Event
“The Hyde Park of America”: The Rise and Fall of the People’s Forum
Author: Marilynn Johnson, Boston College
Comment: Michael Willrich, Brandeis University
This is a hybrid event. The in-person reception will begin at 4:30 PM.
For more than sixty years, the Boston Common hosted one of the nation’s largest soapboxing districts, where speakers from all walks of life—religious, political, and otherwise—practiced the art of public speaking and preaching along the Charles Street mall. Originating around a conflict over religious freedom in the late 1880s, city authorities established the so-called People’s Forum in the early 1890s, modeled after the famed Speaker’s Corner in London’s Hyde Park. This paper examines the rise and fall of the People’s Forum and the Common’s legacy as a terrain of free speech—one that was both treasured and contested.
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Hybrid Event
The in-person reception starts at 4:30 PM and the seminar will begin at 5:00 PM.
Masks are optional for this event.
The virtual seminar begins at 5:00 PM and will be hosted on the video conference platform, Zoom. Registrants will receive a confirmation message with attendance information.
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