Skokie V.S The Selma March
The National Socialist Party of America v. Skokie (1977)
In 1977, there was a village by the name of Skokie in the state of Illinois. This city obtained a population of about 70,000. And of these, approximately 40,000 were Jews. Constitutional freedoms have long been worthy of an agreeably strong battle. And to interfere with one's inherent constitutional rights is, in a way, to take away what makes us as America a democracy. An especially decent example of this is in the case of The Village of Skokie v. National Socialist Party of America, where a Nazi demonstration had been purposely planned for this predominately Jewish community of Holocaust survivors. There has been question as to whether the town was within its rights to refuse such a demonstration; also as to whether the American Nazi Party was within its rights to demonstrate with such obviously cruel intentions. Clearly, the First Amendment is something by which content can't be censored merely because someone does not like what is being said. However, there are instances when words are spoken with the specific intent to cause a violent response, which is known as the Fighting Words Doctrine. In this specific case, First Amendment rights do not protect such aggravation.
Selma-to-Montgomery March "Bloody Sunday" (19--)
There are other situations in which the First Amendment has been tested. Despite the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the active attempts of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to register the Black voters of Alabama, there was not very significant progress made. An instance of one such place facing the issues dealing with the controversy present of the First Amendments "Freedom of Speech" was Selma Alabama. This small southern town of 29,000 soon became the focal point of the Civil Rights movement. Of the 15,156 blacks in Dallas County, Alabama merely 156 were registered to vote. On January 2, 1965 Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King visited Selma and gave a...
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