Sam DeWitt
American politician
Samuel Aaron DeWitt (November 1, 1891 – January 22, 1963) was an American businessman, poet, playwright, and politician. He was a New York State Legislator who represented Bronx's 7th district from 1919 until his expulsion from the assembly in 1920 during the First Red Scare.
Biography
DeWitt was born on November 1, 1891, in New York City. He worked as a machinery dealer and was an active Socialist throughout his life. DeWitt first applied for membership in the Socialist Party on August 29, 1913.
Political career
Sam Dewitt is most famous for being expelled in 1920 from the New York State Assembly along with four fellow assemblymen for being members of the Socialist Party. The five Socialists were barred from taking their seats at the beginning of the session of the 143rd New York State Legislature and, after a protracted "trial" before the Assembly Committee on the Judiciary, defended by Morris Hillquit and Seymour Stedman, were expelled on April 1. All five were re-elected at a special election on September 16, and appeared to take their seats at the beginning of the special session on September 20. The next day, DeWitt and Samuel Orr were permitted to take their seats, but August Claessens, Charles Solomon and Louis Waldman were expelled again. Protesting against the re-expulsion of their comrades, DeWitt and Orr resigned their seats.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sam DeWitt” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.