Roger Sheppard passed away last weekend at the age of 82. Until recent years, he was a regular audience member of Stone Soup Poetry alongside Deta Galloway.I appreciated my chats with him and wished we had talked more these past couple of years.
[Roger] was one of a kind, tirelessly devoted to our common cause of overthrowing capitalism and building a communist future. He was one of those who fought against the Barnes leadership (which included his brother Barry) and its destruction of the SWP as it abandoned any vestige of Trotskyism. My life is better for having known Roger. For a while, we lived near each other in Newton, Mass., and I spent some wonderful hours in his back yard arguing, laughing, and scheming -- times I will never forget. And we saved each other, in rapid succession, from being beaten by cops while stopping the scab buses from rolling during the Greyhound strike in 1990.
Here's a brief bio posted by Linda Thompson, something my young comrades should read to get a sense of what a long lifetime in the movement racks up in terms of work and experience:
Roger Sheppard born August 6, 1941 died this morning August 18, 2022 peacefully at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. I cannot list all his contributions but will just mention a brief history.
Roger formed the Fair Play for Cuba committee in 1960 after joining the Young Socialist Alliance and the Socialist Workers Party while an art student in Providence RI. After transfering to the MD. Institute of Art, Roger went to jail in the Cambridge civil rights struggle on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and participated in the fight to desegregate Baltimore.
After moving to Boston MA he helped to build the anti war movement and became an electrician and joined the IBEW. He interviewed Malcolm X at the march on Washington for the militant newspaper. He interviewed John Lewis and got the exclusive copy of Lewis’s unedited speech for the massive civil rights rally which was printed in the Militant. The speech which Lewis gave to Roger exposed the Democratic Party before Lewis’s speech was censored for the rally by the liberals.
After moving to Chicago he worked with Cha Cha Jimenez and the Young Lords and worked tirelessly to defend them. He put together a student coalition which built the Chicago demonstration of 70,000 against the war in Vietnam protesting the Kent and Jackson State killings.
After moving back to Boston he organized his union and Boston unions in support of the Greyhound strikes and led a fight to defend unemployment compensation in the state of Massachusetts.
Like so many unsung heroes of the movement he stayed true to the cause of socialism and world revolution. Many may not know that Roger was a gifted artist and sculptor although he did not pursue a career in art he did many beautiful sculptures.
Roger formed the Fair Play for Cuba committee in 1960 after joining the Young Socialist Alliance and the Socialist Workers Party while an art student in Providence RI. After transfering to the MD. Institute of Art, Roger went to jail in the Cambridge civil rights struggle on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and participated in the fight to desegregate Baltimore.
After moving to Boston MA he helped to build the anti war movement and became an electrician and joined the IBEW. He interviewed Malcolm X at the march on Washington for the militant newspaper. He interviewed John Lewis and got the exclusive copy of Lewis’s unedited speech for the massive civil rights rally which was printed in the Militant. The speech which Lewis gave to Roger exposed the Democratic Party before Lewis’s speech was censored for the rally by the liberals.
After moving to Chicago he worked with Cha Cha Jimenez and the Young Lords and worked tirelessly to defend them. He put together a student coalition which built the Chicago demonstration of 70,000 against the war in Vietnam protesting the Kent and Jackson State killings.
After moving back to Boston he organized his union and Boston unions in support of the Greyhound strikes and led a fight to defend unemployment compensation in the state of Massachusetts.
Like so many unsung heroes of the movement he stayed true to the cause of socialism and world revolution. Many may not know that Roger was a gifted artist and sculptor although he did not pursue a career in art he did many beautiful sculptures.
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