From Chicago's Haymarket Square to southern Illinois coal mines, Illinois workers fought to build unions, create safe workplaces, and find their collective voice — and their struggles shaped the nation.
In this presentation, historian Mike Matejka traces those stories: the Ottawa Radium Girls, who pursued justice after occupational exposure doomed them; Pullman workers, who launched the country's largest industrial strike; women workers who built cross-class alliances to secure their rights; and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, who waged a 12-year fight to win representation. Again and again, workers organized across ethnic, racial, and gender lines, often against state repression, to claim their place in American democracy. Because democracy isn't just elections. It's "small d" democracy too: workers finding their voice, becoming advocates, and shaping their communities.

Mike Matejka is a historian, writer, and community organizer specializing in Illinois labor history. He is a member of LIUNA Local 362, President of the Illinois Labor History Society, and a board member of Friends of Pullman National Historical Park.

This program is free and open to the public and is generously sponsored by Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA). This program will be offered in-person at the Granville Branch or virtual through Zoom. To register virtually, visit: t.ly/cVX9k.