“Bringing the power of history, as a springboard, into current community building and future strategy development”
– Sara Gould, SSC Activist-in-Residence 2014
Activists discuss the importance of applying the history of social justice movements to current organizing strategies.
A video produced by Cai Sherley & Sarah Arnold for Otelia Cromwell Day. Part of the Weaving Voices Intergenerational Archives Project.
Note: video quality is low resolution. For best results, view in a small window.
View video 
(15:33)
(Smith users only)
Michaelanne Bewsee is co-founder of Arise for Social Justice in Springfield, Massachusetts. Arise is a grassroots “poor people’s rights organization” whose purpose is “to learn to speak for ourselves to advocate for positive changes in the treatment of poor people and in the welfare system.”
Bewsee was interviewed for the Voices of Feminism Oral History Project. The Arise for Social Justice Records are also in the SSC.
View clip (02:07)
(Available on Smith campus only)
Luz Rodriquez discusses the origins of her political activism within the New York Puerto Rican community, and the importance of learning one’s history, in particular learning about the history of sterilization abuse of Puerto Rican women. (Voices of Feminism Oral History Project)
View Clip (03:37)
(Full video available on Smith campus only)
Students of color and the fight for institutional change:
Slideshow from an Otelia Cromwell Day workshop, Fall 2016, led by Cai Sherley & Sarah Arnold.
(Available to Smith users only)
In April 2014 Sophia Smith Collection Activist-in-Residence Sara Gould spoke with Marielena Hincapié of the National Immigration Law Center and Miriam Yeung of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum. In this video excerpt Marielena discusses the importance of learning about immigrant history.
View clip (02:09)