“I'm worried that students will take their obedient place in society and look to become successful cogs in the wheel - let the wheel spin them around as it wants without taking a look at what they're doing. I'm concerned that students not become passive acceptors of the official doctrine that's handed down to them from the White House, the media, textbooks, teachers and preachers.” –Howard Zinn
The respected political commentator, civil rights campaigner, and American historian Howard Zinn died earlier this week on January 27, 2010 of a heart attack. Zinn was a professor at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia from 1956-1963 when he took the side of the female students in a revolt against the school’s policy. Zinn told The Nation (which is a weekly nonprofit periodical dedicated to U.S. leftist politics and culture) that Spelman students were likely to be found on the picket line, or in jail for participating in the greater effort to break down segregation in public places in Atlanta. Zinn wrote and published two books about Civil Rights in this time period after Spelman. He moved to teaching Civil Liberties classes at Boston University. He was a member of the anti-war effort for all major contemporary American wars and conflicts since the atrocity that was Vietnam. Rallies, sit-ins, marches, protests, books written and subsequently published, Howard Zinn was a patriot, for he seeked to pull back the curtain and restore freedom and democracy to its rightful bearers, the people. A statement he oft made more or less describes his thesis of life and liberty, “If there is going to be change, real change…it will have to work its way from the bottom up, from the people themselves. That’s how change happens.”
“One certain effect of war is to diminish freedom of expression.” –Zinn.
Zinn was the writer of over 40 books that addressed the topics of political and social injustice and civil rights struggles. He contributed to dozens of publications, magazines, and collections. Subversives all over are now paying tribute to one of their own. Zinn was also a playwright, who had three theater pieces that have been produced, ‘Emma’ (1976), ‘Daughter of Venus’ (1985), and ‘Marx in Soho’ (1999). “If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.” –Zinn
You can go to the Internet archive (which is a FREE open source audio/video/text and public domain resource that exists and all people should be aware of) and listen to a Conversation with Howard Zinn from April 13, 2006.
http://www.archive.org/details/howardzinn0413
Suggested Reading:
A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present (Published by Harper Perennial Modern Classics)
http://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-United-States-Present/dp/0060838655/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264873819&sr=8-1
The Southern Mystique (Published by South End Press)
http://www.amazon.com/Southern-Mystique-Radical-1960s/dp/0896086801/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264874019&sr=1-1
You can also view Howard Zinn’s official website which contains a plethora of interviews and media that can further inform and educate. http://www.howardzinn.org/default/index.php
To close this little addendum to the life of a great man lets remember, “There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.”
-Robert K.
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