Theme: Civil Rights Movement

Since 2005 Syracuse Cultural Workers (SCW), a national publisher located in Central New York, has been honoring the struggle of African Americans for equality and dignity with the publication of a series of products under the banner “The Civil Rights Movement at 50.”

SCW has paid tribute to:
Rep. Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005); the Highlander Center (77th Anniversary-2009, New Market, TN); Greensboro (NC) Four lunch counter sit-in -1960; Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King symbolically paving the way for Barack Obama to become president (original artwork); Mildred and Richard Loving (1963); the 1961 Freedom Riders; Nina Simone- “Mississippi Goddam” (1965); 150th Anniversary of Emancipation Proclamation (1863); March On Washington For Jobs And Freedom and its organizer Bayard Rustin who was gay (1963).

SCW has published large, powerful posters on three of these events. The “1961 Freedom Riders” poster includes all 328 mugshots from the Jackson, MS Police Dept. on one side. On the second side are contemporary portraits by Eric Etheridge of nine Riders including Rep. John Lewis plus the Riders’ story. The “Rosa Sat, Martin Walked, Barack Ran” poster’s artwork is by Montreal artist Gene Pendon, the quote by PA resident Kiara Day. The third poster is the “March On Washington For Jobs And Freedom– 50th Anniversary.” Original “We Shall Overcome” poster by Louis LoMonaco surrounded by photographs from the march, plus brief description of march and its importance. People shown: MLK (site of his "I Have A Dream Speech”); march organizer Bayard Rustin; labor leader and march initiator A. Philip Randolph.

All SCW posters are printed by local union labor at Midstate Printing in Syracuse, NY on 100% postconsumer waste paper, processed chlorine and dioxin free.

The “Civil Rights Movement At 50” is part of SCW’s broader focus on people’s history. Howard Zinn popularized the idea of people’s history as a way of viewing history– and its relationship to the present– from the “bottom up” rather than the “top down”. – Dik Cool, Publisher & Founder