who was Rosika Schwimmer, the woman on whose behalf she argued in the United States Supreme Court?
What follows is a sketch of those two women and their respective roles in our free-speech history. A progressive pacifist Born in Budapest, Hungary, on Sept. 11, 1877, Rosika (or Rozsa or Rozsika) Schwimmer became a well-known organizer, author and lecturer for women’s rights and other progressive causes, including pacifism. She founded the Hungarian Feminist Association in 1897 and became a leader in the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom during World War I. She fled Hungary in 1920 when the Miklós Horthy government began to prosecute and purge Jews. Schwimmer went to Vienna, then to the United States. In 1921 she took up residence in Chicago. After living continuously in the United States for five years, Schwimmer applied for citizenship before a circuit court in Cook County, Ill. The 49-year-old woman filled out a 26-item questionnaire called a “preliminary form.” Question 22 asked: “If necessary, are you willing to take up arms in defense of this country?” Schwimmer
