Panels on Political Organizing and the Past

Revolutionary Spaces has two online panel discussions in the next week exploring the legacy of violent political protest.

Monday, 28 February, 6:00 P.M.
The Boston Tea Party: 1973 Retrospective

In 1973, as the nation prepared for the bicentennial of American Independence, a different sort of commemoration was brewing. A reenactment sponsored by the City of Boston to mark the 200th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party became the scene of real-life protests calling for environmental protection, racial justice, an end to corporate profiteering, and the impeachment of Richard Nixon. Some 10,000 people marched in the streets of Boston, mock oil barrels were thrown into the harbor, and an effigy of the President was raised.

Half a century later, this moment of our city’s history is all but forgotten, but as we head towards the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, it raises important questions. How and why do these events deserve to be commemorated? Who inherits a legacy of protest and revolution? Can we look back at a moment frozen in time and still march forward in the spirit of change?

This discussion will will feature former Boston city councilor Larry DiCara and art history professor Henry Adams, with moderator Paris Alston of WBUR. Register here.

Two years later, militant anti-busing protesters commandeered the annual reenactment of the Boston Massacre, turning the event into a “die-in” to protest steps to integrate the city schools. Which brings us to the next event.

Thursday, 3 March, 6:00 P.M.
Violence, Revolution, and Memory

In remembrance of the violence perpetrated at the Boston Massacre, we ask ourselves the Essential Question: “What is my ultimate recourse if I am silenced or marginalized?”

The participants in this conversation will be:

• Mneesha Gellman, associate professor of political science at Emerson College; author of Democratization and Memories of Violence: Ethnic Minority Rights Movements in Mexico, Turkey, and El Salvador and the forthcoming Indigenous Language Politics in the Schoolroom: Culturecide and Resistance in Mexico and the United States; and founder of the Emerson Prison Initiative.
• Peter Krause, associate professor of political science at Boston College; author of Rebel Power: Why National Movements Compete, Fight, and Win; and co-editor of Coercion: The Power to Hurt in International Politics and Stories from the Field: A Guide to Navigating Fieldwork in Political Science.
• Nat Sheidley, president of Revolutionary Spaces and a former professor of early American history at Wellesley College.

Register here.