In 1948, in the Bronx, 8-year-old Mickey Hartman delivered leaflets door-to-door in the co-op apartment complex built by the communist party where she lived with her trade union family.
In Brooklyn, meanwhile, the FBI opened a file on 10-year-old Dick Flacks because his teacher parents helped lead labor and civil-rights campaigns in the public schools.
Neither kid knew it at the time, but those childhood experiences marked the start of a remarkable, lifelong partnership.