Southwest Second & Burnside
A gathering place for radical organizations
Skid row was a key recruiting site for radical organizations like the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, also known as the Wobblies), Coxey's Army and the Bonus Army. Around the corner, on First Avenue, is the former clock shop of Tom Burns, known as the "Mayor of Skid Row", who may have been the most arrested man in the history of Portland.
As Told By...
Michael Munk
Retired Political Scientist
Michael Munk was born in Prague in 1934 and escaped the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia to Portland in 1939. His political activity began in the 1950s, when he became a local opponent of nuclear testing as well as a promoter of a Portland concert from Paul Robeson. He received his PhD in Politics from New York University, taught political science for more than twenty-five years at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Roosevelt University in Chicago and Rutgers University before retiring in Portland. He is author of The Portland Red Guide (Ooligan Press, 2007), as well as articles in Oregon Historical Quarterly, Pacific Northwest Quarterly, Portland Alliance and more.
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