Aug 28, 2025
We know the First Amendment protects hate speech. But has it always done so? And how have civil rights groups responded when their members are the target of hate speech?
University of Iowa Law Professor Samantha Barbas is the author of a new law review article, “How American Civil Rights Groups Defeated Hate Speech Laws.”
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
04:04 “The Birth of a Nation” movie controversy
12:44 Henry Ford’s anti-Semitic “Dearborn Independent”
22:41 American Jewish Committee’s “quarantining” solution
28:41 ACLU’s Eleanor Holmes Norton defending a racist in court
33:42 Racist Senate candidate J.B. Stoner
37:28 Neo-Nazis and Skokie
47:20 Why are college students afraid of saying “the wrong thing?”
52:31 Barbas’ favorite free speech literature
53:15 Barbas’ free speech hero
Read the transcript here: https://www.thefire.org/research-learn/so-speak-podcast-transcript-civil-rights-hate-speech-and-first-amendment.
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Show notes:
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Morris Ernst, free speech renegade (Barbas’ previous So to Speak appearance, July 29, 2021)