Today, it has been 96 years since the execution of the anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. Anti-immigrant bigotry played a significant part in determining the outcome of their trial. The court case became a rallying point for thousands around the world.
"Not only am I innocent of these two crimes, not only in all my life I have never stolen, never killed, never spilled blood, but I have struggled all my life, since I began to reason, to eliminate crime from the earth...
"I am suffering because I am a radical and indeed I am a radical; I have suffered because I was an Italian, and indeed I am an Italian; I have suffered more for my family and for my beloved than for myself; but I am so convinced to be right that you can only kill me once but if you could execute me two times, and if I could be reborn two other times, I would live again to do what I have done already."
-Bartolomeo Vanzetti, addressing the court at their sentencing

