Guide for Honoring Howard Zinn’s Legacy
By the Howard Zinn Revocable Trust, The People Speak, Zinn Education Project, and HowardZinn.org
As an activist scholar, Howard Zinn inspired and touched the lives of many, and we thank you for wanting to build on that. This guide is to help people, organizations, organizers, activists, and scholars navigate the use of Howard Zinn’s name on projects, both newly created and renewed. We see this as a living document and know this will need revising and updating to capture new opportunities and technologies. We welcome your feedback at contact@howardzinn.org. Also, please share with us your events so we can help promote it on social media and the e-newsletter (sent 2-4 times per year).
The following details when to consult the Howard Zinn Trust and ways to uphold and honor Zinn’s spirit.
Table of Contents
When to Consult with the Howard Zinn Revocable Trust
- Name Usage: If you would like to use “Howard Zinn” on an event, award, publication, or other publicly available matter, check and receive approval from the Howard Zinn Revocable Trust.
- Idea for a Howard Zinn-themed or related project: Please share with the Howard Zinn Revocable Trust the plan of the project and who is implementing it. Further notes are below for ensuring diverse and relevant events.
- Publications: Before the publishing process begins, share with the Howard Zinn Revocable Trust plans to reprint, publish, or update Howard Zinn text. Further notes are below about what to incorporate in new editions or updates.
Ensuring Diverse and Relevant Events
Selecting Speakers for Howard Zinn Events and Series
The following are criteria and priorities to consider so that the event reflects the values and legacy of its namesake.
- Scholars of color and women
- Scholar-activists. Professor Zinn stood up for his students, invited them to get involved with social issues and activism, and he himself took professional risks
- People whose work is directly relevant to key current events that would benefit from the light of history. Academics and scholarship should serve a purpose, as Professor Zinn did continually
- People whose impact reaches beyond the walls of academia
- People who can describe how their work connects to the tradition of people’s history and expands it in current time
Event Format
- Interactive, engaging attendees in dialogue and inspiring them to consider how they can apply what they learn to current events and what they can do with what they have learned.
- Online events have the chat enabled (with a monitor to curtail Zoom bombers). Ideally there would be facilitated small group discussions.
- Reflect not just people’s history, but people’s pedagogy. Focus on the agency of the people, not just the speakers and presenters
- Ensure the integrity of event
Fundraising Using Howard Zinn Quotes or Imagery
Howard Zinn often spoke at fundraising events for non-profit and social justice organizations, and supported numerous campaigns. The following guide is provided to understand when it is necessary to contact the Howard Zinn Revocable Trust based on the sensibility of fundraising.
No Need to Contact the Trust
- Projects by grassroots to small non-profit organizations (less than $1 million dollars annual operating budget)
- Small scale projects ( e.g., runs of 2,500 or less)
When to Contact the Trust for Permission
- Projects by medium to large non-profit organizations (annual operating budgets of $1 million+), and public and private institutions of any scale
- Projects that include the naming of (but not limited to) an endowment, organization, gala, campaign, award, lecture series, prize, conference
Publishing or Updating Howard Zinn Text and Materials
Editorial Guidance
Based on our experience of what kind of labor is given to ensure new editions or new publications are advancing contemporary scholar activist politics and attending to the voices of people and communities and their current calls for justice, we recommend having the staff that includes:
- Editor(s) who are up to date with contemporary knowledge of people’s history and/or
- Another historian or history scholar to review for accuracy
- Graphic designers who are adept at transcending mainstream stereotypes and narratives
- All publications should be reviewed by the Trust and its representatives to ensure they meet the standards of Howard Zinn’s work
Reprints and Extracts: Contact Roam Agency
For permissions to use extracts from any of the published works, or for print rights or special non-dramatic or foreign licensing of any titles, please contact: Roam Agency, www.roamagency.com.
New Introductions and Forewords: Contact the Howard Zinn Revocable Trust
Send a copy to contact@howardzinn.org for review.
New Editions: Contact Roam Agency
If content will have changes or additions, contact: Roam Agency, www.roamagency.com.
Performance Rights: Contact Hope Denekamp
To get permission to perform Howard Zinn’s plays, contact Hope Denekamp hope [at] sennottwilliams [dot] com.
Copyright and Privacy
Letters, Correspondence, Photos, Films, and Other Intellectual and Creative Content
Authors, artists, publishers, filmmakers, and other content creators retain their copyright. For publishing excerpts from the letters and papers of Howard Zinn, refer to the archives’ policy and citation preferences including New York University’s Tamiment Library (“Conditions Governing Access”), Wisconsin Historical Society (“Administrative/Restriction Information”), and HowardZinn.org (“Terms”).
Terms of This Guide
This guide was developed in 2023, published in 2024, and will be reviewed, updated, and renewed every five years. If you have suggestions or contributions, please send to contact@howardzinn.org.
LAST UPDATED: 9/16/24
