Figures of speech: The heroes and villains of free speech in American history | The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression

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Table of Contents

Collage showing Woodrow Wilson, Ida B. Wells, Frederick Douglass, and Thomas Paine around the words "Figures of Speech"

Figures of speech

The heroes and villains of free speech in American history.

Frederick Douglass represents the best of us. And free speech.

Abolition

Born into slavery, Douglass escaped when he was 21 and spent the rest of his life turning his voice into a force no one could ignore. From plantation fields to crowded halls in Boston, even when mobs tried to silence him, he kept speaking.

America's Figures of Speech

As America marks 250 years of independence, it's time to look back at the moments that tested the freedoms at the heart of the American experiment. FIRE is proud to present the limited series “Figures of Speech” — looking at the heroes and villains of free speech in American history.

Collage showing Woodrow Wilson in front of newspaper headlines about censorship under his administration.

Woodrow Wilson: America’s worst president for free speech

Analysis

June 10, 2026

Before he championed democracy abroad, Woodrow Wilson built America's first modern censorship regime, jailing dissenters and crushing opposition in the name of war.

Hoover

J. Edgar Hoover and the war on dissent

Analysis

June 26, 2026

J. Edgar Hoover turned the FBI into a powerful crime-fighting agency — and one of the greatest threats to free speech in American history.

Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine: American history’s winter soldier

Analysis

May 20, 2026

Two hundred fifty years after "Common Sense," Thomas Paine’s life reminds us that free speech and free thought are the lifeblood of a free society.

Comstock

How Anthony Comstock became America’s most powerful censor

Analysis

May 27, 2026

Anthony Comstock turned Victorian panic into federal censorship, criminalizing “obscene” speech and policing American morality. This is his story.

Ida B. Wells: Journalist, activist, civil rights icon, and free speech hero

Analysis

In 1892, a mob destroyed a Memphis newspaper after it published an anti lynching editorial. Through death threats and violence, they tried to erase journalist Ida B. Wells’s message. Instead, they made her fight impossible to ignore.

Collage showing a black and white photo of Ida B. Wells next to a shotgun and some of her publications.

How McCarthy scared America silent

Analysis

A paranoid senator, a terrified nation, and the birth of modern political censorship. This is the chilling story of how McCarthyism came to haunt America.

Joseph McCarthy

Cassius Marcellus Clay brought cannons to a free press fight

Analysis

Before Muhammad Ali, another Cassius Clay defended a free press — with brass cannons aimed at the pro-slavery mob.

Cassius Clay

Frank Kameny was fired for being gay. What he did next changed America.

Analysis

After losing his career for being gay, Frank Kameny challenged the government and helped spark the modern gay rights movement.

Frank Kameny

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