Rosenberg pickets on eve of execution: 1953

Protesters urging clemency for the Rosenbergs step up their protests in front of the White House June 19, 1953 after the U.S. Supreme Court set aside a stay of execution.

 

The Rosenbergs were executed later that day.

 

Picket lines in front of the White House were continuous in the months leading up to their execution.

 

The Rosenbergs and a third man, Morton Sobell, were tried together for passing classified information to the Soviet Union related to an atomic bomb.

 

Part of the prosecution strategy was to emphasize their ties to the Communist Party at a time when hysteria over communists in the U.S. was at an all time high during the Cold War and with U.S. troops battling in Korea against forces aided by both the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China.

 

The Rosenbergs were convicted, sentenced to death and then executed June 19, 1953 despite an international outcry for clemency. Sobell served 17 ½ years of a 30-year sentence.

 

For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHskkQha2c

 

The photographer is unknown. The image is an auction find

Done