For example, following my reading at Fact & Fiction in Missoula Tuesday night, two professors from the University of Montana told me that it was there, in Barbara Theroux's store, that a discussion launched a campaign to win pardons for the 78 Montanans who had been convicted of seditious speech during World War I. Nationwide, there were more than 2,000 prosecutions for speech critical of the war. One man was charged for calling President Wilson a "fat head." Rose Pastor Stokes, a Socialist, was prosecuted for sending a letter to the editor that said, "I am for the people; the government is for the profiteers." More than 1,000 protestors were convicted and sentenced to prison terms of up to 20 years.

Clemens Work, a journalism professor, had written a book that revealed the injustices committed against average citizens in Montana (Darkest Before Dawn: Sedition and Free Speech in the American West). Jeff Renz, a law professor, approached Work at the conclusion of his Fact & Fiction reading in 2005. As they talked, they came up with the idea of enlisting students from the law school to prepare a petition to the governor.

The campaign was a success, and Governor Brian Schweitzer granted the pardons in May 2006. Schweitzer had a special interest in the sedition cases because his grandparents had experienced the anti-German prejudice that drove many of the prosecutions. "Across this country, it was a time when we lost our minds," Schweitzer told relatives of the pardoned men and women during a ceremony in the statehouse rotunda. "So today in Montana, we will attempt to make it right. In Montana, we will say to an entire generation of people, we are sorry. And we challenge the rest of the country to do the same."

So far, Montana is the only state to apologize for the free speech abuses of World War I. But Clem tells me that he is working on a documentary. Perhaps it will inspire others to seek justice for the victims.

It makes me proud that such an important campaign started in a bookstore.