Anita Whitney
Anita Whitney | |
|---|---|
Charlotte Anita Whitney in the 1910s | |
| Born | July 7, 1867 San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Died | February 4, 1955 (aged 87) San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Mountain View Cemetery (Oakland, California) |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | San Jose State University Wellesley College |
Charlotte Anita Whitney (July 7, 1867 – February 4, 1955) was an American women's rights activist, political activist, suffragist, and early Communist Labor Party of America and Communist Party USA organizer in California.
She is best remembered as the defendant in a landmark 1927 California criminal syndicalism trial, Whitney v. California, which featured a landmark U.S. Supreme Court concurring opinion by Justice Louis Brandeis that only a "clear and present danger" would be sufficient for the legislative restriction of the right of free speech. This standard would ultimately be employed against the Communists again during the Second Red Scare of the 1950s.