Staughton Lynd taught American history at Spelman College and Yale University. He was director of Freedom Schools in the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer. An early leader of the movement against the Vietnam War, he was blacklisted and unable to continue as an academic. He then became a lawyer, and in this capacity has assisted rank-and-file workers and prisoners for the past thirty years. He has written, edited, or coedited with his wife Alice Lynd more than a dozen books.
Daniel Gross is an organizer with the Industrial Workers of the World and a cofounder of the first union in the United States at the Starbucks Coffee Co. Mr. Gross is also the founding director of Brandworkers International, a nonprofit organization protecting and advancing the rights of retail and food employees across the supply chain. When it comes to workers’ rights, the New York Times has called Mr. Gross, “earnest, articulate, and dogmatic to a flaw.” He has been arrested for his activism and is currently involved in litigation against the New York Police Department and other governmental defendants for his unlawful arrest at a labor protest in front of the Starbucks store where he was a barista. He is quoted frequently in major media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and National Public Radio and writes regularly for Counterpunch.org. Mr. Gross serves on the steering committee of the National Lawyers Guild Labor & Employment Committee.