Howard Zinn on Race

by Zinn, Howard; West, Cornel

• ISBN13: 9781609801342
• ISBN10: 1609801342
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-06-14
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press

Summary

Howard Zinn on Race is Zinn's choice of the shorter writings and speeches that best reflect his views on America's most taboo topic. As chairman of the history department at all black women's Spelman College, Zinn was an outspoken supporter of student activists in the nascent civil rights movement. In "The Southern Mystique," he tells of how he was asked to leave Spelman in 1963 after teaching there for seven years. "Behind every one of the national government's moves toward racial equality," writes Zinn in one 1965 essay, "lies the sweat and effort of boycotts, picketing, beatings, sit-ins, and mass demonstrations." He firmly believed that bringing people of different races and nationalities together would create a more compassionate world, where equality is a given and not merely a dream. These writings, which span decades, express Zinn's steadfast belief that the people have the power to change the status quo, if they only work together and embrace the nearly forgotten American tradition of civil disobedience and revolution. In clear, compassionate, and present prose, Zinn gives us his thoughts on the Abolitionists, the march from Selma to Montgomery, John F. Kennedy, picketing, sit-ins, and, finally, the message he wanted to send to New York University students about race in a speech he delivered during the last week of his life.

Author Biography

The visionary historical work of professor and activist HOWARD ZINN (1922–2010) is widely considered one of the most important and influential of our era. After his experience as a bombardier in World War II, Zinn became convinced that there could no longer be such a thing as a “just war,” because the vast majority of victims in modern warfare are, increasingly, innocent civilians. In his books, including A People’s History of the United States, its companion volume Voices of a People’s History of the United States, and countless other titles, Zinn affirms the power of the people to influence the course of events.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 9
The Southern Mystique (1963)	p. 11
A Quiet Case of Social Change (1959)	p. 21
Finishing School for Pickets (1960)	p. 33
Out of the Sit-ins (1968)	p. 41
Kennedy: The Reluctant Emancipator (1962)	p. 67
Alabama: Freedom Day in Selma (1968)	p. 77
Mississippi: Hattiesburg (1968)	p. 97
The Selma to Montgomery March (1965)	p. 119
Abolitionists, Freedom Riders and the Tactics of Agitation (1965)	p. 123
Solving the Race Problem (1973)	p. 157
When Will the Long Feud End? (1975)	p. 193
Academic Freedom: Collaboration and Resistance 1982)	p. I97
No Human Being is Illegal (2006)	p. 207
Zinn Speaks (2008)	p. 225
Suggestions for Further Reading	p. 233
About the Authors	p. 235
Also by Howard Zinn	p. 237
About Seven Stories Press	p. 239
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