Hey, it's Curie City editor Alexandra Solomon.

In 1969, there was a famous trial, the trial of the Chicago 8, also known as the

conspiracy eight or the trial of the Chicago 7.

The trial pitted anti-war protesters against the federal government.

Eight men were accused of conspiring to incite a riot during protests

that took place in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention of 1968. During the proceedings,

the judge ordered the only black defendant be gagged and chained to his chair. Outside the courtroom,

protesters and onlookers would gather. Some chanted to free the men.

Some came with signs and posters of protest and solidarity. And we got a question about one of these

posters. This one has the image of a man with his fist raised in a black power salute.

And the iconic phrase, you can't jail the revolution,

drawn in huge capital letters written in red ink on an off white background. Below that, it reads,

Stop the Trial, Free the Conspiracy Eight. Someone wanted to know who the artist was, and we thought it was

a good question to look into right now.

In part because many of the issues that surrounded the trial, police brutality, racism in the criminal justice system, free speech and the right to protest, those are things we're grappling with at this moment.

So we put culture reporter Ariane Nettles on the case.

She loves to explain history, especially

history that happened right here in Chicago. So she went looking for the artist and found

herself asking some other important questions about art and protest movements along the way.

That's coming up.

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