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Join Dr. Fran Shor in Person – Sunday, August 6 @ 7 pm

Co-sponsors: Gray Panthers, MI Peace Council, Huntington Woods Peace Project, Michigan Coalition for Human Rights.

Fran has been a long-time peace and justice activist having served on the Boards of PAMI and the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights (MCHR). Presently, he is an Advisory Board member of MCHR and on the Board of the Congregation for Humanistic Judaism of Metro Detroit. An Emeritus Professor of History at Wayne State University, Fran’s publications cover a broad range of topics in 20th century U.S. and global history, and have appeared in scholarly and popular online journals.

His most recent books include Weaponized Whiteness (Haymarket, 2020), Soupy Sales and the Detroit Experience (CSP, 2021), and a novel, Passages of Rebellion (Smart Set, 2021).

The dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, was both a horrific conclusion and the beginning of nuclear warfare. It concluded the five-year intensive research effort in the Manhattan Project to produce an atomic weapon. Three days later came the bombing of Nagasaki, and we have experienced decades of nuclear threats since then.

While Albert Einstein never worked on the Manhattan Project (he was considered a security risk by the FBI), his letter to President Roosevelt in 1940 helped to launch the effort. Even though the popular perception of Einstein identified him as the “father” of the atomic bomb, there was no basis to that perception other than his original formulation in the early twentieth century of E=MC2. In fact, Einstein urged FDR in another letter, this time not seen by the President, not to drop the bomb. Furthermore, Einstein campaigned for the remainder of his life against the development and use of atomic/nuclear weapons.

Einstein’s political opposition and legacy against the continuing nuclear bomb threats will be the focus of Fran Shor’s PowerPoint presentation on August 6.