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The Detroit Anarchistic Madness Negators (DAMN!) was a student organization at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Committed to social action, it was a university-recognized group in 1980 and 1981. Detroit has a history of anarchism going back to the nineteenth century, when it was closely aligned with labor movements, though today it is chiefly associated with land use and collective farming.

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The Genesee Brewing Company, which was established in 1878, held a promotion for its light beer via the "Boo-ster" campaign during the Halloween season in 1991. Partnering with McCadam Distributing, the brewery’s mission was to raise money towards research for cystic fibrosis through both customer donations and portions of it's "Genny Light" beer sales. Vendors of the beer were given Halloween-themed displays and cards by McCadam Distributing to sell to customers for a minimum $1.00 donation which they could write their name on and have displayed on the walls of the bar or store where they made their contribution. These donations plus .10 from the sale of every case of Genny Light sold during the promotion were given to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation towards research while the beer’s retailers earned free t-shirts and a chance to win a Florida vacation.

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Amling’s was a Haunted House in Melrose Park, IL that started in the 1950s. It was thought to be the first of its kind in the U.S. and was priced at .25 cents a tour. The tour involved multiple scary scenarios, including a frightening gorilla who roared at people walking by. As the haunted house became hugely successful, the owners expanded, adding carnival rides. If visitors could make it all the way through the haunted house, they were awarded with an Amling’s Brave Heart Award button, like the one pictured.

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This button is from a studio tour of the NBC Chicago. NBC Chicago is located in the NBC Tower in the heart downtown Chicago. The tour offers visitors a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the world of television broadcasting and the various sound stages, greenrooms, production offices etc. The tour is available to the public and offers free tours for students.

Blue illustration of Chicago skyline made with musical instruments on a dark blue background with blue text

The Chicago Blues Festival is a free event held every June showcasing the top blues musicians in the industry. The festival started in 1984 to honor renowned blues musician Mckinley Morganfield who passed the year before. He was considered the “father of Chicago blues". WXRT radio station is one of the sponsors for the event and each year they design their own merchandise for the festival.  For the 2014 festival, they created the image on this button. It highlights a few of the important buildings in Chicago’s skyline with a musical twist. For example, the iconic Sears Tower in the middle of the button is made up of piano keys.

Blue and orange-red illustration of a bird over an orange-red banner with dark blue text on a blue background

The Chicago Blues Festival is a free event held every June showcasing the top blues musicians in the industry. The festival started in 1984 to honor renowned blues musician Mckinley Morganfield who passed the year before. He was considered the “father of Chicago blues". WXRT radio station is one of the sponsors for the event and each year they design their own merchandise for the festival. For the 2013 festival, they created the image on this button. It depicts an eagle which is the nations emblem, but if looked at closely, it also doubles as a guitar.

Black and white backward letter R on a yellow background with an outer black edge with white text and two yellow stars on it.

The Chicago Reader began their Readers’ Poll in 2008 with the release of their "Best of Chicago" annual series. In 2010 it included five categories: Goods and Services, Food and Drink, Arts and Entertainment, Sports and Recreation, and Civics. Four categories consisted of somewhere between 20 and 40 polls of various businesses throughout Chicago; the fifth category, Civics had one poll asking who should run against Mayor Daley in 2011. The staff of the Chicago Reader also publish their top picks for various honorable mentions. 

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Zero population growth (ZPG) is an ideology that some believe should be the ultimate goal of society - that the number of people in a specific area neither increases nor decreases. ZPG gained popularity in the late 1960s as a political movement by people who believed that the continual increase in population was the source for many of the world’s problems, like pollution and violence. ZPG can be achieved through multiple ways, one such being limiting births and immigration. China, for example adopted this policy with the one child policy.

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The argument against capital punishment dates back to the colonial period in America, with one of the most famous early texts being Cesare Beccaria's On Crimes and Punishment, published in 1767. The movement gained wider attention at the end of the nineteenth century with the rise of progressive ideals. In recent history, there have been several influential court decisions on the constitutionality of capital punishment, first in Furman v Georgia in 1972, in which the Supreme Court found the practice of capital punishment unconstitutional, but did not mandate that states update their individual practices. This decision was later overturned in 1976 with Gregg v. Georgia.

Anti-death penalty activists frequently point to the disproportionate amount of African American and Hispanic Americans executed. Studies which have shown that the "deterrent" factor - death penalty as a means to deter others from committing similar crimes- has little to no effect on crime rates. Between 1973 and 2005, 123 people were released from death row after being exonerated leading activists to argue that the death penalty will inevitably lead to the execution of innocent people. As of October 2019, 42% of Americans were opposed to the death penalty, with 56% in favor, and 2% having no opinion.

Black text with an illustration of a blue fist with a white star on it on a red background

The Wisconsin AFL-CIO is a labor union for workers in Wisconsin. During a protest in 2011 over a bill that would cut funding and prevent collective bargaining, Wisconsin native Carrie Worth designed the iconic image that is on this button. The fist has always been a symbol of protest, but this fist specifically is in the shape of Wisconsin with the white star marking the city of Madison; the state Capitol and where the protests took place. The logo, Stand for Wisconsin was meant as a call to the nation to stand up and stand with the Wisconsin workers.