Britain 2000
20 minutes
DIRECTOR: Helena Stevens.
Lucy Parsons was one of the first emancipated women in the history of the American progressive movement, along with Voltairine de Cleyre and Emma Goldman. She was also one of the first Afro-American anarchists. One year after the Chicago Martyrs were wrongly hung in 1878, Parsons was invited to visit William Morris in London to deliver a series of lectures on the Haymarket affair and other anarchist topics. Morris was, at the time, a utopian socialist who frequented the same socialist club in Hammersmith visited by George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Louise Michel and Peter Kropotkin. Recreating the events, the acting seems a little contrived at times, but the set design is based on the actual William Morris apartment and the research is scrupulous.
A gem that must not to be missed!
Pietro Ferrua
Hear: "Studs Terkel Recalls Lucy Parsons"