By Howard Zinn • Published on June 2, 1976 in the Boston Globe
Memorial Day will be celebrated … by the usual betrayal of the dead, by the hypocritical patriotism of the politicians and contractors preparing for more wars, more graves to receive more flowers on future Memorial Days. The memory of the dead deserves a different dedication. To peace, to defiance of governments.
By Howard Zinn • The Nation • August 6, 1960 and republished March 23, 2015
One afternoon some weeks ago, with the dogwood on the Spelman College campus newly bloomed and the grass close-cropped and fragrant, an attractive, tawny-skinned girl crossed the lawn to her dormitory to put a notice on the bulletin board. It read: Young Ladies Who Can Picket Please Sign Below.
The notice revealed, in its own quaint language, that within the dramatic revolt of Negro college students in the South today another phenomenon has been developing. This is the upsurge of the young, educated Negro woman against the generations-old advice of her elders: be nice, be well-mannered and ladylike, don’t speak loudly, and don’t get into trouble. On the campus of the nation’s leading college for Negro young women—pious, sedate, encrusted with the traditions of gentility and moderation—these exhortations, for the first time, are being firmly rejected.
PEN New England selected Ferguson activists and bloggers Johnetta Elzie and DeRay McKesson to receive the 2015 Howard Zinn Freedom to Write Award. Formerly named the "Thomas Paine Award," the Freedom to Write Award was re-named in honor of Howard Zinn.
This year, as the Pentagon prepares to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War, we revisit this essay by Howard Zinn written in 1998, the 30th anniversary year of when he traveled with the Reverend Daniel Berrigan to Hanoi to receive prisoners released by the North Vietnamese.
On this 5th anniversary of the passing of Howard Zinn, we encourage you to read Zinn's biography, articles, and interviews. The site was rebuilt in August of 2014 and provides a treasure trove of his work. If you have additional interviews, photos, or archival materials by Howard Zinn that can be published online, email contact@howardzinn.org.
Read more from the Winter 2015 Newsletter.
In the 1960s, Howard Zinn, along with Ella Baker, served as advisers to SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. On this 50th anniversary year of the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery marches and the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, we revisit Zinn's first-hand account from Selma's Freedom Day in 1963. "The idea was to bring hundreds of people to register to vote, hoping that their numbers would decrease fear. And there was much to fear," Zinn writes.
December 30 is the anniversary of Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo being indicted in 1971 for releasing the Pentagon Papers. The papers were part of a 7,000-page, top secret history of the U.S. political and military involvement in the Vietnam War from 1945-71. In other words, their “crime” was to make the American public aware of the history of the war. Excerpted from chapter 12 of You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train, Howard Zinn recounts the lead-up to Ellsberg and Russo's indictment.
For Thanksgiving, we highlight Native American resistance that caught the nation’s attention in the 1960s and 70s. As Howard Zinn wrote in Chapter 19 of A People’s History of the United States, “Never in American history had more movements for change been concentrated in so short a span of years.”
The 10th anniversary edition of Voices of a People’s History, a companion to Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, features new voices including whistleblower Chelsea Manning, Naomi Klein, speaker from the Occupy Wall, Dream Defenders, and Glenn Greenwald.
For Veterans Day, we highlight this article, "Dissent at the War Memorial," written by Howard Zinn for The Progressive in 2004. Asked to speak on a panel called, "War Stories," Zinn said, "I don’t want to honor military heroism — that conceals too much death and suffering. I want to honor those who all these years have opposed the horror of war.”
News
Zinn on Memorial Day
Posted: May 24, 2015 by Howard Zinn Website
Memorial Day will be celebrated … by the usual betrayal of the dead, by the hypocritical patriotism of the politicians and contractors preparing for more wars, more graves to receive more flowers on future Memorial Days. The memory of the dead deserves a different dedication. To peace, to defiance of governments.
Category: News
When Respectability Was No Longer Respectable, and Virtue Required Acting Out, Not Leaning In
Posted: April 6, 2015 by Howard Zinn Website
One afternoon some weeks ago, with the dogwood on the Spelman College campus newly bloomed and the grass close-cropped and fragrant, an attractive, tawny-skinned girl crossed the lawn to her dormitory to put a notice on the bulletin board. It read: Young Ladies Who Can Picket Please Sign Below. The notice revealed, in its own quaint language, that within the dramatic revolt of Negro college students in the South today another phenomenon has been developing. This is the upsurge of the young, educated Negro woman against the generations-old advice of her elders: be nice, be well-mannered and ladylike, don’t speak loudly, and don’t get into trouble. On the campus of the nation’s leading college for Negro young women—pious, sedate, encrusted with the traditions of gentility and moderation—these exhortations, for the first time, are being firmly rejected.
Category: Articles & Interviews, Articles by Howard Zinn, News Tags: Activism, In the South, Spelman College, Student Activism, The Nation
2015 Howard Zinn Freedom to Write Award
Posted: March 13, 2015 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: In the News, News Tags: Articles about Howard Zinn, In the News
Remembering a War
Posted: March 2, 2015 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: Articles & Interviews, Articles by Howard Zinn, News Tags: Excerpts, Vietnam War
Howard Zinn, Presente!
Posted: January 26, 2015 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: News
On the Road to Voting Rights: Freedom Day in Selma, 1963
Posted: December 30, 2014 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: Articles & Interviews, Articles by Howard Zinn, News Tags: Activist, Civil Rights Movement, Excerpts, In the South
The Pentagon Papers Disclosure and Indictments
Posted: December 9, 2014 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: Articles & Interviews, Articles by Howard Zinn, News Tags: Activist, Excerpts, Vietnam War, War
Indian Resistance and Thanksgiving Declarations
Posted: November 17, 2014 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: News Tags: Excerpts, Holidays, Native Americans
10th Anniversary Edition of Voices Now Available
Posted: November 11, 2014 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: News Tags: Events
Veterans and Dissent at the War Memorial
Posted: October 27, 2014 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: News