22 December 2016

Gag Law 1948



War Against All Puerto Ricans by Nelson Denis, 2015, Excerpts


On March 9, 1948, J. Edgar Hoover placed the Nationalist Party on the FBI list of organizations working to subvert the US government. The passage of Public Law 53 (the Gag Law) was nearly a word-for-word translation of Section 2 of the Anti-Communist US Smith Act, and it authorized police and FBI to stop anyone on the street and to invade any Puerto Rican home. If the police found a Puerto Rican flag, the residents could all be arrested and jailed.



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