Julia Ruuttila: The Proudest Moment in an Oregon Activist’s Life is the topic of the latest History Pub at the Kennedy School (5736 NE 33rd), this Monday, January 30, 2012.
Julia Ruuttila was a labor and investigative journalist, a poet and fiction writer, and a union, peace, and justice activist who lived all but a few years of her life in Oregon.
She founded a defense committee that freed a union martyr after twenty years in the penitentiary, headed the Woodworkers Ladies’ Auxiliary during an 8-month lockout, stood up to the inquisitors of the House Un-American Activities Committee, and got fired from a state job for her coverage of the Vanport Flood. Yet none of these qualified for what she claimed was her proudest moment.
The presenter is Sandy Polishuk, author of Sticking to the Union: An Oral History of the Life and Times of Julia Ruuttila.
Join event co-sponsors Oregon Historical Society and Holy Names Heritage Center at 7pm Monday for a beer and history! Admission is free and this event is all ages. Please bring canned food donations for the Oregon Food Bank!
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