Chicago Marching

Examine the inflection points in Chicago's history of protest. A word packed with meaning and emotion, "protest" can be synonymous with both free speech and rioting. Chicago's citizens and city officials have a long and reactive relationship based on the tension between those differences of perspective, from the 1855 Lager Beer Riot to the conversation surrounding Black Lives Matter and the flashpoints of extreme political polarization. But what led to pivotal events like 1886's Haymarket Affair or 1963's massive school boycotts? Joseph Rulli seeks to understand what provoked an explosion into violence or elicited a heavy-handed response.

Joseph Anthony Rulli is a transplanted Hoosier, living in Chicago since the fall of 2006. He began writing as a career upon his arrival to his second city and has had three short stories published, "The Meating" ( New Stone Circle , 2009), "Delayed" ( Echo Ink Review , 2009) and "With This Ring" ( Over the Edge: The Edgy Writers Anthology , 2017); a stage play of his, Let Me Just Say This , was performed in 2016. His books include The Chicago Haymarket Affair: A Guide to A Labor Rights Milestone (The History Press, 2016) and Chicago Socialism: The People's History (The History Press, 2019), as well as a satirical novel, Bread & Circuses (Shy City House, 2021). He has written a regular column and cultural reviews for the Chicago Grid and Picture This Post .