New England Society for the Suppression of Vice
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| Formation | 1879 |
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| Extinction | 1975 |
| Type | morality activist |
| Headquarters | Boston, Massachusetts |
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Region served
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New England |
The New England Watch and Ward Society (founded as the New England Society for the Suppression of Vice) was a Boston, Massachusetts, organization involved in the censorship of books and the performing arts from the late 19th century to the middle of the 20th century. After the 1920s, its emphasis changed to combating the spread of gambling. In 1957 the organization's name was changed to the New England Citizens Crime Commission, and in 1967 it became the Massachusetts Council on Crime and Correction. In 1975 it was merged with another organization to form Community Resources for Justice, a group that promotes prison reform and rights for ex-convicts.
At the height of the society's power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Boston Public Library kept books that had been deemed objectionable in a locked room, publishers and booksellers held back publications for fear of the organization's influence with prosecutors and judges, and plays were performed in a bowdlerized "Boston Version". The society's activities contributed to the popularization of the phrase "Banned in Boston", which became a target of parody and a marketing slogan.
The New England Society for the Suppression of Vice was founded in 1878 by a meeting of Boston residents following a speech given by . Comstock had founded the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice in 1873 as a vehicle for a crusade against numerous perceived ills of society, and sought to establish chapters of the organization in other cities. The New England Society was to be the first such chapter. The meeting, attended by more than 400 men (women were denied admittance due to the subject matter), elected a committee of eight men to run the organization. Its first agent was Henry Chase, hired in 1882; he served the society for more than 20 years, and the president of the society for many of its early years was Frederick Baylies Allen, an Episcopal minister. The society's membership was open to anyone making contributions of $5 or more; according to historian Paul Boyer, the membership was "almost a roll call of [Boston] Brahmin aristocracy". The society held its first annual meeting in Boston's Park Street Church in 1879. In 1891, it was renamed the Watch and Ward Society after an old volunteer police force, adopting the mission to "watch and ward off evildoers." It was headquartered on School Street, circa 1890s-1900s.
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