Pennsylvania History Presents…

“Pennsylvania History Presents” is an online feature of the Pennsylvania Historical Association’s (PHA) website. Begun in 2019, we offer for free public access one article from the current issue of its quarterly award-winning journal, Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies.

For the Spring 2021 issue (88.2), we are making available “The Crusader from Pittsburgh: Michael Musmanno and the Sacco/Vanzetti Case” by Dr. Richard Mulcahy of the University of Pittsburgh at Titusville.

Justice Michael A. Musmanno was a crusader for his entire public career. Moralistic in his thinking, he tended to see public affairs in terms of black and white, and good versus evil, with him always fighting for what he considered the morally correct side. It was his fight to win acquittal for Sacco and Vanzetti, and his ongoing efforts to secure their exoneration after their execution that truly defined him. There was never any question in his mind that both men were innocent, the victims of ethnic prejudice, xenophobia, and judicial failure that represented a stain upon America and its legal system. Musmanno felt he had a duty to wipe away that stain and sought to do so from 1927 to his death in 1968. In a lifetime marked by fighting for causes, clearing Sacco and Vanzetti, for Musmanno, was the most sacred cause of all.

The article is chosen quarterly by the journal’s editor, and often connects to current events in Pennsylvania and American history. The initiative helps to meet the PHA’s mission of understanding how the past informs the present to help us shape a better future.