American Experience presents a virtual PAST FORWARD conversation exploring whether the First Amendment and its near absolute protection of free speech makes Americans more vulnerable to political extremism. This conversation is inspired by our new film Nazi Town, USA.
Panelists will discuss the contours of the First Amendment's free speech protections, and the extent to which they have been used to permit public hate speech and other extremist beliefs, contrasting these legal precedents with those of other Western countries. They will also consider if and how the First Amendment has been adapted to modern digital communication, through which radical thought can spread more widely and quickly than ever before. The panel will reflect on whether speech itself or other factors are responsible for the growing acceptance of social and political sentiments that were once considered extreme.
Panelists:
Dr. Mary Anne Franks is the Eugene L. and Barbara A. Bernard Professor in Intellectual Property, Technology, and Civil Rights Law at George Washington Law School and the President and Legislative & Tech Policy Director of the nonprofit organization Cyber Civil Rights Initiative. Her areas of expertise include First and Second Amendment law, criminal law, family law, and the intersection of civil rights and technology. She is the author of the award-winning book, The Cult of the Constitution: Our Deadly Devotion to Guns and Free Speech (Stanford Press, 2019). Her second book, Fearless Speech (Bold Type Books) will be published later this year.
Steven J. Ross is Distinguished Professor of History and Director of the University of Southern California’s Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life. His recent book, Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America was named a Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History for 2018 and has been on the Los Angeles Times Bestseller List for 23 weeks.
The discussion will be moderated by Adriane Lentz-Smith. Lentz-Smith is an Associate Professor of History at Duke University, where she teaches courses on the Civil Rights Movement, Black Lives, Modern America, and History in Fact and Fiction. A scholar of African American history as well as the histories of the twentieth-century United States and the US & the World, Lentz Smith is the author of Freedom Struggles: African Americans and World War I (Harvard University Press, 2009), as well as numerous other scholarly articles and reviews.
This event will be livestreamed on our
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