In 1950 Irwin Franklin, who had come to the United States from Russia at age four, was convicted for falsely representing himself as a U.S. citizen and sentenced to an 18-month prison term. Franklin's defenders alleged that the federal government had pursued the case because of his refusal to release information related to his employment as a distributor of films made in the Soviet Union. In 1952, immediately upon his release from prison, Franklin was again arrested and ordered deported for allegedly subversive activities, including membership in the Communist Party. A flyer produced by the Midwest Committee for Protection of the Foreign Born, a Chicago-based immigrant legal aid organization, sought to draw attention to the case and raise funds for Franklin's defense.

Creator: Franklin Defense Committee
Source: Chicago Historical Society (ICHi-37342)