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Emma Goldman in NYC

Riot at Walhalla Hall

Description

During the economic crisis of 1893, Emma Goldman urged unemployed workers to take direct action, delivering fiery speeches, that led to her arrest for inciting a riot. Refusing to inform on fellow radicals, she served ten months in prison, where she studied nursing and read widely. After her release, Goldman traveled to Europe for further medical training, earning midwifery diplomas. She returned to the U.S. to lecture and practice midwifery, eventually organizing the 1900 International Anarchist Congress in Paris with Czech anarchist Hippolyte Havel, who later joined her in Chicago.

Speech, Aug 17, 1893

Emma Goldman addressed a group of unemployed Jews at Golden Rule Hall on New York’s Lower East Side, urging them to take food if they were hungry: “The shops are plentiful and the doors are open.” Her fiery words were soon followed by a riot at nearby Walhalla Hall, where unemployed marchers clashed with police and destroyed property. The New York Times blamed Goldman for inciting the unrest, calling her and other anarchists the “real instigators” and linking her to previous violence through her association with Alexander Berkman.

Speech, Aug 21, 1893

She was arrested on August 21 for inciting another demonstration in Union Square and sentenced to a year in jail.

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Emma Goldman

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