East Side Freedom Library

How did a Black woman from Texas become one of the most well-known civil  right activists in Minnesota? After seven decades of speaking up and  standing up, of fighting for fairness in voting, housing, education, and  employment, Dr. Josie Johnson has finally written her memoir. "Hope in  the Struggle" gives us an opportunity to not only learn about her, but  to learn from her.  

Dr. Johnson’s story began in segregated Texas, where her father  organized against the Poll Tax, launching her on a lifetime of activism  which brought her to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, where she  cast her vote for Barack Obama for president.   Her memoir offers a close-up picture of what that struggle has  entailed, whether working as a community organizer for the Minneapolis  Urban League or lobbying for fair housing and employment laws,  investigating civil rights abuses or co-chairing the Minnesota  delegation to the March on Washington, becoming the first African  American to serve on the University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents or  creating the university’s Office of the Associate Vice President for  Academic Affairs with a focus on minority affairs and diversity. An  intimate view of civil rights history in the making, "Hope in the  Struggle" is a uniquely inspiring life story for these current dark and  divisive times, a testament to how one determined soul can make the  world a better place.  

ESFL and RCHS are pleased to present Dr. Johnson in conversation with an  activist from a younger generation, Tish Jones. A poet, organizer, and  educator from St. Paul, Ms. Jones is Founder & Executive Director of  TruArtSpeaks, and she has had an impact on artist-activists from coast  to coast. She has performed at The Walker Art Center, Intermedia Arts,  The Cedar Cultural Center and more. Ms. Jones’ work can be found in the  Minnesota Humanities Center’ anthology, Blues Vision: African American  Writing from Minnesota (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2015), the  2011 and 2013 Saint Paul Almanac, the Loft Literary Center’s Nation of  Immigrants audio CD highlighting the voices of their longstanding  Equilibrium Spoken Word Series, and many more spaces.

To view the video: https://youtu.be/RIqfdd_0aBI

The Twin Cities JACL commemorates the 79th anniversary of the  signing of Executive Order 9066 with a "Day of Remembrance" program that  includes a screening of "Conscience and the Constitution."  

This is the audio of the video presentation on February 21, 2021 (viewable here: https://youtu.be/M6q6tM6gfgg). Due to copyright limitations, it includes the introduction of the  panelists and the post-film discussion but does not include the film itself. You may order your own copy of the film from: https://resisters.com/conscience-and-the-constituion/orders/.  It can also be viewed on Amazon with a Prime subscription.  

"Conscience and the Constitution" is an hour-long, award-winning PBS  documentary that tells the story of the draft resistance movement at  Heart Mountain during World War II. A conversation following the film focuses on the contemporary  significance of this story. Participants include Frank Abe, the film's  writer, producer, and director, Jaylani Hussein, the executive director  of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations  (CAIR), and Japanese American and Muslim students from the University of  Minnesota.  

Our speakers:  

Frank Abe (he/him) is a journalist, reporter, writer, producer,  director, actor, and a founding member of the Asian American Theater  Workshop in San Francisco and of the Asian American Journalists  Association in Seattle. His involvement with producing the two original  "Day of Remembrance" events in Seattle and Portland gave media attention  to the campaign for redress. He received the 2019 American Book Award  for "John Okada: The Life and Rediscovered Work of the Author of No-No  Boy," and has written a new graphic novel, "We Hereby Refuse: Japanese  American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration," coming in March.  

Jaylani Hussein (he/him) is the executive director of the Minnesota  chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). His family  emigrated from Somalia to Minnesota in 1993. Hussein holds degrees in  community development and city planning from St. Cloud State University  and political science from North Dakota State University. He has  collaborated with the Twin Cities JACL on various programs to discuss  the relevance of the Japanese American incarceration in the present day  and to foster understanding within the broader community.  

Haruka Yukioka (they/them) is a queer, nonbinary, shin-nisei Japanese  American. They are a student at the University of Minnesota - Twin  Cities studying Music Education, Asian American Studies, and Racial  Justice in Urban Schooling. Haruka also serves as the 2020-2021 External  Vice-President of the Asian American Student Union. Haruka is  passionate about racial and queer/trans justice, and is constantly  looking to learn more about Asian American activism and cross-racial  solidarity. 

 Ismahan Ali (she/her) is a Muslim, Somali American First-Generation  student at the University of Minnesota-TC. She's receiving her B.S in  Developmental Psychology and minor in Communications. She's also serving  as the Events Coordinator for the Al-Madinah Cultural Center at the U  for the 2020-21 Academic Year. Some areas of passion for her are  pursuing Muslim, Immigrant, and Racial Justice as well as ensuring  Children's Welfare.  

This program is funded by the Karen and Les Suzukamo Fund, Saint Paul  & Minnesota Foundation.

A  virtual panel discussion on the film “Jim Crow of the North” centered  on housing inequities and food access in the Twin Cities.

The  event series “Co-op Community Conversations: Exploring the intersection  of racial, social, and food justice” is presented by Eastside Food  Co-op, Mississippi Market Food Co-op, Seward Community Co-op, and Twin  Cities Co-op Partners as a way to examine and connect our cooperative values with social justice movements. Stay tuned for future events in  this series taking place throughout the year.

Why do Minnesotans experience some of the worst racial disparities in home ownership in this country?

Join  Twin Cities Food Co-ops, The East Side Freedom Library and TPT-2 to  explore this question through the film “Jim Crow of the North,” which  delves into the complex history of racial covenants in the Twin Cities  and systematic racism that has lasting repercussions on housing inequities today.

To view the video: https://youtu.be/Wnz7EJWcZaQ

Please join us for a History Book Club virtual event from the University  of Minnesota’s Department of History, the Ramsey County Historical  Society, the University of Minnesota's African American and African  Studies Department and the Labor and Working History Association.  This  event features a discussion of "Workers on Arrival: Black Labor in the  Making of America" by Joe Trotter.  

Joe Trotter (PhD ‘80), Giant Eagle Professor of History at Carnegie  Mellon University, will discuss his book with moderator William Jones,  Professor of History at the University of Minnesota.  

About the book: Workers on Arrival: Black Labor in the Making of America, University of  California Press (January 2019)  From the ongoing issues of poverty, health, housing and employment to  the recent upsurge of lethal police-community relations, the black  working class stands at the center of perceptions of social and racial  conflict today. Journalists and public policy analysts often discuss the  black poor as “consumers” rather than “producers,” as “takers” rather  than “givers,” and as “liabilities” instead of “assets.”  

In his engrossing new history, Workers on Arrival, Joe William Trotter,  Jr. refutes these perceptions by charting the black working class’s vast  contributions to the making of America. Covering the last four hundred  years since Africans were first brought to Virginia in 1619, Trotter  traces black workers’ complicated journey from the transatlantic slave  trade through the American Century to the demise of the industrial order  in the 21st century. At the center of this compelling, fast-paced  narrative are the actual experiences of these African American men and  women. A dynamic and vital history of remarkable contributions despite  repeated setbacks, Workers on Arrival expands our understanding of  America’s economic and industrial growth, its cities, ideas, and  institutions, and the real challenges confronting black urban  communities today. 

 About the author: Joe William Trotter, Jr. is the Giant Eagle Professor of History and  Social Justice and past History Department Chair at Carnegie Mellon  University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is also the Director and  Founder of Carnegie Mellon’s Center for Africanamerican Urban Studies  and the Economy, President Elect of the Urban History Association and a  member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Professor Trotter  received his BA degree from Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin and  his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Minnesota. He is  currently working on a study of African American urban life since the  Atlantic slave trade.   

About the moderator William P. Jones is a professor of history at the University of  Minnesota and president of the Labor and Working Class History  Association. He currently serves as the director of graduate studies for  the History Department. An expert on race and labor in the  twentieth-century United States, he is author of two award-winning  books, The Tribe of Black Ulysses: African American Lumber Workers in  the Jim Crow South (2005) and The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom,  and the Forgotten History of Civil Rights (2013). Jones has been a guest  on the PBS Newshour, NPR’s “The Takeaway,” and Democracy Now! He has  written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Nation, and  other publications. He is currently writing a book on public employees  and the transformation of the U.S. economy after World War II. Before  coming to the University of Minnesota in 2016, Dr. Jones taught at the  University of Wisconsin and Rutgers University.

The uprising in the wake of the murder of George Floyd included an inspiring blossoming of mutual aid practices, networks, and visions across the Twin Cities. This live panel discussion features community members active in mutual aid organizing in the Twin Cities. Roxxanne, Sheff, Carmen, Rachel and Jae, organizers for mutual aid networks including Twin Cities Relief and Community Aid Network MN, talk about their experiences, challenges, and goals for long-term movement building. At the end of the discussion, panelists will address audience questions typed into the chat. (Roxxanne's video is turned off, so her name does not appear on the screen when she talks.)

The panel discussion has been organized by History for the Future and is being hosted by East Side Freedom Library. History for the Future is a community-curated public history initiative asking how historical and present day mutual aid work in the Twin Cities can help us imagine radical futures of community care.

View the video: www.youtube.com/eastsidefreedomlibraryorg

On  the second Friday evening of each month, ESFL screens a labor history  film. 

In  this video ESFL's Peter Rachleff discusses the historical context for  "Finally Got the News" with David Colman, Associate Professor of African  American History, Ramapo College of New Jersey, and James Robinson,  Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies, Metropolitan State University.

This  film traces the activities of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers  inside and outside the auto factories of Detroit. Through interviews  with the members of the movement, footage shot in the auto plants, and  footage of leafleting and picketing actions, the film documents their  efforts to build an independent black labor organization that, unlike  the UAW, will respond to worker’s problems, such as the assembly line  speed-up and inadequate wages faced by both black and white workers in  the industry. It provides a rare opportunity for African American  industrial workers to represent themselves on film and for a  self-identified revolutionary organization to provide their own  perspective on the past, the present, and the future.

The  late historian Manning Marable wrote: “The League [of Revolutionary  Black Workers] was in many respects the most significant expression of  black radical thought and activism in the 1960s. The League took the  impetus for Black Power and translated it into a fighting program  focusing on industrial workers.”

Oral  historian and filmmaker Dan Georgakas (author of Detroit: I Do Mind  Dying) wrote: “Ideological in the best sense: it is a film about ideas  [and] presents a serious strategy for mass working class action… It  speaks of a specific time and specific experiences in terms that will  remain relevant as long as working people are not able to control their  own lives.”

To view the video with closed captioning: YouTube.com/eastsidefreedomlibraryorg

The  East Side Freedom Library and the Ramsey County Historical Society  invite you to a special session of our “History Revealed” series.

This event will be archived on on the library's Facebook page and on our YouTube channel with closed captioning enabled: https://www.youtube.com/eastsidefreedomlibraryorg. 

“Middle class” is an ideologically shaped and deployed term in American  culture and politics. Activist-scholar David Roediger makes clear in  his pointed and persuasive polemic, this obsession with the middle-class  is relatively new in US politics. It began with the attempt to win back  so-called “Reagan Democrats” by Bill Clinton and it was accompanied by a  pandering to racism and a shying away from meaningful wealth  redistribution that continues to this day.

Drawing  on rich traditions of radical social thought, Roediger disavows the  thinly sourced idea that the United States was, for much of its history,  a “middle-class” nation and the still more indefensible position that  it is one now. The increasing immiseration of large swathes of  middle-income America, only accelerated by the current pandemic, nails a  fallacy that is a major obstacle to progressives.

David  Roediger taught in the 1990s at the University of Minnesota and now  teaches American Studies at the University of Kansas. His books include  Seizing Freedom, The Wages of Whiteness, How Race Survived U.S. History,  and Towards the Abolition of Whiteness and Working toward Whiteness.  His book The Production of Difference (with Elizabeth Esch) recently won  the International Labor History Association Book Prize. He is past  president of the American Studies Association and of the Working-Class  Studies Association.

Professor Roediger will be joined in conversation by:

August  Nimtz, Professor of Political Science and African American Studies at  the University of Minnesota. August has been an activist in progressive  movements in the Twin Cities (and beyond) since the 1970s with a  particular emphasis on solidarity with the people of Cuba.

Kieran  Knutson, President of Communications Workers of America Local 7250  (Minnesota AT&T). Kieran has been a long time activist at the  intersection of the racial justice and labor movements.

Megan  Brown, Assistant Professor in the Masters in Advocacy and Political  Leadership (MAPL) program at Metropolitan State University. A geographer  by training and trade, Megan has recently found her way to St. Paul.

Dr.  Haidar Eid will give an introductory background on the situation in  Gaza, focusing on the horror of the blockade and the three wars of  aggression 2009, 2012, and 2014. He will then discuss the necessity of  international intervention in the form of Boycott, Divestment and  Sanctions as the most effective tool of solidarity with the Palestinian  people. Dr. Haidar will also discuss how to avoid normalization with  apartheid Israel by heeding the BDS call made by Palestinian civil  society.

Please  direct questions about this event to [email protected]. This event is  co-hosted by our friends at the East Side Freedom Library, &  American Muslims for Palestine-Minnesota.

Co-sponsors include; Jewish Voice for Peace- Twin Cities Chapter, and Women Against Military Madness.

About the Speaker"

Dr.  Eid holds a Ph.D from the University of Johannesburg, South Africa and  is a member of the Palestinian Campaign for Academic Boycott of Israel,  Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor, founding member of the One Democratic State  Campaign, and Associate Professor of Postcolonial and Postmodern  Literature at Gaza's al-Aqsa University. He has written widely on the  Arab-Israeli conflict, including books Worlding Postmodernism:  Interpretive Possibilities of Critical Theory  and Countering The  Palestinian Nakba: One State For All.

George Cartwright (saxophone, guitar, and who knows what else) and Steve  Hirsh (percussion)  

George Cartwright is a Minnesota-based composer, performer, band leader,  producer and musical collaborator, with a prolific career spanning over  30 years. His career began in his home state of Mississippi, shaped by a  childhood woven through with early memories of singing in church and  learning songs at his grandfather’s knee. He grew up on rock-n-roll and  fell in love with jazz after hearing Charles Lloyd’s iconic “Forest  Flower,” and like the British bands that he listened to in high school,  he was also heavily influenced by the blues being played literally in  his own backyard of the Mississippi Delta.  

Steve Hirsh is a drumset player who performs with some of the area’s  finest improvisers. His recent ensembles have included Le Voyage (with  Donald Washington, Matt Trice and Dick Studer), Fero (with Douglas  Ewart, Donald Washington and Babatunde Lea), GH2 (with Brad Holden and  Josh Granowski), and Original Mind (with Brad Holden and Dick Studer).  Born and raised in New York City, over the last 30 years he has lived  and performed in Bemidji, St, Paul, and the woods of greater Pine  County. He is just tickled to be back playing at the East Side Freedom  Library, a social, political and artistic harbinger of the world we  strive to create.

View video: https://youtu.be/bAIb3pU1SJc

The East Side Freedom Library invites you to the next conversation in  our series “Learning From the Past, Fighting for the Future”: A  Conversation between Tom O’Connell and Barbara Freese.  

Join host Tom O’Connell as he interviews environmental attorney Barbara  Freese about her new book, "Industrial-Strength Denial: Eight Stories of  Corporations Defending the Indefensible." This new and timely book  takes the reader through eight campaigns of corporate denial from the  slave trade to radium consumption; financial manipulation to climate  change. In a general election campaign in which corporate abuses too  often go unchallenged, Freese’s powerful stories equip citizens with the  understanding we need to hold corporations accountable in the future.  

Barbara is also the author of "Coal: A Human History," selected as a New  York Times Notable Book and recently released in an updated edition.  This critically-acclaimed book tells the story of how coal has  transformed the world over the centuries, describes the drama swirling  around coal use today, and explains why coal represents such a profound  threat to the global climate.  Barbara is an environmental attorney, policy analyst and speaker who has  for several years been deeply involved in energy and climate issues,  with a particular focus on coal. She has fought to block the  construction of new coal plants and to enact climate protection laws at  the state and federal level, and she co-authored multiple reports on  coal use when she was a senior policy advocate on the staff of the Union  of Concerned Scientists. In the mid-1990s, when she was an Assistant  Attorney General for the State of Minnesota, Barbara litigated the  science of climate change against the coal industry, confronting  first-hand the science denial that would later become so prominent in  the U.S.

View the video: https://youtu.be/pbbHou0I3_U