The Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences Division of Humanities will welcome guest speaker Victoria Saker Woeste, Ph.D., research professor at the American Bar Foundation, on Wednesday, Feb. 1. Woeste will speak about “Henry Ford’s War on Jews and the Legal Battle Against Hate Speech,” which is also the title of her upcoming book. The talk will begin at 4:00 p.m. in the Alvin Sherman Library, room 4009.
About the Presentation
Woeste provides perspective on the “side career” of automobile pioneer Henry Ford: a publisher of anti-Semitic literature and propaganda via his weekly newspaper, The Dearborn Independent. Ford was also deeply involved in the 1927 libel lawsuit against the publication, which later settled out of court after a statement by Ford that all but apologized for the hate speech printed in his newspaper.
Though largely forgotten today, the trial fixed the nation’s attention on questions of American inclusiveness and reflected the country’s deep ambivalence about race and religious difference. More important, given that American courts in the 20th Century generally declined to recognize the category of hate speech as an exception to free-speech rights under the First Amendment, the fact that Ford apologized to American Jews as a group for his words reveals the ongoing tensions in law and culture between individual freedoms and the status of those seeking equality on the basis of group identity.
This talk is free, and all are welcome to attend. Light refreshments will be served. For more information, contact Charles Zelden, Ph.D., professor in the college, at (954) 262-8218.