Skokie

   In 1977 and 1978, Illinois neo-Nazis of the National Socialist Party of America (NSPA) attempted to march in Skokie, a suburb of Chicago. The Nazis made this decision after their original site for their political rally in Marquette Park, on the south side of Chicago, was denied because the city government required the NSPA to post an onerous public safety–insurance bond, then proceeded to ban all political demonstrations in Marquette Park. Seeking another free-speech political venue, the NSPA chose to march on Skokie. Given the many Holocaust survivors living in Skokie, the village’s government thought the Nazi march would be politically provocative and socially disruptive, and refused the NSPA its permission. At this point, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) interceded in behalf of the NSPA, in the case of the National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie, wherein an Illinois appeals court denied the injunction issued by a Cook County Circuit Court judge, ruling that the presence of the swastika would constitute deliberate provocation of the people of Skokie. However, the court also ruled that Skokie’s attorneys had failed to prove that either the Nazi uniform or their printed materials, which it was alleged that the Nazis intended to distribute, would incite violence. Subsequently, Chicago’s city government lifted its Marquette Park political demonstration ban, and the NSPA held its rally in Chicago. In 1981, the attempted Illinois Nazi march on Skokie was dramatized in the television movie Skokie.