Stayed on Freedom | Socialist Night School
Start: Wednesday, February 08, 2023• 6:30 PM
The Black Power movement, often associated with its iconic spokesmen, derived much of its energy from the work of people whose stories have never been told. Stayed On Freedom brings into focus two unheralded Black Power activists who dedicated their lives to the fight for freedom.
Zoharah Simmons and Michael Simmons fell in love while organizing tenants and workers in the South. Their commitment to each other and to social change took them on a decades-long journey that traversed first the country and then the world. In centering their lives, historian Dan Berger shows how Black Power united the local and the global across organizations and generations.
Based on hundreds of hours of interviews, Stayed On Freedom is a moving and intimate portrait of two people trying to make a life while working to make a better world. Join us for our session on the book Stayed On Freedom: The Long History of Black Power through One Family’s Journey by Dan Berger.
Dan Berger is Professor of Comparative Ethnic Studies and Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Scholarship in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington Bothell. He is the co-director of the UWB Labor Studies Colloquium.
Michael Simmons has been a domestic and international human rights activist for sixty years. Beginning as an organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and later as Director of European programs for the American Friends Service Committee, Michael’s work has taken him to Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. For eighteen years, he co-founded and ran the Ráday Salon, an independent human rights learning and discussion program in Budapest, Hungary. He also taught courses on African American History and US Elections at the Budapest campus of McDaniel College.
Dr. Clarence Lusane is an full Professor of Political Science in the School of International Service at American University where he teaches and researches international human rights, comparative race relations, social movements, and electoral politics. In addition to several other books, his writing have appeared in the Washington Post, Miami Herald, Baltimore Sun, Huffington Post, Black Scholar, Race and Class, and many more publications. He often appears on PBS, BET, C-SPAN and other national media. He has lectured in over forty countries and is a former co-chair of the Civil Society Committee for the U.S.-Brazil Joint Action Plan to Eliminate Racial Discrimination, a bilateral agreement involving governments and civil society.
This hybrid event is open to both DSA Members and supporters. The in-person event will be at Bol Co-op / Creative Grounds, DC's first worker-owned co-op. You can support them on their website. Masks will be required for those attending in-person. Please also make sure you are fully vaccinated and have received a booster dose against COVID-19.
Those who wish to attend virtually can RSVP and will be provided with a Zoom link on the next page, under "Instructions From Your Host."
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