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When police arrested a magazine publisher

By adamg on Sat, 04/05/2014 - 9:12am

Today's the anniversary of the 1926 arrest of H.L. Mencken on the Common for selling a magazine considered obscene by the local group that banned things in Boston. The charges were dismissed the next day and Mencken won a lawsuit against the Watch and Ward Society. The group's influence continued through 1982, when the position of city censor was eliminated.

Neighborhoods: 
Downtown
Topics: 
History
Free tagging: 
Boston Common


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Comments

By anonalex on Sat, 04/05/2014 - 9:05pm.

The Watch and Ward Society had gotten out of the censorship business by 1957 when it became the New England Citizens Crime Commission as part of shifting its focus to rehabilitation and research. So it wasn't influencing anything after that - the city censor was just part of the standard Boston anti-fun coalition.

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