Goldman, Emma (1869-1940)

Image

Item Relations

Written by (1)
Mentioned in (5)
Comments (0)

Emma Goldman to Jane Addams, April 7, 1901

Clarence Seward Darrow to Jane Addams, September 11, 1901

Jane Addams to Lillian D. Wald, September 17, 1901

The Chicago Settlements and Social Unrest, May 2, 1908

Nancy Lucas Turner Pope to Jane Addams, June 30, 1917

Henry Rowland Curtis to Jane Addams, February 23, 1920

Comments

Birth Date

1869-06-27

Death Date

1940-05-14

Birthplace

Kovno, Russian Empire

Biographical Text

Emma Goldman was an activist, writer, and anarchist, born in Lithuania. Goldman moved to Rochester, NY in 1885 with her sister Helena. She realized that America was not the paradise she had hoped it would be. After the Haymarket affair, she discovered anarchism and the cause of worker's rights and in this found something to believe in and cling to, along with her lifelong lover, Alexander Berkman. In 1892 they planned an assassination on Henry Clay Frick, which failed and did not result in the popular uprising they had hoped for. They both continued to be prominent anarchist speakers, however, and in 1901 Goldman was implicated and subsequently arrested for the assassination of President William McKinley after the shooter claimed to have been inspired to do it by her speech. She was eventually released after 2 weeks in detention because there was nothing to link her to the crime. She defended the shooter, Leon Czolgosz, claiming that while his actions were wrong, the society was to blame. In 1908 she became involved with Margaret Sanger and the rights of women to have access to birth control. Goldman was arrested in 1916 for distributing information on contraception. In 1917 she was arrested and convicted for opposing the draft and encouraging young men not to register. During the Red Scare of 1919-1920, Goldman was deported to the Russia for disagreeing with the US government. While she had initially been in support of the Communist experiment in Russia and the Bolshevik Revolution, living there opened her eyes to the abuses on both sides, which resulted in her writing My Disillusionment in Russia. Goldman wrote about the way the Russian Revolution had produced as less caring society, rather than a more caring one, which was poorly received and ignored by radicals and more conservative elements of American society. At the very tail end of her life, she championed the anarchist rebellion against fascism in Spain, which ultimately failed. Goldman died in Canada in 1940 and is buried in Chicago.