LOVE SONGS from the Liberation Wars

Labor South: Center for Working Class Studies is bringing an innovative labor “jazz opera” to Durham on  Friday, April 24, 2026

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About the show

Love Songs from the Liberation Wars is a musical celebration of an important event in the history of the labor and civil rights struggles in the South – the organization of Black and white workers in Winston-Salem’s tobacco factories and the political mobilization of the larger African American community during the 1940s.

On June 17, 1943, several hundred African American workers sat down at their jobs and refused to work until their pay and working conditions improved. Over the next few days, thousands walked off the job across multiple tobacco companies. This began a years-long struggle, told by Robert Rodgers Korstad (Professor Emeritus of Public Policy, Duke University) in his prize-winning book, Civil Rights Unionism: Tobacco Workers and the Struggle for Democracy in the Mid-Twentieth-Century South.
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Five performers bring a variety of characters to life as they perform selections from the full jazz opera in an intimate, concert-style experience.

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Sponsorship

Please consider making a donation to support the performance of Love Songs from the Liberation Wars in Durham. You can make a tax-deductible donation by sending a check made payable to Institute for Southern Studies, with “Labor South Love Songs” in the memo line, and mail it to ISS, P.O. Box 531, Durham, N.C. 27702. Donations will cover costs for performers, support staff, and venue rental. For additional information on sponsorship, contact lovesongs@laborsouth.org.

• Love Songs Troublemaker ——$5000+
• Love Songs Agitator ———— $2500-$4999
• Love Songs Protester ———– $1000-$2499
• Love Songs Activist ———— $250-$999

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Contact

For more information, lovesongs@laborsouth.org