Becky Edelsohn

Rebecca Edelsohn, in contemporary sources often given as Becky Edelson, (1892–1973) was a Latvian American anarchist and hunger striker who was jailed in 1914 for disorderly conduct during an Industrial Workers of the World speech.

She was arrested again at an International Brotherhood Welfare Association meeting at Cooper Union on Labor Day, 1908.

[9] On the first day of demonstrations, Edelsohn, Arthur Caron, Charles Plunkett, and other anarchists were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after giving speeches at the public square.

[2] The demonstrators rejected legal counsel and furiously pleaded their own defense, with Edelsohn at the forefront of the group.

She denounced the charges as politically motivated, and scornfully dismissed the court as illegitimate: "This town is owned by John D. Rockefeller.

[13] Maurice Hollod, an anarchist associated with Mother Earth and the New York Ferrer Center, remembered marching with Edelsohn in a 1972 interview with anarchist historian Paul Avrich: A black flag was flying, and Becky Edelsohn was marching arm in arm with Charles Plunkett.

June 6, 1914, in Tarrytown, New York
Edelsohn being taken from jail, 1914