Catalog
Ramsey County History Fall 2024
John W. Diers, Jim McCartney, Adam BledsoeRamsey County History Fall 2024 Volume 59, No. 4: Fall 2024 John W. Diers, Jim McCartney, Adam Bledsoe Link to download PDF of full Ramsey County History Fall 2024 Articles in this issue: Growing Up on the Empire Builder Author: John W. Diers John W. Diers’…
Growing Up on the Empire Builder
John W. DiersPhotography by Hedrick-Blessing PR By John W. Diers To see this complete magazine article with endnotes and additional images, please view the PDF version. John Diers’ article is reprinted with permission from the publishers of TRAINS magazine, with minimal style adaptations. The original first-person story titled, “A night on…
Communist Clarence Hathaway and His Powerful Impact on Minnesota Politics
Jim McCartneyThe Communist Party played an influential role in Farmer-Labor Party politics in the 1930s and early ’40s, thanks, in part, to relationships that Minnesota-born Clarence Hathaway developed with Gov. Floyd B. Olson and Gov. Elmer Benson. Hathaway image in Minneapolis Newspaper Photograph Collection, courtesy of Hennepin County Library; Olson/Benson images…
Clarence Hathaway and the 1934 Riot at Madison Square Garden
Jim McCartneyBy Jim McCartney How did Minnesota native Clarence Hathaway find himself bruised, beaten, and dangling from a railing in front of a packed house at Madison Square Garden in New York City? The year was 1934. The poverty and social unrest from the Great Depression had warmed many citizens in America…
Clarence Hathaway: Civil Rights Pioneer
Jim McCartneyAlthough civil rights activists have, at times, been falsely accused of being communist, some Communist Party members, including Clarence Hathaway, did help advance the American civil rights movement. In the 1930s and ’40s, the Communist Party was prominent in the fight for racial equality in the American South, specifically Alabama,…
Additional Reading – Clarence Hathaway
Jim McCartneyFrom the late nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century, Minnesota workers and farmers organized in many ways to make their lives more stable and secure. They sought strategies which would enable them to confront the railroads, banks, and corporations that not only challenged them directly but also…
The Everyday Activism of the North Central Voters League in St. Paul
Adam BledsoeNorth Central Voters League President Raymond Hill did not mince words when it came to addressing disparities in St. Paul’s Black community. The NCVL first met at the Gopher Elks Lodge at 559 Carroll Avenue before moving to a building on Iglehart. Photograph by Dwight Miller, in Minneapolis Star, December…
Rise to the Challenge: A Memoir of Politics, Leadership, and Love
Reviewed by Anne CowieRise to the Challenge: A Memoir of Politics, Leadership, and Love Marlene M. Johnson Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2024 248 pages; cloth/jacket, 15 b&w plates, $24.95 Marlene Johnson came to leadership early. When she was just thirty-seven, she became Minnesota’s first woman lieutenant governor, assuming that position…
Perennial Ceremony: Lessons and Gifts from a Dakota Garden
Reviewed by Renoir GaitherPerennial Ceremony: Lessons and Gifts from a Dakota Garden Author: Teresa Peterson Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2024 224 pages; hard cover; 34 b/w photographs, $25.95 Perennial Ceremony: Lessons and Gifts from a Dakota Garden highlights Dr. Teresa Peterson’s gifts as purveyor of rituals; canny, earthbound observations; and spiritual wisdom.