On February 27, sixty-five people gathered at the Lawrence State Heritage Park for “An (Un)Civil Action: Violent Confl ict during the Bread and Roses Strike.” Despite a week of inclement weather, they toured Lawrence with Jim Beauchesne, acting supervisor and park historian, and historian Dexter Arnold, who elaborated on strike events at various locations along the way. The group then watched the Mass Humanities-funded film John Brown's Holy War, and Bob Forrant of UMass led a discussion juxtaposing Brown's violence and that of the 1912 strike—or lack thereof, as they also discussed at length.

This was the last in a series of events focusing on violence in Massachusetts history, in the 150th anniversary year of John Brown's raid in Harper's Ferry. Others included: