The East Side Freedom Library invites you to a conversation with ESFL Co-Executive Director, Peter Rachleff, and SF Labor Video Project Director, Steve Zeltzer

This virtual event will premiere on ESFL’s Facebook page and YouTube channel

We are living in an era of unprecedented challenging of historical monuments, statues, and paintings. Much can be learned when we ask “Why were these representations of the past created when they were created?” and “What history do these monuments hide as well as celebrate?” Join ESFL’s Peter Rachleff in a conversation with Steve Zeltzer as they explore some of the answers to these questions posed by the fifty foot tall statue of Robert E. Lee which still stands in Richmond, Virginia. Learn about the interracial solidarity that informed the labor movement before the turn of the 20th century.

Peter’s book Black Labor in Richmond, Virginia, 1865-1890 (University of Illinois Press, 1989) traces and analyzes the rise and fall of a remarkable labor movement in the former capital of the Confederacy. Join our conversation between the past and the present, in an effort to imagine and shape a better future.