By Howard Zinn • Excerpt from The Zinn Reader
was one of the speakers at historic Faneuil Hall in Boston (though named after an early slave trader, it was the scene of many meetings of anti-slavery groups before the Civil War) in 1991, when the Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts organized a celebration of the Bicentennial of the Bill of Rights. I wanted to use the opportunity to make clear that whatever freedoms we have in the United States—of speech, of the press, of assembly, and more—do not come simply from the existence on paper of the first Ten Amendments to the Constitution, but from the struggles of citizens to bring those Amendments alive in reality.
June 27 marks the birth of Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869–May 14, 1940), an anarchist who was an early advocate of free speech, birth control, women's equality and independence, and unions. After reading Richard Drinnon's biography of Emma Goldman, Rebel in Paradise, Howard Zinn read Goldman's autobiography, Living My Life. As a historian with a PhD, he was astonished he had never learned about Goldman in his studies. "Here was this magnificent woman, this anarchist, this feminist, fierce, life-loving person."
In the following excerpt from Chapter 17, “Or Does It Explode?” of A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn writes about the legacy of Black resistance in the 20th century, and the rise of the Black Power Movement in the 1960s and 70s.…
As the school year gets underway, we share this excerpt from Original Zinn: Conversations on History and Politics on democratic education, the value of skepticism, and building trust with students.
August 6 and 9 mark the anniversary of the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. In the following excerpt from You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train, Howard Zinn, a WWII bombardier, recalls, “Hiroshima and Royan were crucial in my gradual rethinking of what I had once accepted without question—the absolute morality of the war against fascism.”
[Boston University President John Silber’s] employees had difficulty getting raises in their wages or their benefits. In self-defense, they organized into unions: the faculty, the secretaries and staff, the librarians. And in 1979, with various grievances not met, all these groups, at different times, went out on strike. For the faculty, the provocation was the university reneging on a contract at first agreed to by its negotiating committee.
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.
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.”
Excerpts
Insisting on the Rights of Everyone Everywhere
Posted: January 24, 2017 by Howard Zinn Website
was one of the speakers at historic Faneuil Hall in Boston (though named after an early slave trader, it was the scene of many meetings of anti-slavery groups before the Civil War) in 1991, when the Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts organized a celebration of the Bicentennial of the Bill of Rights. I wanted to use the opportunity to make clear that whatever freedoms we have in the United States—of speech, of the press, of assembly, and more—do not come simply from the existence on paper of the first Ten Amendments to the Constitution, but from the struggles of citizens to bring those Amendments alive in reality.
Category: Excerpts Tags: Activist, Excerpts
Commemorating Emma Goldman: ‘Living My Life’
Posted: June 14, 2016 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: Articles & Interviews, Articles about Howard Zinn, News Tags: Emma Goldman, Excerpts, Haymarket Affair, Labor
Revolt Is Always an Inch Below the Surface
Posted: February 29, 2016 by Howard Zinn Website
In the following excerpt from Chapter 17, “Or Does It Explode?” of A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn writes about the legacy of Black resistance in the 20th century, and the rise of the Black Power Movement in the 1960s and 70s.…
Category: Excerpts Tags: Civil Disobedience, Excerpts, Racism
Value of Skepticism and Breaking Down Barriers with Students
Posted: August 18, 2015 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: News Tags: Education, Excerpts, Spelman College, Zinn Education Project
A Veteran Against War
Posted: July 14, 2015 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: News Tags: Excerpts
Strike at Boston University
Posted: April 9, 2015 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: Articles & Interviews, Articles by Howard Zinn Tags: Activism, Boston University, Excerpts
Remembering a War
Posted: March 2, 2015 by Howard Zinn Website
Category: Articles & Interviews, Articles by Howard Zinn, News Tags: Excerpts, Vietnam War
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