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Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Eves, and welcome to this Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that uncovers history one day at a time.

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Speaker 1: Today is February eleven, nineteen. The day was February eleventh,

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Speaker 1: nineteen sixteen. Anarchists and activist Emma Goldman was arrested in

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Speaker 1: New York City for passing out materials on contraception and

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Speaker 1: violation of the Comstock Act. At the time, birth control

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Speaker 1: was considered a moral and still not widely accepted in

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Speaker 1: the United States, and the Comstock Act was a reflection

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Speaker 1: of this sentiment. The eighteen seventy three law banned the

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Speaker 1: transportation of so called obscene, lewd, and or lascivious materials

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Speaker 1: through the mail, and after the law was passed, dozens

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Speaker 1: of states passed their own laws to restrict the dissemination

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Speaker 1: of birth control at the state level. But Goldman believed

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Speaker 1: that women should have access to birth control, and she

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Speaker 1: was no stranger to protest. Emma subscribed to anarchism, which

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Speaker 1: is a philosophy that advocates for the abolition of government

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Speaker 1: and the formation of society's based on voluntary cooperation between

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Speaker 1: individuals and groups. When Goldman immigrated to the United States

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Speaker 1: from Lithuania in eighteen eighty five. She began working in

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Speaker 1: clothing factories, but she quickly became disillusioned with working conditions

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Speaker 1: and she drew inspiration from the labor movement. But Goldman's

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Speaker 1: anarchism kicked into high gear after the Haymarket affair in

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Speaker 1: eighteen eighty six and eighty seven, when a labor protest

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Speaker 1: turned riot caused deaths and several labor activists were convicted

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Speaker 1: for bombing without proper evidence. Emma became a much admired

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Speaker 1: lecturer and writer who spoke out on anarchism and social

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Speaker 1: issues like women's rights. Goldman moved to New York City

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Speaker 1: in eighty nine, and while she was there, she worked

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Speaker 1: as a nurse and midwife for poor people in the

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Speaker 1: Lower East Side. She saw women who couldn't support children

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Speaker 1: resort to inducing their own abortions. Soon, Emma began working

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Speaker 1: to increase public knowledge of and access to birth control.

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Speaker 1: She believed that laws barring access to birth control needed

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Speaker 1: to be struck down because contraception was essential to women

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Speaker 1: achieving sexual, social, and economic freedom. Goldman began smuggling birth

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Speaker 1: control into the US, and she started lecturing on women's

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Speaker 1: rights bodily autonomy and contraception activists and nurse Margaret Sanger

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Speaker 1: and Emma got to know each other in New York,

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Speaker 1: and Emma's advocacy influenced Margaret to work for what she

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Speaker 1: once called family limitation, even though their relationship eventually soured.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen fifteen and into nineteen sixteen, Goldman went on

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Speaker 1: tour to give a series of lectures, including some where

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Speaker 1: she explained the necessity of contraception. The lectures on contraception

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Speaker 1: drew out huge crowds, but distributing contraceptives and information on

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Speaker 1: contraceptives was still not legal everywhere, so on February eleven,

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Speaker 1: nineteen sixteen, Goldman was arrested for her birth control lecture

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Speaker 1: that she had given the previous week. She was released

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Speaker 1: on five hundred dollars bailed that day. A few days

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Speaker 1: after she was arrested, Goldman told the press the following

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Speaker 1: and the better. When a law has outgrown time and necessity,

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Speaker 1: it must go. And the only way to get rid

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Speaker 1: of the law is to awaken the public to the

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Speaker 1: fact that it has outlived its purpose. And that is

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Speaker 1: precisely what I have been doing and mean to do

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Speaker 1: in the future. Emma hoped her protest could help move

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Speaker 1: the needle on progressive birth control legislation. She went on

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Speaker 1: to say this in the letter. While I am not

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Speaker 1: particularly anxious to go to jail, I should yet be

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Speaker 1: glad to do so if thereby I can add my

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Speaker 1: might to the importance of birth control and the wiping

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Speaker 1: off our antiquated law upon the Statute. But after her

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Speaker 1: trial on April she was convicted and was imprisoned in

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Speaker 1: the Queen's County Penitentiary for fifteen days. On May five,

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Speaker 1: more than thirty five hundred people gathered at Carnegie Hall

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Speaker 1: in New York to celebrate Goldman's release, and at that meeting,

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Speaker 1: literature on birth control was distributed. Emma did not stop

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Speaker 1: promoting birth control, and she continued to speak out on

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Speaker 1: issues like marriage, prisons, sexuality, and public school education. She

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Speaker 1: was deported to Russia in nineteen nineteen and lived the

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Speaker 1: rest of her life in various countries around the world.

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Speaker 1: Emma died in nineteen forty in Canada, and though birth

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Speaker 1: control is still a hotly debated topic and US politics today,

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Speaker 1: Goldman's promotion of contraception as a necessity greatly contributed to

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Speaker 1: the birth control movement in America. I'm Eave Stefcote, and

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Speaker 1: hopefully you know a little more about history today than

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Speaker 1: you did yesterday. You can subscribe to This Day in

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Speaker 1: History class on Apple Podcasts, the I Heart Radio app,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts. Come back tomorrow for

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Speaker 1: another tippet from History m