Born in Lithuania to a Russian Jewish family, Emma Goldman immigrated to the US in 1885. An agitator from her earliest days, anarchism took hold of Goldman after the Chicago Haymarket affair, which started as a peaceful protest among workers striking for a more humane eight-hour workday.
Goldman took her anarchist beliefs on the road, traveling across the US and speaking to crowds of thousands on topics ranging from women's rights to free love. Goldman was imprisoned several times for "inciting to riot" and distributing information about birth control. But her longest stint in jail came in 1917, when Goldman was sentenced to two years for speaking out against the wartime draft and "inducing persons not to register." After her release, it wasn't long before Goldman was arrested once more and finally deported to Russia.
