In the wake of this ruling, activists regrouped in 1979. The injunction would have forced the Alexander brothers to close most of their businesses. City officials responded with a zoning ordinance that outlawed the operation of adult bookstores and theaters within five hundred feet of churches, schools, or residential areas. In 1977, residents mobilized in protest and organized a picket line. They objected most to customers harassing women on the surrounding streets. Residents of the Powderhorn and Central areas were dismayed by the way these businesses altered the climate of their neighborhoods. There, they watched movies, read magazines, and sought sexual encounters with both prostitutes (men as well as women) and other patrons. The cluster of pornographic bookstores and theaters attracted men from all over the Twin Cities. But these Lake Street storefronts would serve as the core of what one newspaper called their "empire of smut." They owned a string of businesses across the state. The Alexanders enjoyed a virtual monopoly on the distribution of pornography in Minnesota.
An adult entertainment district began to take shape on Lake Street. Soon a bookstore opened next to the theater. Once a destination for family moviegoers, the theater began screening movies like Deep Throat. In 1969, the brothers bought the Rialto Theater on Lake Street. In the late 1960s, a pair of Minneapolis entrepreneurs named Ferris and Edward Alexander sensed opportunity. MacKinnon and Dworkin wrote a controversial amendment to the city's expansive civil rights ordinance that defined pornography as a violation of women's civil rights. In 1983, after years of unsuccessful protest, these activists sought help from nationally known feminist theorists Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin.
Ms.In 1977, residents of South Minneapolis mobilized to fight the expansion of adult entertainment businesses along Lake Street. Dworkin answered questions from the audience.Īuthor and activist Andrea Dworkin talked about her latest book, Heartbreak: The Political Memoir of a Feminist Militant, published by Basic Books. Dworkin had vowed to “give my life to the movement.” The Radcliffe Institute’s Schlesinger Library recently acquired Ms. After discovering the works of early second-wave feminists, Ms.
She talked about her self-imposed exile in Crete where she taught herself to write. Dworkin described her evolution from youthful devotee of music and books to campaigner against pornography and prostitution and international advocate for women. T14:58:11-05:00 Author and activist Andrea Dworkin talked about her latest book, Heartbreak: The Political Memoir of a Feminist Militant, published by Basic Books.
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