Event Announcement: "Re:Collecting Past Radicals and Rebels: The Resonance of Resistance and the Persistence of Injustice," December 9, 2014

NOTE: The public event featuring Fran Shor has been rescheduled to 4:30pm on Tuesday, December 9.

Dr. Francis Shor, of the Wayne State University Department of History, will deliver the presentation "Re:Collecting Past Radicals and Rebels: The Resonance of Resistance and the Persistence of Injustice." This event will take place at 4:30 PM on Tuesday, December 2 in the Reuther Conference Room of the Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs.

December 2 marks the 50th anniversary of an iconic moment in the free speech movement: the 1964 student protests and sit-in at the University of California, Berkeley campus. 52 years before that, another significant free speech fight embroiled San Diego in a six-month confrontation between police, vigilantes, and the Industrial Workers of the World. Labor activist Joe Hill escaped the violence of San Diego only to succumb to anti-union violence in Utah in 1915. This illustrated presentation will explore the role of IWW rebels Joe Hill and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, not only highlighting the meaning of their radicalism to their times, but also recognizing how their work (and the persistence of social injustices) helped to inspire free speech, civil rights, and resistance movements through the 1960s and into our own times with the Occupy Wall Street movement.

This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. This event is sponsored by the Reuther Library and the University Library System. Donations will be accepted at the event to increase access, awareness, and digitization of the Industrial Workers of the World Records held in the Reuther Library.