rallies in Federal Plaza and in Marquette Park in Chicago. <br /><br />Visit <a title="Attempted Nazi March in Skokie" href="https://skokiehistory.omeka.net/exhibits/show/attempted-nazi-march/timeline">Skokie Public Library's online exhibit</a> to see the events as they unfolded. The library's digital collection, seen here, includes newspaper articles, editorials, recordings from the Skokie Village Board of Trustees meetings, a memoir written by a local clergywoman, and two documentary films.</p>
<p>For further information, you can find more resources in the library. If you have questions or comments send us an <a title="email Skokie Public Library" href="mailto:tellus@skokielibrary.info">email </a>or call us at 847-673-3733.</p>
Relation
A related resource
<h3><a title="Attempted Nazi March in Skokie" href="https://skokiehistory.omeka.net/exhibits/show/attempted-nazi-march/timeline">Attempted Nazi March in Skokie online exhibit</a></h3>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Skokie History
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Skokie Public Library
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Nazi march attempt drew world attention
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Silverman, Steve
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
Retrospective overview of the National Socialist Party of America (Nazi) planned demonstrations and resulting court cases.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
10/17/1985
Subject
The topic of the resource
American Civil Liberties Union
Demonstrations -- Illinois -- Skokie
National Socialist Party of America
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Skokie Review, Thursday, October 17, 1985, Pioneer Press Newspapers, Glenview, IL
Rights Holder
A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource.
©Pioneer Press
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
In Copyright http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
csr851017a.pdf
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1970s (1970-1979)
1980s (1980-1989)
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Skokie Public Library, Reference Department
newspaper clippings