LOUISVILLE DSA - 2025 LTJ Dinner

Saturday, June 28
at 6pm

First Unitarian Church
809 S. 4th St., Louisville, Kentucky

DINNER!
KEYNOTE SPEAKER!
LIVE AUCTION!
RAFFLE PRIZES!

Join us for the 2025 Lyman T. Johnson Dinner, a fundraiser benefiting the LDSA Building Fund! Named in honor of educator, civil rights activist, and founder of Louisville DSA, Lyman T. Johnson, this inaugural event will honor the contributions of civil rights and labor attorney Bill Allison and include a special keynote by Cate Fosl, founder of the UofL Anne Braden Institute, and Author of Subversive Southerner: Anne Braden and the Struggle for Racial Justice in the Cold War South

A FUNDRAISER BENEFITING THE

Learn more about the LDSA Building Fund at
DSALouisville.org/building-fund

BUY TICKETS

All ticket levels include a complimentary dinner with dessert!

$40
Single Ticket

$40
“Solidarity” Single Ticket Donation

Show your solidarity! Donate a ticket for someone who cannot afford one! If you need a Solidarity Single Ticket, please contact buildingfund@dsalouisville.org.

$25
Student and Children Single Ticket

$100
“Builder” Single Ticket

Give a little more to help build the future of socialism in Louisville.

1 drink ticket
Includes your choice of LDSA t-shirt.

$500
Table Sponsorship

Gather your comrades together for a night of solidarity and celebration by becoming an Lyman T. Johnson Dinner Table Sponsor.

Table of 8
Reserved seating
Recognition during the program
8 drink tickets
8 “Old-Fashioned Socialist” rocks glass

$5
Pre-paid Drink Tickets
Skip the lines! Buy your drink tickets ahead of time and pick up when you check in for the event.

One (1) ticket = beer or wine
Two (2) tickets = cocktail

Not able to join us on June 28? No problem! You can still donate directly to the LDSA Building Fund.

Every donation, no matter how small, is greatly appreciated.

ABOUT THE EVENT

HONORING...

Bill Allison
Civil Rights and Labor Attorney; and former Alderman

We are proud to honor civil rights attorney and former Louisville Alderman Bill Allison at this year’s Champion of the Working Class. A lifelong fighter for justice, Bill began his legal career during the height of the civil rights and antiwar movements. As a young attorney, he worked closely with legendary Louisville organizers Anne and Carl Braden and quickly became known for his fearless advocacy on behalf of the movement’s most embattled figures. His early litigation included the landmark “Black Six” case, in which he defended civil rights organizers targeted for allegedly attempting to influence a jury in a racially charged trial stemming from police violence and community protest. Allison later represented District 8 on the Louisville Board of Aldermen, where, among other things, he helped pass the city’s living wage ordinance.

FEATURING KEYNOTE SPEAKER...

Cate Fosl
Retired Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at UofL, Founder of the UofL Anne Braden Institute, and Author of Subversive Southerner: Anne Braden and the Struggle for Racial Justice in the Cold War South

We are honored to welcome Dr. Cate Fosl as our keynote speaker. An acclaimed historian and retired professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Dr. Fosl is the author of the biography, Subversive Southerner: Anne Braden and the Struggle for Racial Justice in the Cold War South. She was also founding director of the Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research at the University of Louisville, where she produced groundbreaking scholarship on race, gender, and activism in the U.S. South, including 2 other books on social justice movements, the first ever statewide history documenting LGBTQ Kentucky, and a history of Louisville policing's institutional harms.

Her keynote will explore the long life of Cold War anticommunism and its impact on our world today.

NAMED IN HONOR OF...

Lyman T. Johnson
Kentucky Educator, School Administrator, and Desegregation Pioneer

Johnson is best known as the plaintiff whose successful legal challenge opened the University of Kentucky to African American students in 1949. But by the time of that lawsuit, he had already been teaching at Louisville's Central High School for 16 years, having earned a master's degree in history from the University of Michigan in 1931. He was a local leader in the fight to equalize the pay of black and white teachers and an outspoken civil rights leader in denouncing discrimination. He led struggles to integrate neighborhoods, swimming pools, schools, and restaurants and headed the Louisville chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for six years. Lyman T. Johnson Middle School was named in his honor in 1980. Born in 1906 in Columbia, Tennessee, Johnson was the grandson of former slaves. He died in Louisville in 1997.

Learn more about Lyman T. Johnson's legacy

PHOTOS FROM LAST YEAR’S EVENT