Dear Emmassaries,

Though we are now in the dog days of summer, when the weather is — as Emma described it — “hot and sultry,” we look forward to cooler days ahead, when our wonderful student researchers return to campus from their travels. We’ve managed to find four talented work-study students who would be perfect for our final push to complete the volume. But we can only hire these students if we have the necessary funds for the next two semesters.

We need your help to ensure a plentiful harvest. Donate today so that we all may continue to enjoy the fruits of Emma’s labor. It’s easy!

Like the EGP Papers, Emma was always searching out the like-minded, seeking out supporters to build a people’s movement for social justice.

In 1906, she was struggling to fund the magazine Mother Earth. Though today this publication is an essential source of scholarship and inspiration, at the time, it was very much a labor of love — with an emphasis on labor. In an editorial written for the December 1906 issue, Emma reminisced: “Somebody has said that a Revolution would be impossible in July — ‘Mother Earth,’ too, suffered from the same cause, the revenue of the magazine largely depending on the sales at the various radical and liberal meetings, which are quite inactive during the Summer months. Thanks to the active interest of a few friends, however, I was enabled to fertilize the soil, hoping that with cooler weather would come the harvest. My expectations were amply justified. August, September and October brought a host of new subscribers and a great demand for single copies.” (For more, see vol. 2 of our series, Making Speech Free.)

The University expects us to raise $27,000 a month to cover all expenses — and avoid a termination — now set for August 31st. Every penny you contribute to the project helps to ensure our survival. There is still much work to be done. But it is our hope that August and beyond will bring us the support we need to complete this final volume of our documentary series — filled with insights that are not only pertinent to this historical moment, but also sorely needed.

Archivist Spotlight

We are still in hot pursuit of finally being able to officially hire our fabulous young archivist to help us prepare the archive for transfer. Alex earned her MLIS in 2014 from San Jose State University and has worked on archival and preservation projects with Paper Tiger Television, The Freedom Archives, Southern Exposure and the Bay Area Video Coalition. She is particularly interested in the documentation of radical histories, and also co-organizes an annual zine fest in the East Bay. With this great track record, Alex has been generously volunteering her time at the EGP for many years. We are lucky to have her and would like to reciprocate.

Raising Funds to Seize the Moment

Within the next three months we will be ready to submit the completed manuscript for typesetting. With our editors and work-study students, we will then have to proofread this 700+ page volume, and work with a professional indexer to ensure easy access to its broad range of historical detail.

With luck, the book launch will take place in the Spring or Fall of 2019.

Our fantasy has always been to celebrate the completion of the American Years series on Ellis Island. It was from there 100 years ago, that Emma’s deportation ship left shore — the story of which forms the dramatic ending of our volume. Your reading pleasure will begin as the work of the Emma Goldman Papers Project comes to an end, fulfilling our mission and 39-year labor love!

Closing Message from Emma Goldman

“And here I come back to this powerful thing — the greatest weapon in all the world, more powerful than dynamite and bombs,

and all other things together — that is the fear of public opinion —
that the keepers and the jailers and the law-makers and the politicians have the fear of public opinion. It is necessary to create an intelligent, conscious, wide-awake revolutionary public opinion in the United States. That alone will open the prison doors, and nothing else.”

(Finally free, Emma Goldman honors political prisoners still in jail in her Address at the Kate Richards O’Hare Testimonial Dinner on Monday, November 17, 1919, 7:30 o’clock, at Gonfarone’s Restaurant, New York City.)

Dear Emmassaries,

At the Emma Goldman Papers Project, we often have a sense of déjà vu while researching the World War I era. But even we are surprised by the many parallels to our current national predicament.

Take a look, for example, at the Table of Contents for the 1915 issue of Mother Earth—almost a century ago.

Featured in this edition of the magazine are Emma Goldman’s “Observations and Comments,” in which she addresses the issues of prison reform, police harassment and overreach, and reports on the positive reception to her talk on Ibsen’s play “An Enemy of the People” in Los Angeles. Alexander Berkman’s “Labor on Trial” critiques the increasing intimidation of labor by an alliance of big business and government, and advocates a militant approach centered on strikes and direct action. The issue’s concluding essay is a scathing attack on eugenics as advocated in William Robinson’s “The Limitation of Offspring”—testimony to the magazine’s early stance in favor of reproductive freedom.

From the necessity for free speech to the role of a truly independent press, the issues they faced in their time were eerily similar—including the problem of fake news. Dr. Michael A. Cohn mocked the prevailing editorial practice in “The Press”: “Give them stories; never mind facts.”

These pages of Mother Earth magazine remain an antidote to despair. They testify to the enormous courage and mutual cooperation of a minority dedicated to fighting back against repression, fear, and disinformation.

During these times that literally try our souls, it is more important than ever to recall the courage of those who, like Emma Goldman, stood up to injustice, advocated freedom, and envisioned a more equitable world.  

We hope that you, too, will be inspired to join forces with us not only to preserve the documents vital to Emma Goldman’s written legacy, but also to perpetuate the radical spirit of those who refused to yield to intimidation.

In the words of the opening poem by Paul Eldridge: “Resist All Evil!”

Reaching Out

For a quick update on our project, we invite you to listen to this recent radio interview with Candace on KPFA’s show ‘Against the Grain’: “The Irrepressible Emma Goldman,” easily accessible online.

Raising Funds to Seize the Moment

Please consider contributing to the Emma Goldman Papers today — to honor the contribution of one of the greatest proponents against injustice everywhere!To pledge a recurring donation, click here, enter the desired amount for each payment, and on the next screen, select, “recurring.” If you are not able to pledge a recurring donation right now, we of course always appreciate a one-time donation.THANK YOU TO OUR DEVOTED DONORS FOR YOUR CONTINUED GENEROSITY AND SUPPORT!Hurrah! The Emma Goldman Papers stands united against hate!

Ever grateful for you generosity and support,

Candace, Dan, and our student staff Meghan and Alex as well as our faithful local outreach committee.

Closing Message from Emma Goldman

“We do not know where the forces of reaction will land us. But wherever we shall be, our work will go on until our last breath. May you, too, continue your efforts. These are trying but wonderful times. Clear heads and brave hearts were never more needed. There is great work to do. May each one of you give the best that is in him to the great struggle, the last struggle between liberty and bondage, between well-being and poverty, between beauty and ugliness. Be of good cheer, beloved comrades. Our enemies are fighting a losing battle. They are of the dying past. We are of the glowing future.”

✢ DONATE HERE ✢

You can make your tax-deductible donation to the Emma Goldman Papers online at http://givetocal.berkeley.edu/browse/?u=39.Or send a check by mail, payable to the UC Berkeley Foundation, earmarked for the Emma Goldman Papers, to:The Emma Goldman PapersUniversity of California2241 Channing WayBerkeley, CA 94720-6030A reminder that our treasure trove is free and accessible to all:https://archive.org/details/emmagoldmanguide00falk and
https://archive.org/details/emmagoldmanpapers.
You can also follow Emma’s lecture tours and Project news on:Facebook: @EmmaGoldmanPapers and @FriendsoftheEmmaGoldmanPapers)Twitter: @EmmaGPapers
(510) 642-4708 | emma@berkeley.edu | http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/goldman

Just one month following her release from the Missouri State Penitentiary, Emma Goldman appears before Immigration Inspector A.P. Shell on Ellis Island to appeal her deportation order to Russia as an “undesirable alien.”  Claiming her U.S. citizenship from her marriage to Jacob A. Kersner, Emma refuses to answer any questions – declaring that the policy of deporting “undesirables” constituted a denial of the right of free speech and a deprivation of her “day in open court.”

Orchestrated as part of a classified scheme to deport large numbers of left-wing figures, attorney general Alexander M. Palmer and his assistant, (future FBI Director) J. Edgar Hoover, would eventually succeed in their efforts to deport Emma to Soviet Russia the following January.

“[After] almost half a century of so-called freedom, the Negro Question is more acute than ever… Hardly a day passes without a Negro being lynched. … Nowhere in the country does the Negro enjoy equal opportunity with the white man—socially, politically, or economically, notwithstanding his alleged Constitutional rights… Race hatred is not limited to the Negro. To a lesser degree other races and nationalities also suffer from the same narrow-minded spirit.”

“The Situation in America” - Emma Goldman’s report to the International Anarchist Congress, Amsterdam, August 1907 — published in Mother Earth, September 1907.

Dearest Emmassaries,  

In 1907, Emma Goldman identified and lamented the problem of racial inequality — still plaguing our nation now 110 years since she spoke. Although racism was not her primary focus, the inspiration and courage with which she fought against injustice lives on. Help perpetuate her wisdom and insight! The best way to do that would be to multiply yourselves as monthly donors: see how to do so below.

As ever, we are inspired by our project’s Principal Investigator at UCB, Professor Leon Litwack, — among the greatest historians of the plight of African Americans — whose array of pathbreaking books include his Pulitzer Prize-winning Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery, and Trouble In Mind: Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow. What a privilege it is to have the support and guidance of Leon, a forward-thinking scholar whose works continue to have a profound impact on the study of American history. His book How Free is Free? The Long Death of Jim Crow inspired the new film The Long Shadow and launched him into stardom!

Because of your generous donations, we have been able to raise over $70,000 since last June — in large part due to our many donors who chose to commemorate Emma’s June 27 birthday by pledging to send monthly donations of only $27 only through April of next year. Now only 740 such sustainers are needed for funding the 700 page book and finding a home for the 40,000 document collection.

Unfortunately our funds are projected to run out by the end of November 2017. As we are a non-funded project of the University of California, Berkeley, the EGP depends upon the contributions of our wonderful donors to sustain us as we complete our 4th and final volume, otherwise, the university ONCE AGAIN will move to SHUT US DOWN. Our minimum UCB required operating budget is $20,000 per month; our necessary budget is $27,000 per month. Right now, as we are preparing high quality visuals, vetting all previous edits and beginning to finalize the writing for the ancillary sections of the forthcoming volume, your support matters more than ever. Timely donations will extend our work through the winter.

Preserving the written legacy of those who, like Emma Goldman, dared to confront injustice, and whose eloquence, passion, and perseverance — whose life stories are in themselves wellsprings of hope — can serve as sustenance to all who face the challenges of distressing times.

Please consider contributing to the Emma Goldman Papers today — to honor the contribution of one of the greatest proponents against injustice everywhere!

To pledge a recurring donation, click here, enter the desired amount for each payment, and on the next screen, select, “recurring.” If you are not able to pledge a recurring donation right now, we of course always appreciate a one-time donation.

THANK YOU TO OUR DEVOTED DONORS FOR YOUR CONTINUED GENEROSITY AND SUPPORT!

Hurrah! The Emma Goldman Papers stands united against hate!

Ever grateful for you generosity and support,

Candace, Dan, and our student staff Gabrielle, Guive, Austin, and Hannah, as well as our faithful local outreach committee.

Source: Emma Goldman Papers

Source: Emma Goldman Papers

✢ DONATE HERE ✢

You can make your tax-deductible donation to the Emma Goldman Papers online at http://givetocal.berkeley.edu/browse/?u=39.

Or send a check by mail, payable to the UC Berkeley Foundation, earmarked for the Emma Goldman Papers, to:

The Emma Goldman Papers

University of California

2241 Channing Way

Berkeley, CA 94720-6030

A reminder that our treasure trove is free and accessible to all:

• https://archive.org/details/emmagoldmanguide00falk and
  
• https://archive.org/details/emmagoldmanpapers.
  

You can also follow Emma’s lecture tours and Project news on:

• Facebook: @EmmaGoldmanPapers and @FriendsoftheEmmaGoldmanPapers)
• Twitter: @EmmaGPapers
  

(510) 642-4708 | emma@berkeley.edu | http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/goldman

Did you know that Emma Goldman was a vocal opponent of the prison system? In an interview with the The New York Call on October, 9, 1919 – 98 years ago today – Emma Goldman described the abhorrent conditions that prison laborers were subjected to – an experience she had suffered firsthand while serving her sentence at the Missouri State Penitentiary:

“Civilization claims to have advanced, and in no country do we hear so much about prison reform as in our own…yet what can we say for the state of Missouri when the head of their female department is woman in charge of 90 women prisoners who has discretion over their life and death?

“First, the women are deprived of their recreation; second, they are locked up in their own cells for 48 hours, from Saturday to Monday, on a diet of bread and water and then expected to begin their task Monday in their weakened condition; third, they are sent to a blind cell, a cell 52 inches by 104 inches, with an aperture of 7 inches by 1 ½ inches, supplied with one blanket, two pieces of bread and two cups of water a day.  In this tomb they are kept three to 22 days.” 

(The New York Call, 1919)

On this day in 1917 (14 June), Emma Goldman delivered her “Speech Against Conscription and War” at Forward Hall, New York City.

Emma was an outspoken critic of compulsory military service and of the First World War — so outspoken, in fact, that she and many others were jailed and ultimately deported. Here, she assures her audience that the government’s suppression of dissent will never silence their voices, nor our common quest for “liberty.”

“I wish to say here, and I don’t say it with any authority and I don’t say it as a prophet, I merely tell you — I merely tell you the more people you lock up, the more will be the idealists who will take their place; the more of the human voice you suppress, the greater and louder and the profounder will be the human voice. At present it is a mere rumbling, but that rumbling is increasing in volume, it is growing in depth, it is spreading all over the country until it will be raised into a thunder and people of America will rise and say, we want to be a democracy, to be sure, but we want the kind of democracy which means liberty and opportunity to every man and woman in America.” (Transcribed by a government stenographer. Emma Goldman Papers)

Stay tuned for the Emma Goldman Papers’ forthcoming publication, “Democracy Disarmed: 1917-1919.”

(Punch, 1894)

“My fiftieth birthday I spent in the Missouri penitentiary. What more fitting place for the rebel to celebrate such an occasion? Fifty years! I felt as if I had five hundred on my back, so replete with events had been my life. (…) The prison, however, and still more the misery abroad in every land, the savage persecution of radicals in America, the tortures social protestants were enduring everywhere, had an ageing effect on me. (…) Fifty years — thirty of them in the firing line — had they borne fruit or had I merely been repeating Don Quixote’s idle chase?”  – Living My Life, 1931

On June 27, 1919, as Emma Goldman celebrated her fiftieth birthday within the walls of the Missouri State Penitentiary, she paused to reflect and question whether, in fact, she had lived her life tilting at windmills.

Here at the Emma Goldman Papers, we of course believe that Emma’s life was not a quixotic “idle chase.”

Emma Goldman was tireless in her quest for a just and humane world — wherever she happened to be — whether on the ground speaking on behalf of labor, on the platform advocating for the right to birth control, or in prison bringing attention to the harsh conditions and lengthy sentences many so-called “slackers” faced for challenging conscription.

The official registration date for military service, June 5, 1917

Source: Emma Goldman Papers

As summer commences, we thank you for the matching contributions that allowed us to hire our new associate editor, Dan Elkind, who is putting the finishing touches on “Democracy Disarmed: 1917-1919,” the fourth and final volume. Thanks to your continuous support, Candace Falk was able to attend the Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders, and Sexualities at Hofstra College in New York this month. Over a thousand participants received our flyers and responded with tremendous enthusiasm for our recently digitized 22,000-document Emma Goldman Papers microfilm — now a free online resource for students, scholars, and social justice advocates — accessible to all.

With your help, Candace will also attend the annual meeting of the Association for Documentary Editing in Buffalo, New York, from June 22 to 24, where she will encourage others in the field to mentor and help launch student researchers — an arrangement of mutual benefit, to which the EGP can attest after having done so for so many years.

Our funds are projected to run out by the end of August 2017. Without direct support from the University of California, the EGP depends upon contributions to sustain us as we complete our final volume. Our minimum operating budget is $20,000 per month.

Our dream, in honor of Emma’s birthday on the 27th, is that 1,000 “Emmassaries” will pledge to send $27 a month for the next 10 months, so that we may finish Volume 4 and find a permanent home for our extraordinary collection.

To pledge a recurring donation, click here, enter the desired amount for each payment, and on the next screen, select “recurring.” If you are not able to pledge a recurring donation right now, we of course always appreciate a one-time donation.

We sincerely thank you for your continued generosity and support. As always, we, like our namesake, will not give up. Your support will sustain the work necessary to complete this mammoth collaborative project — at a time in our history when we can draw strength and inspiration from Emma’s perseverance and courage.

Source: Emma Goldman Papers

✢ DONATE HERE ✢

You can make your tax-deductible donation to the Emma Goldman Papers online at http://givetocal.berkeley.edu/browse/?u=39.

Or send a check by mail, payable to the UC Berkeley Foundation, earmarked for the Emma Goldman Papers, to:

 The Emma Goldman Papers

University of California

2241 Channing Way

Berkeley, CA 94720-6030

510-642-4708 | emma@berkeley.edu | http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/goldman

A reminder that our treasure trove is free and accessible to all: https://archive.org/details/emmagoldmanguide00falk and https://archive.org/details/emmagoldmanpapers.

You can also follow Emma’s lecture tours and Project news on Facebook @EmmaGoldmanPapers and @FriendsoftheEmmaGoldmanPapers, on Twitter @EmmaGPapers, or on our blog, http://emmagoldmanpapers.tumblr.com.