April 24, 1932
Benny Rothman lead the mass trespass of Kinder Scout, in the English Peak District, to highlight the fact that walkers in England and Wales were illegally denied access to areas of open country. Although controversial when it occurred, it has been interpreted as the embodiment of “working class struggle for the right to roam versus the rights of the wealthy to have exclusive use of moorlands to shoot grouse. Singer-songwriter Ewan MacColl, who was present that day, wrote “The Manchester Rambler” to commemorate the occasion, including the telling lines, “I may be a wage slave on Monday / But I am a free man on Sunday.”
