First published in 1981, this book reassesses the case of Sacco and Vanzetti, two Italian immigrant anarchists living in Boston in 1920. The pair were accused of a payroll robbery and the murder of two guards for which they were arrested and, after a long trial based on inadequate and prejudiced evidence, executed in 1927. In 1977, on the fiftieth anniversary of their deaths, the Commonwealth of Massachusettes issued a proclamation which acknowledged a miscarriage of justice. The Black Flag provides an account of the controversial trial and a re-evaluation of the celebrated case of the Commonwealth´s decision. Brian Jackson puts the trial in the social context of the period and exposes the nature of anarchism by looking at the lives of two of its exponents, resulting in a moving exploration of a series of events that continue to trouble the conscience of America.
Prelude; Acknowledgements; Part I: A winter´s tale 1. Christmas Eve 1919 2. Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti 3. A crime punishable by death 4. Cross-examination 5. Eels and the electric chair 6. In Death Row; Interlude: A long shadow Part II: Half a Century Later 7. In State House 8. Little secrets in little boxes 9. `There seemed to be no doubt at all´ 10. `Have you agreed upon your verdict?´ 11. Culture or anarchy 12. `The storming of heaven´
First published in 1981, this book reassesses the case of Sacco and Vanzetti, two Italian immigrant anarchists living in Boston in 1920 that were accused of a payroll robbery and the murder of two guards for which they were arrested and, after a long trial based on inadequate and prejudiced evidence, executed in 1927. In 1977, the Commonwealth of Massachusettes issued a proclamation which acknowledged a miscarriage of justice.
