Finally Got the News: A Night w/ the League of Revolutionary Black Workers

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Detroit was the epicenter of a Black working‑class uprising that shook the auto industry and the nation. The League of Revolutionary Black Workers (LRBW) organized wildcat strikes, published newspapers, and built a radical political alternative inside the plants – and outside of them.

On May 15, we bring that history back to the heart of Detroit.

🎥 Film Screening – Finally Got the News (1970, 55 min)
A rare documentary that captures the Revolutionary Union Movement (RUM) and the LRBW in their own words. Produced by a collective of Black worker‑filmmakers, it remains one of the most urgent portraits of Black radical labor organizing ever made.

📖 Book Talk – Motown and the Making of Working‑Class Revolutionaries
Jerome Scott, a former member of the League, and Walda Katz-Fishman presents their new book. Hear firsthand stories of organizing inside Detroit’s factories, the rise and fall of the League, and why their lessons matter today.

🗞️ Panel Discussion – The South End Takeover
We’ll also explore the history of Wayne State’s student newspaper, The South End, when the Revolutionary Union Movement took it over – turning a campus paper into a voice for Black workers and revolutionaries. Featuring Jerome Scott and other special guests.

• Organizers, workers, students, and anyone who believes that Black liberation and labor liberation are one struggle.
• Wayne State students – especially those connected to African American Studies, labor studies, and student journalism.
• Veteran activists and young people ready to learn from those who came before.

Organized by:
BYP100 Detroit • Labor@Wayne • Fraser Center for Workplace Issues

Supported by:
Department of African American Studies • General Baker Institute

Location courtesy of: Bernath Auditorium, Wayne State University Libraries

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Host or Publisher BYP100 Detroit