On 21 September 1885, William Morris was arrested. Morris was arrested for shouting “shame!” at the sentencing of Lewis Lyons, a tailor, to two months hard labor for allegedly resisting arrest at a public protest meeting in support of free speech. Upwards of 30,000 people attended the next Sunday morning socialist open air speech at Dod Street, a site for open-air meetings which the police had tried to shut down. Image: Photograph of William Morris, aged 53. First published 1899 (photo by Frederick Hollyer c. 1887). From Google Books edition of J. W. Mackail The Life of William Morris in two volumes, London, New York and Bombay: Longmans, Green and Co., 1899.

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Florence Boos, “The Socialist League, founded 30 December 1884″