Bessye Robin

An interview with Bessye Robin as part of Documenting Social History, an oral history project produced by Communications for Change with students at City Colleges of Chicago.

00:14Copy video clip URL Voiceover introduces Bessye Robin, an organizer who helped factory workers in the U.S. and Russia. She describes her first factory organizing experience at age 12, in Russia. She describes being arrested and losing her job. She describes her family, childhood, and poverty. She talks about violence in the neighborhood against Jewish people.

13:30Copy video clip URL She describes her move to America. She describes meeting up with her brother and her new working conditions. She describes meeting her husband and getting married. She talks about their long working hours. She describes learning to read and write English. She shares some personal romantic struggles. Cut to black.

30:32Copy video clip URL Tape ends.