Today in 1933: Angered by increasing farm foreclosures, members of Iowa’s Farmers Holiday Association threaten to lynch banking representatives and law officials who institute foreclosure proceedings for the duration of the Depression.
In April at Primghar, Iowa, 600 farmers will battle the sheriff and his deputies to prevent a foreclosure. During the battle many farmers will take a beating. A group of them will then turn up at the courthouse, drag a district judge from his chair, put a rope around his neck, and threaten to hang him unless he promises not to issue any more eviction notices.
That same month, when state officers in Crawford County are beaten and driven off, the Iowa governor will put three counties under martial law, and the National Guard will start rounding up farmers who are fighting foreclosures.
It’s This Weekend’s Action Calendar!
Tomorrow, there will be an Ecological Restoration Work Party at the UW Madison Arboretum Wingra Oak Savanna.Volunteer for restoration activities and learn about prairies and savannas. Tools and training are provided, and groups are welcome with advance notice. This will be Saturday from 9am until noon. Meet at the gravel parking lot along Arbor Drive just off Monroe Street. For more info, email mlfarrior@wisc.edu or call 265-5214.
Tomorrow is the Friends of Sequoya Library Book Sale at Westgate Mall. Thousands of books are for sale. Most books are donations, with some library withdrawals also for sale. Nonfiction titles are sorted by category for easy browsing. Fiction titles for all ages! CD and DVD selections as well. Bag sale on selected items starts at 2 pm. This will be at 442 Westgate Mall. For more info, call 266-6385.
On Saturday, there will be a screening of the documentary ‘Education Under Fire’, co-produced by Amnesty International, that tells the inspirational story of Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious minority, the Baha’is, whose youth have been banned from attending universities since Iran’s 1979 revolution. This will be Saturday from 1:30 to 3:30pm at the Meadowood Branch Library, For more info, call 288-6160.
Sunday from 1 until 2:30pm there will be an Arboretum Public Walk to learn about Phenology. Aldo Leopold and his graduate students kept journals recording the timing of natural events, called phenology. Start out the new year learning how to track natural events. Meet at the Arboretum visitor center, 1207 Seminole Highway at 1pm. For more info, call 263-7888 or visit uwarboretum.org.