FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 12, 2010
Contact: Pleun Bouricius, (413) 584-8440, pbouricius@masshumanities.org
HISTORIANS WRESTLE WITH CIVIC VIOLENCE IN LAWRENCE PUBLIC FORUM
Northampton – Six weeks of harsh winter weather and violence during the 1912 textile strike led many women strikers to send their children to live with sympathetic families in other cities. On Saturday February 24, 1912, Lawrence police prevented more families from sending their children on the 7:11 a.m. train, citing neglect as the reason. In the riotous melee that followed, fourteen adults and fifteen children were arrested. Public opinion turned in support of the strikers, and by Monday the 26th, Lawrence was in chaos, with marching workers slinging bricks at police, who were shooting into the crowds. Images in the national press of police beating on women and children would prove to be the undoing of the factory owners.
Join historians Robert Forrant and Jim Beauchesne on February 27, 1-4 pm, at the Lawrence Heritage State Park, 1 Jackson Street, Lawrence, MA for a discussion program on civic violence in Lawrence and American history. The program features a tour of selected locations of the strike, excerpts from the documentary, John Brown's Holy War and discussion of Brown's choice for armed conflict, and culminates in a discussion of violence during the Bread and Roses Strike.
This event is presented by Mass Humanities in collaboration with the Lawrence Heritage State Park, the Lawrence History Center, and the Lawrence Public Library. Free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. The (Un)Civil Action program in Lawrence is one of many that Mass Humanities is presenting in collaboration with local agencies around the state. For more information, visit www.masshumanities.org
or contact localhistory@masshumanities.org.
Northampton-based Mass Humanities is affiliated with the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Mass Humanities conducts and supports projects that use history, literature, philosophy, and the other humanities disciplines to strengthen and enhance civic life across the Commonwealth. For further information about initiatives, grant deadlines, and awarded grants, visit: www.masshumanities.org.