The Journal of American History

In 1950 Joseph Beauharnais, an affiliate of the American Nazi party, wrote a pamphlet calling on his fellow “self-respecting white people in Chicago” to unite against the blacks who were invading white neighborhoods. He was arrested by the Chicago police after he distributed the pamphlet on street corners in Chicago's Loop. He was charged with violating an Illinois law against publishing anything that libeled a class of citizens defined by race, creed, color, or religion and that might cause a riot or breach of the peace. He was tried and found guilty, yet appealed his conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court upheld the verdict against him in Beauharnais v. Illinois (1952). Undeterred, Beauharnais continued to advance the cause of white supremacy in Chicago. In 1953 he wrote to Chicago mayor Martin H. Kennelly, complaining that the city's police department was being used “to forcibly infiltrate the negro into...

Occupied Territory: Policing Black Chicago from Red Summer to Black Power