‘Untold Stories’ offers lectures, tours and performances on labor history

Programs are sponsored by The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library and co-sponsored by the University of Minnesota Labor Education Service and many other organizations. Events are free and open to the public.

Here is the upcoming schedule:

FILM SCREENING & DISCUSSION: “Slavery by Another Name”

Tuesday, April 23, 7 p.m.
Rondo Community Outreach Library
461 North Dale Street, Saint Paul

This documentary challenges one of Americans’ most cherished assumptions: the belief that slavery in this country ended with the Emancipation Proclamation. The film tells how even as chattel slavery came to an end in the South in 1865, thousands of African Americans were pulled back into forced labor. Tolerated by both the North and South, forced labor lasted well into the 20th century. Join TPT producers Catherine Allan and Daniel Bergin for a discussion following the film.

Equal Pay for Equal Work
Wednesday, April 24, 7 p.m.
Highland Park Library, Village View Room
1974 Ford Parkway, Saint Paul

Fifty years ago, the federal government passed the Equal Pay Act, requiring that women be paid the same as men if they’re doing the same job. Thirty years ago, Minnesota went further. The state implemented landmark legislation to erase the pay gap between men and women in the public sector. It succeeded! Our panel talks about how it happened, and why it hasn’t happened more often. Featuring Nina Rothchild, head of the state Department of Employee Relations when the law was implemented; Bonnie Watkins, of the Pay Equity Coalition of Minnesota; and Peter Benner, of AFSCME, which pushed the legislation, then made sure it worked.

Heather Ann Thompson: Today’s Criminal Justice System
Tuesday, April 30, 7 p.m.
Metropolitan State University Library, Ecolab Room
645 East Seventh Street, Saint Paul

Heather Ann Thompson writes on the history as well as public policy implications of today’s criminal justice system. Her talk will discuss the impact of mass incarceration on America’s cities, its economy, and its very democracy. Thompson is the author of numerous articles on the justice system as well as the book Whose Detroit: Politics, Labor and Race in a Modern American City. She is currently writing the first comprehensive history of the Attica Prison Rebellion of 1971 and its legacy. Sarah Walker, co-chair of the Second Chance Coalition, will serve as a local responder.

Minnesota and the Emancipation
Monday, May 6, 7 p.m.
Highland Park Library, Hillcrest Auditorium
1974 Ford Parkway, Saint Paul

Join Bill Green (A Peculiar Imbalance: The Fall and Rise of Racial Equity in Minnesota) and others as they explore Minnesota’s involvement in the Civil War and the emancipation process.

Organizing in the Ranks: Racism & Resistance in the U.S. Military

Thursday, May 16, 7 p.m.
St. Paul Labor Centre
411 Main Street, Saint Paul

Hear stories from historians and veterans about clashes and convergences surrounding race and military engagements: Yuichiro Onishi (Transpacific Antiracism), and Dr. Malinda Lindquist (Race, Social Science, and the Crisis of Manhood, 1890-1970), professors in the African-American and African Studies department at the University of Minnesota; and Melvin Carter, Jr., a Navy veteran of the Vietnam era and founder of “Save Our Sons.”

TOUR: Steel Rails, Strong Hearts
Sunday, May 19, 2 p.m.
Union Depot
214 Fourth Street East

Join Dave Riehle and historian James Robinson, a scholar of the dining car waiters organizations, for a tour of sites and settings associated with the history of African American railroad workers. Tour starts at the renovated Union Depot. Co-sponsored by MnDOT African American Employee Resource Group (AAERG).

Dred Scott’s Fight for Freedom

Tuesday, May 21, 1:30 p.m.
Minnesota African American Museum (MAAM – location TBA)
1700 Third Avenue South, Minneapolis

MAAM presents Lynne Jackson, the great-great granddaughter of Dred and Harriet Scott and director of The Dred Scott Heritage Foundation, who will discuss the role of the 1857 Supreme Court decision and its effect on the abolition of slavery.

All Labor Has Dignity
Tuesday, May 21, 7 p.m.
Penumbra Theatre,
270 North Kent Street

Join professional actor and Macalester College Professor Harry Waters for a re-enactment of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1962 speech to the Minneapolis convention of the United Packinghouse Workers, where King drew connections between the labor and civil rights struggles. Music and related readings will complement his performance.