Sam Dewitt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Samuel Aaron Dewitt was a businessman and a member of the New York State Assembly representing Bronx's 7th district from 1919 until 1928. In 1928 he made an unsuccessful campaign for the United States Congress.

Sam Dewitt is most famous for being thrown out of the Assembly along with four fellow Legislators for being members of the Socialist Party. The five members brought this case to the Supreme Court of the United States. The New York Assembly was forced to seat three of the five members, including Dewitt. The other members included August Claessens, Samuel Orr, Charles Solomon, and most famously, Louis Waldman.

Dewitt was good friends with author Upton Sinclair. In Sinclair's novel The Jungle, one of the main characters, Nicolas Schliemann, is based on Sam Dewitt.