2010.54.11525

We Want Bread And Roses Too
Late 20th Early 21st Century
17.125 in HIGH x 22.25 in WIDE
(43.5 cm HIGH x 56.51 cm WIDE)
All Of Us Or None Archive. Gift of the Rossman Family.
2010.54.11525


Poster has black text and black and pink images printed on beige paper. Image centered at the top shows a group of women in identical dresses and shawls holding a large banner that reads "We Want Bread And Roses Too" along with alternating "I.W.W" and "Strike" signs. To the left and right of the image is the poster text. Each side has one column of two paragraphs of a poem titled "Bread And Roses". Pink roses intermingled with stems of grain enclose the text and image at the left, right, and bottom. Centered at the bottom of the poster is the text "Bread & Roses Bookshop, San Jose".

Bread and Roses Bookshop was an important alternative presence in the San Jose area. It was founded in 1972 by James Robert "Bob" Lindsay, a Communist Party member and labor organizer, and his wife Barbara Sterne. Originally, the bookstore was near San Jose State College, where some progressive professors ordered their textbooks through the store and students came by to hear political speakers and authors. The store moved several times, always farther away from campus and the town center where students and walk-in customers could support it. Eventually the bookshop closed in 1992 because of Bob''s poor health and the store''s low profitability. [LMC]

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