As landmark cases go, the trial of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti in the 1920s continues to serve as a basis for examining injustice in the American judicial system.
The two Italian immigrants were executed in 1927 after being convicted of robbing a shoe factory and killing two men at the scene.
Throughout the 1920s, protests surfaced across the nation from people who said the judicial system had targeted the two men because of their ethnic background and support of an anarchist movement.
Occurring during the nation’s first “Red Scare,” the incident marked a time in American history when anti-Communism fears had reached extremes, compromising basic liberties.
The Jersey City Museum has re-introduced the subject to the public in the exhibit, “Ben Shahn and the Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti.” Ben Shahn is an artist who began painting the subject in 1931 and returned to it many times during his career, developing a reputation as someone committed to social and political themes.
Divided into two separate rooms, the exhibit takes a holistic approach to the subject, incorporating photographs, books, pamphlets, and other artifacts associated with the case in conjunction with 13 pieces of Shahn’s work. The effect of the exhibit is less of an artistic experience and more of a lesson in history that uses art as a platform for discussion. In truth, the exhibit would make little sense otherwise. Unless someone enters the exhibit with a solid understanding of the trial and the circumstances behind it, Shahn’s work needs the information that is provided.
As a result, the exhibit itself is displayed chronologically, explaining the arrest, trial and subsequent protests that preceded the execution.
The conviction of the two men rested on three factors: Eyewitness accounts, ballistics tests and “consciousness of guilt.” None of these produced concrete evidence that the men were guilty, and testimonies by a number of alibis were dismissed.
Judge Webster Thayer, who took a prejudiced approach from the beginning, largely influenced the evidence and how it was interpreted. The Sacco and Vanzetti conviction led to years of appeals and protests that brought the issue to the forefront of national consciousness, but failed to overturn the decision.
The signature piece is based on a photograph of Sacco and Vanzetti handcuffed together in the courtroom. Shahn uses this image several times to produce separate works. In one instance, the two men have been turned into caricatures. Shahn sketched oversized heads in big suits, but leaves them as outlines of a figure rather than shading them in. The characters appear harmless, but are undoubtedly linked to guilt by the shackles on that tie them together.
The human features of the convicted men are also coupled with a stoic sensibility that is rooted in the martyrdom was associated with them up until their execution and thereafter. Many of Shahn’s pieces include a quote from Vanzetti that recognizes how he and Sacco had been given an elevated importance because of the injustice they suffered. “Never in our full life could we hope to do such work for tolerance, for justice, for man’s understanding of man as now we do by accident,” he said.
Although the exhibition was conceived in 1994 and ultimately culminated at the Sept. 19 opening of the museum, the issue of compromised justice in the face of national fears will play a significant part in the United States dialogue for years to come in light of the pending war on terrorism. The exhibit ends on Dec. 16.
In conjunction with the exhibit, Rutgers Press has released a book titled “Ben Shahn and the Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti” that includes essays discussing the case historically and critiquing Shahn’s work in that context. The exhibit was organized by the former curator of the museum, Alejandro Arneus, who recently took an academic position with William Paterson University.
The Jersey City Museum, located on 350 Montgomery St., is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday.
The telephone number is 413-9922.