Join Robin D.G. Kelley, The Center for Political Education, and Abolition School, to celebrate celebrate the release of Civil Rights & Structural Attacks, which chronicles lessons from eighty years of Walter Riley's lessons from the Black freedom struggle, labor movements, and internationalism. This multi-generational text joins Walter in conversation with longtime friend and Oakland organizer, Jesse  Strauss. Together, they reflect on the importance of political action as the primary venue for learning and reflection. Walter Riley has a never-ending commitment to building a better world and  he’ll challenge readers to avoid the paralysis of analysis that slows  movements down and to avoid getting caught in the missives of ego. The  book also includes a foreword by Walter Riley's son, Boots Riley.

Get your copy of the book here: https://www.akpress.org/civil-rights-and-structural-attacks.html

***Register through Ticket Tailor to receive a link to the live-streamed video on the day of the event. This event will also be recorded and captioning will be provided.***

Speakers:

Robin D. G. Kelley is Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History at UCLA. He is the author of Hammer and Hoe, Race Rebels, Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, and Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, among other titles. His writing has been featured in the Journal of American History, American Historical Review, Black Music Research Journal, African Studies Review, New York Times, The Crisis, The Nation, and Voice Literary Supplement.

Geo Maher is a movement educator who has taught at colleges and universities, San Quentin State Prison, and the Venezuelan School of Planning in Caracas. He is founding coordinator of the W.E.B. Du Bois Movement School for Abolition & Reconstruction in Philadelphia and author of five books including We Created Chávez (Duke, 2013) and Building the Commune (Verso, 2016).

Walter Riley grew up as a civil rights activist in the Jim Crow South, chaired Durham, North Carolina’s Young Adult NAACP, organized voter registration, sit-ins, job campaigns, and was a Field Secretary for CORE in the Southeast Region. He became a San Francisco State University activist for ethnic studies, and was a member of the Black Student Union and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Riley has worked as a criminal defense and civil rights lawyer since the 1980s. He is a loving father and grandfather.

Jesse Strauss is an anti-imperialist and abolitionist cultural worker, community organizer, musician, and journalist born and raised in Oakland and Berkeley (unceded Ohlone/Chochenyo land). He is an anti-zionist descendent of Jewish survivors of the Nazi genocide and was raised by parents engaged in radical queer healthcare and immigration asylum access work in the Bay Area. As a journalist, Jesse has a long working relationship with KPFA Radio, where he co-created the first-ever daily abolitionist radio show, Law & Disorder. He was a producer for Al Jazeera during the so-called “Arab Spring” and “Occupy” movements.

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This event is sponsored by Haymarket Books, Center for Political Education, and Abolition School. While all of our events are freely available, we ask that those who are able make a solidarity donation in support of our important publishing and programming work.