A publication of Mass Humanities Winter 2010 Uncivil Action? A Consideration of the Legitimacy of Violence By Lucia Knoles and Pleun Bouricius In This Issue From our comfortable moral positions and in our comfortable Ameri- can lives, many of us condemn violent political and social action. Some feel violence is crime, no matter how you slice it. Others draw a line Recent Grants page 2 between sanctioned violence with a public purpose (war, police ap- prehending criminals) and the less regulated kind (terrorism, gang or ethnic/race war, rogue police). As soon as we step away from such con- venient categories, however, the question of violence becomes a whole lot murkier very fast. From Tragic Prelude by John What about food riots? How do we draw the line between crime and Steuart Curry (1938-1940), necessary resistance? When does policing become state suppression? illustrating John Brown and Are we sure that, given the same set of circumstances, we would not the clash of forces known as Bleeding Kansas, circa 1858. pick up a stick rather than argue? Where does arguing shade into Joint study group of Boston College fight? Is comparing a duly and newly-elected President Obama to To find out more about the High School boys and Elizabeth Seton genocidal dictators, as happened this past summer, in effect an High School girls, as they prepared Mass Humanities initiative for a quiz show about last year’s Big incitement to assassination? Given that we celebrate the origins of An (Un)Civil Action, Read book, Their Eyes Were Watching our country in armed revolt, do most of us feel that armed resis- God, by Zora Neale Hurston. Mass visit masshumanities.org. Humanities supports The Big Read tance is an accepted method of last resort – last resort, but effec- in Boston. tive and legitimate? And how do we see others in this equation? A short list of violent actors shows that seri- Whether you regard these individuals or ous consideration of how we think about the groups as terrorists or heroes depends in part legitimacy of violent action is not only timely, on your political allegiances. Your position Report on the Mass Humanities but of the highest importance: on these individuals and groups also depends, annual symposium, however, on your view of violence as a re- Soldiers & Citizens: Military • The 9/11 hijackers sponse to political and moral issues. and Civic Culture in America • Scott Roeder, accused of killing Dr. George page 3 Tiller in order to stop abortions If you think the American Revolution was • People in New Orleans who tried to break legitimate, consider the attempt at a second down the gates around City Hall and version: One hundred and fifty years ago, John punched sheriffs during City Council Brown led his sons and a small band of follow- hearing planning the demolition of low- ers into Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. Brown’s plan income housing. was to destroy slavery by gradually building an • Former slaves who formed militia groups army of freed slaves that would live and oper- in the reconstruction south to protect their ate out of the Appalachian mountains, attack- families–and their rights ing slave owners until slavery no longer seemed • The Black Panthers tenable. Today, Brown’s guerilla tactics might • The people in the streets outside the 1968 seem familiar and potentially quite effective. Chicago Democratic Convention Symposium panelists Sarah Sewall • and Rick Atkinson. Photo by George Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City Although branded a terrorist by most Ameri- Abbott White. federal building bomber cans in his day, Brown was hailed as a hero by some abolitionists, including Henry David Continued on page 4 LJA: Funded through the Mass Humanities initiative, Liberty and Justice for All For application procedures and deadlines, Recent Grants RIG: Research Inventory Grant visit: www.masshumanities.org Greater Boston $9,982 to The Welcome Project to produce $5,000 to the Thoreau Farm Trust of Concord Exposed at Work, a play about the language- to develop an interpretive plan for the newly- $5,000 to the Alliance for the Study of Adop- based health and safety struggles of immi- restored birthplace of Henry David Thoreau. tion and Cultures (MIT) of Cambridge to grant day laborers in Somerville. LJA MASS HUMANITIES fund keynote speakers for a conference, Adop- Southeast and 66 Bridge Street tion: Secret Histories, Public Policies. $6,135 to WUMB Radio/UMass Boston to Northampton, MA 01060 Cape Cod tel (413) 584-8440 purchase copies of the book Fahrenheit 451 fax (413) 584-8454 $4,120 to the American Islamic Congress $10,000 to the Center for Independent for The Big Read: Boston, a citywide, “one www.masshumanities.org for the Fifth Boston Muslim Film Festival, book” project. LJA Documentary of Sharon for research, script Cultures in Conflict? Featuring controversial writing, and the production of a trailer for STAFF issues in the Muslim world, April 12-30. The Bread and Roses Project documentary. Central David Tebaldi LJA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR $5,000 to the Boston Chamber Music Society $8,825 to the American Antiquarian Society [email protected] for a winter series of forums and concerts of Worcester for programs in Worcester, $5,000 to Spinner Publications of New about the relationship between time and Concord, and Boston, using Thoreau’s “A Plea Bedford for an interdisciplinary and multi- Pleun Bouricius music at MIT’s Kresge Auditorium. for Captain John Brown” to explore New media high school curriculum that centers SENIOR PROGRAM OFFICER [email protected] England support for John Brown. LJA on Spinner’s illustrated, abridged version of $4,700 to DUNYA of Brookline for a concert Moby Dick. Deepika Fernandes of Turkish Judeo-Sufi music at Brookline’s $1,500 to Fitchburg State College Founda- FISCAL OFFICER Temple Beth Zion, followed by a panel of tion for the reading and discussion series, $2,500 to the Truro Historical Society/ [email protected] experts speaking on this tradition. Reading Lois Lowry: Discussing Young Adult Highland Museum to plan a hands-on Tiffany Lyman-Olszewski Literature. exhibit based on the society’s collection DEVELOPMENT AND $10,000 to the Filmmakers Collaborative of of Native American artifacts, including a COMMUNICATIONS ASSISTANT Waltham for research, a film treatment, and $5,000 to the Museum of Russian Icons of portable “suitcase” exhibit. [email protected] a trailer for a documentary about the early Clinton for writing and recording an audio years of the Boston radio station, WBCN. tour linking the museum’s collection with Kristin O’Connell Western ASSISTANT DIRECTOR LJA Russian folklore and legend. [email protected] $1,270 to the Amherst Historical Society $5,000 to Lesley University of Cambridge $4,750 to the Worcester County Poetry and Museum to inventory collections Anne Rogers for programming and video production for Association for The Places Poems Make, a related to the history of soldiers, their fami- SYSTEMS MANAGER [email protected] the exhibit, Loyal Lesley Daughters: An Oral workshop for Worcester high school teachers lies, and Amherst’s participation in times of History of Massachusetts’ Women Teachers, conflict. RIG exploring connections between poetry and John Sieracki 1925-1965. local history. DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT $5,000 to the W.E.B. DuBois Library at AND COMMUNICATIONS $5,000 to the Lexington Historical Society to $5,000 to the Worcester Historical Museum UMass Amherst to support its colloquium, EDITOR OF MASS HUMANITIES [email protected] plan a 2010-2012 archaeological exhibit at for a conference for staff, board members, and Radical Democracy and the Moral Buckman Tavern, The Reverend Hancock’s community leaders to explore sustainable so- Economy of Social Change in the 21st Melissa Wheaton Household: Early Colonial Life in Lexington. lutions for house museums in the 21st century. Century. LJA ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT AND GRANTS ADMINISTRATOR $5,000 to the Massachusetts Center for the Northeast $1,500 to the Holyoke Public Library [email protected] Book in Boston to support the adaptation of History Room and Archive to inven- Hayley Wood $10,000 to the Cultural Organization of the national River of Words curriculum for tory the records of the Parsons Paper PROGRAM OFFICER Massachusetts implementation. Lowell to support the Massachusetts Poetry Company, the first paper mill in Holyoke. [email protected] Festival on October 16 and 17. RIG $5,000 to the Public Media Foundation of $1,500 to the Lowell Historical Society to Boston for development of an audio drama- $10,000 to Old Deerfield Productions, Mass Humanities promotes the use of tization of Elinore Pruitt Stuart’s Letters of a inventory 19th century cartoons and prints Inc. of Deerfield for the writing of the history, literature, philosophy, and the Woman Homesteader. about Lowell resident and owner of the libretto for a new opera entitled TRUTH, other humanities disciplines to deepen Middlesex Company, Benjamin Franklin our understanding of the issues of the on the life of Sojourner Truth. LJA day, strengthen our sense of common Butler. RIG purpose, and enrich individual and $5,000 to The Trusteeship Institute of community life. We take the humani- $5,000 to Middlesex Community College Shutesbury for the radio series Back to ties out of the classroom and into the community. of Lowell for transportation, books, and a the Future by Sea Change Radio, exam- meeting for instructors for the Changing Lives ining historical precedents for sustain- Mass Humanities, a private, nonprofit, through Literature alternative sentencing able energy use in New England. educational organization, receives program. funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Massachusetts Other Cultural Council, a state agency; and $5,000 to the Sargent Museum of Gloucester private sources. to plan an exhibition of the writing closet $10,000 to the Western New York of Enlightenment author and early feminist Public Broadcasting Association of Buf- Judith “Constantia” Sargent Murray.