In the middle of the night on Sunday, October 12, 1958, fifty sticks of dynamite exploded in the entryway of an Atlanta synagogue.
asserted
sticks → explode → synagogue
The blast took place at the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation, the oldest and most prominent synagogue in Atlanta.
asserted
blast → take → Atlanta
Parts of the temple were blown apart.
asserted
Parts → blow → temple
Not long after, staff at the news agency United Press International received a call from someone identifying himself as "General Gordon of the Confederate Underground."
asserted
staff → receive → Underground
"We bombed a temple in Atlanta," he said.
asserted
he → bomb → Atlanta
"This is the last empty building we will bomb.…
asserted
we → bomb → ?
Negroes and Jews are hereby declared aliens."
asserted
Negroes → declare → ?
Segregationists targeted synagogues that promoted integration as well as recently integrated schools.
asserted
that → target → integration
President Dwight Eisenhower denounced the attack and called for immediate investigation.
asserted
Eisenhower → denounce → investigation
The FBI and Atlanta police linked the bombing to five men who belonged to white supremacist hate groups, including the National States' Rights Party (NSRP).
asserted
who → link → Party
The NSRP, an avowedly fascist organization founded in 1949, embraced virulent antisemitism and a fanatical resistance to integration, part of its platform of "saving America and the white race and the preservation of the pure blood of our forefathers."
asserted
NSRP → found → forefathers
The organization was known for its Nazi-like uniforms of white shirts, black ties, and armbands with the emblem of a thunderbolt over a Confederate flag.
asserted
organization → know → flag
Before the bombing, large quantities of antisemitic "hate literature" had been circulated in Atlanta.
asserted
quantities → circulate → Atlanta
Copies of hate publications or "hate sheets" were found near the bombed buildings.
asserted
Copies → find → buildings
When the FBI raided the homes of the suspected bombers, they found troves of antisemitic literature and crude drawings of swastikas.
asserted
they → raid → swastikas
One of the suspects was discovered with antisemitic pamphlets in his car.
asserted
One → discover → car
Some of the literature found at the scene of the bombing had been issued by neo-Nazi leader George Lincoln Rockwell, who produced large quantities of "hate propaganda" at a printing plant in the basement of his headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.
asserted
who → find → Arlington
The bombings seemed to have a strong connection to hate speech.
asserted
bombings → seem → speech
By the early 1950s, prominent scholars who earlier advocated group defamation laws had reversed their positions.
asserted
who → advocate → positions
Harvard social psychologist Gordon Allport, an influential backer of the 1943 Massachusetts group libel law, observed in his 1954 treatise The Nature of Prejudice that "the remedy for prejudiced opinion is not suppression, but rather a free-flowing counteraction by unprejudiced opinion."
asserted
remedy → observe → opinion
Even David Riesman, once the foremost scholarly advocate of group defamation laws, changed his mind.
asserted
Riesman → change → mind
In a 1951 article in Commentary magazine, he disparaged group defamation laws as a form of "censorship."
asserted
he → disparage → censorship
"Free and open discussion" in the "marketplace of ideas" had become the preferred liberal approach to dealing with the hate speech problem.
asserted
discussion → become → problem
The New York Times, defending the right of neo-Nazis to march in New York City in 1960, opined that "if the [First Amendment] … failed to cover even the most outrageous and objectionable expressions," so long as they did not produce a clear and present danger, it would "not be worth the paper it is written on."
asserted
it → defend → danger
As Riesman put it, freedom of expression "in the present context of American society … is one of the greatest safeguards for Jews and all other minorities subject to prejudice."
asserted
freedom → put → prejudice
Observed a writer for Congressional Quarterly in 1958, it was "widely agreed that an aroused and determined public opinion is the main thing needed to put a quietus on fanatical deeds and words.
asserted
opinion → observe → deeds
This stark repudiation of hate speech laws occurred despite the precipitous rise of hate groups in the 1950s.
asserted
repudiation → occur → 1950s
Across the South, dozens of white supremacist organizations sprang up to resist integration in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education.
asserted
dozens → spring → Education
These Klan-type organizations merged with antisemitic, fascist groups in the North to form a single, national "hate movement."
asserted
organizations → merge → movement
Organizations with ominous names such as the American Vigilantes, the Christian Defenders, the National States' Rights Party, and the Christian Nationalist Crusade, railing against the purported "evils" of Communism, "race-mixing," and integration, spewed racist, antisemitic, and anti-Catholic tirades to millions.
asserted
Organizations → rail → millions
America's repudiation of bigotry in the postwar years forced the "hatemongers" to camouflage their blatant approaches.
asserted
repudiation → force → approaches
Many hate groups abandoned the brash and obvious tactics that prewar fascist groups had used.
asserted
groups → abandon → that
Rather than staging demonstrations, protests, and picket lines generating violent responses, they adopted more subtle and modern methods.
asserted
they → stag → methods
The bulk of the hatemongers' activity was now the distribution of "hate sheets"—mass-produced pamphlets, leaflets, and broadsides that they circulated in bulk, much of it by US mail.
asserted
they → produce → mail
By 1956, around two dozen hate sheets were in the business of fomenting racial and religious hatred.
asserted
sheets → foment → hatred
These publications, most of them unrequested, found their way into at least half a million homes and were read by more than two million Americans.
asserted
most → find → Americans
The hate sheets were transmitted in mass quantities under such titles as "White Christians Awake" and "Jews and You."
asserted
Christians → transmit → Awake
They used dramatic and fantastic tactics to link Communists, Jews, African Americans, and Catholics in purported conspiracies to defeat the "American way of life."
asserted
They → use → life
Headlines spoke of the "Jewish-Communist Conspiracy Behind Racial Integration" and called the NAACP a "Jewish Front."
asserted
Headlines → speak → NAACP
The hate groups joined together in an extensive "hate network" to circulate their literature.
asserted
groups → join → literature
…and 7 more, not listed.
The Aporia
