“Wartime Resisters of Conscience at the Catalina Federal Honor Camp on Mt. Lemmon” free Zoom online presentation

Resisters of Conscience reunions, 1947 and 2002

On Thursday, May 13, 2021, Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s “Third Thursday (on the Second Thursday!) Food for Thought” free Zoom online program will feature “Wartime Resisters of Conscience at the Catalina Federal Honor Camp on Mt. Lemmon” presentation by Dr. Cherstin Lyon. This free presentation will be held from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. (Arizona/Mountain Standard Time).
The Catalina Federal Honor Camp located on the Catalina Highway from Tucson up to Mt. Lemmon housed prisoners who were largely responsible for building the highway. These prisoners were a part of a prison reform movement and the good roads movement in American history during the 1930s. During World War II, a different set of individuals were sentenced to work at the Catalina prison. These were resisters of conscience. Prominent among them were Gordon Hirabayashi, other Japanese Americans who came to call themselves the “Tucsonians,” Hopi, and Jehovah’s Witnesses. This presentation will explain why these individuals became resisters of conscience, and how their prison experiences shaped their understanding of their own wartime citizenship. Cherstin Lyon. professor of history and director of the Honors College at Southern Oregon University, is the author of Prisons and Patriots: Japanese American Wartime Citizenship, Civil Disobedience, and Historical Memory and several other books and articles on Japanese Americans, public history, and citizenship.
This month only, Old Pueblo’s monthly program will be on the Second Thursday instead of the Third Thursday of the month. To register go to https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_eCJnNTJ_QHWvmLE2Yn5a8w. For more information contact Old Pueblo at info@oldpueblo.org or 520-798-1201.
Flyer: 20210513(v1)ThirdThursday_CherstinLyon_WartimeResistersOfConscienceAtTheCatalinaFederalHonorCamp