Sapiro, Aaron; Suit forced ford to Apologize.

Description:

Portrait of Detroit attorney Aaron Sapiro who in 1925 filed a libel lawsuit against Henry Ford and his newspaper The Dearborn Independent. "The Independent accused Aaron Sapiro, the movement’s leader, of defrauding American farmers to advance an international Jewish conspiracy. Ford saw himself as the only legitimate champion of rural America; he targeted Sapiro both because he was Jewish and because he was not a farmer ... Determined to silence Ford, Sapiro demanded a retraction. The paper replied with still more defamatory articles. In 1925, Sapiro filed a federal libel suit in Detroit, requesting $1 million in damages. For nearly two years, the defense tried fruitlessly to prove that the articles were true--the only way a publisher could evade responsibility for libel ... Reed and the Ford lawyers underestimated Sapiro and the strength of his case, and Marshall misjudged its potential for strengthening the civil rights claims of American Jews ... As the trial careened toward its end, Ford became desperate to end the suit and avoid taking the witness stand. He ordered his bodyguard, Harry Bennett, to secure a mistrial. Bennett planted an interview with a juror in a Detroit newspaper, producing the desired result. Ford then hurriedly dispatched emissaries to meet with Marshall, who agreed not only to mediate the conflict but also secretly to write Ford’s statement of apology. Having criticized Sapiro for bringing litigation that he believed would only reinforce racist stereotypes, Marshall made sure that Ford’s apology was directed not to Sapiro but to the Jewish people. Thus, though American law did not then recognize hate speech as such, Marshall got Ford to sign a public statement that did," from "Suing Henry Ford: America's First Hate Speech Case," by Victoria Saker Woeste at the American Bar Foundation's website.

Notes:

Collection located at the Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan. To schedule an appointment to view the original image, order high resolution copies, or seek permission to use an image, contact the Walter P. Reuther Library AudioVisual Department at reutherreference@wayne.edu., Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, and This metadata was created by Wayne State University Library system based on original description by the Walter P. Reuther Library

Date Issued:

1927-01-01T00:00:00Z

Data Provider:

Wayne State University. Libraries and Walter P. Reuther Library

Collection:

Virtual Motor City

Subject Topic:

Portraits, Lawyers, and Libel and slander

Subject Name:

Sapiro, Aaron

Format:

photographs

Rights:

Copyright Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University

URL:

http://digital.library.wayne.edu/item/wayne:vmc12413