Video: Dr. Francis Shor, "Re:Collecting Past Radicals and Rebels: The Resonance of Resistance and the Persistence of Injustice"

On December 9, 2014, Dr. Fancis Shor of the Wayne State University Department of History delivered the presentation "Re:Collecting Past Radicals and Rebels: The Resonance of Resistance and the Persistence of Injustice" in the Reuther Conference Room of the Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs.

December 2, 2014 marked 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. Dr. Shor's illustrated presentation explored 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.

A video recording of Dr. Shor's talk is now available on Vimeo..