Skip to main content

How Mississippi Freedom Summer 1964 Can Inspire Us in 2024

Eddie Wong Convergence
Everything about this moment cries out for a bold intervention like SNCC knew they had to make in 1963. Their clarity and creativity offers a major lesson to our current stalemate between the multiracial democratic forces and the MAGA authoritarians.

Martin Luther King Jr. Was a Strong Friend of Labor

Peter Cole Chicago Sun Times
Dr. Martin Luther King, jr. at 1963 March on Washington
King, who championed economic as well as racial justice, called labor unions “the first anti-poverty program,” Western Illinois University Professor Peter Cole writes.

This Week in People’s History, Jan 16–22

Portside
Storefronts covered with signs promoting prohibition
Prohibition Gets Started (in 1919), Slave Owners Get Nervous (1834), Swing Comes to the Opera House (1944), Repression Takes Practice (1934), Nazis Make a Reality of Wage Slavery (1934), Wilmington Occupation Ends (1969), Voting Rights Victory (1964)

Ivory Perry, the Forgotten Civil Rights Hell-Raiser

Devin Thomas O’Shea Jacobin
Activists are often held up as exemplars of personal morality — but in every social struggle, ordinary people with complex lives rise up as leaders. Ivory Perry was one of these who waged a relentless war for racial and economic justice.