Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam and a leading faculty critic of BU president John Silber, died of a heart attack today in Santa Monica, Calif, where he was traveling, his family said. He was 87.
"His writings have changed the consciousness of a generation, and helped open new paths to understanding and its crucial meaning for our lives," Noam Chomsky, the left-wing activist and MIT professor, once wrote of Dr. Zinn. "When action has been called for, one could always be confident that he would be on the front lines, an example and trustworthy guide."For Dr. Zinn, activism was a natural extension of the revisionist brand of history he taught. Dr. Zinn's best-known book, "A People's History of the United States" (1980), had for its heroes not the Founding Fathers -- many of them slaveholders and deeply attached to the status quo, as Dr. Zinn was quick to point out -- but rather the farmers of Shays' Rebellion and the union organizers of the 1930s.
As he wrote in his autobiography, "You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train" (1994), "From the start, my teaching was infused with my own history. I would try to be fair to other points of view, but I wanted more than 'objectivity'; I wanted students to leave my classes not just better informed, but more prepared to relinquish the safety of silence, more prepared to speak up, to act against injustice wherever they saw it. This, of course, was a recipe for trouble."
Certainly, it was a recipe for rancor between Dr. Zinn and Silber. Dr. Zinn twice helped lead faculty votes to oust the BU president, who in turn once accused Dr. Zinn of arson (a charge he quickly retracted) and cited him as a prime example of teachers "who poison the well of academe."
Dr. Zinn was a co-chairman of the strike committee when BU professors walked out in 1979. After the strike was settled, he and four colleagues were charged with violating their contract when they refused to cross a picket line of striking secretaries. The charges against "the BU Five" were soon dropped, however.
Dr. Zinn was born in New York City on Aug. 24, 1922, the son of Jewish immigrants, Edward Zinn, a waiter, and Jennie (Rabinowitz) Zinn, a housewife. He attended New York public schools and worked in the Brooklyn Navy Yard before joining the Army Air Force during World War II. Serving as a bombardier in the Eighth Air Force, he won the Air Medal and attained the rank of second lieutenant.
After the war, Dr. Zinn worked at a series of menial jobs until entering New York University as a 27-year-old freshman on the GI Bill. Professor Zinn, who had married Roslyn Shechter in 1944, worked nights in a warehouse loading trucks to support his studies. He received his bachelor's degree from NYU, followed by master's and doctoral degrees in history from Columbia University.
Dr. Zinn was an instructor at Upsala College and lecturer at Brooklyn College before joining the faculty of Spelman College in Atlanta, in 1956. He served at the historically black women's institution as chairman of the history department. Among his students were the novelist Alice Walker, who called him "the best teacher I ever had," and Marian Wright Edelman, future head of the Children's Defense Fund.
During this time, Dr. Zinn became active in the civil rights movement. He served on the executive committee of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the most aggressive civil rights organization of the time, and participated in numerous demonstrations.
Dr. Zinn became an associate professor of political science at BU in 1964 and was named full professor in 1966.
The focus of his activism now became the Vietnam War. Dr. Zinn spoke at countless rallies and teach-ins and drew national attention when he and another leading antiwar activist, Rev. Daniel Berrigan, went to Hanoi in 1968 to receive three prisoners released by the North Vietnamese.
Dr. Zinn's involvement in the antiwar movement led to his publishing two books: "Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal" (1967) and "Disobedience and Democracy" (1968). He had previously published "LaGuardia in Congress" (1959), which had won the American Historical Association's Albert J. Beveridge Prize; "SNCC: The New Abolitionists" (1964); "The Southern Mystique" (1964); and "New Deal Thought" (1966). Dr. Zinn was also the author of "The Politics of History" (1970); "Postwar America" (1973); "Justice in Everyday Life" (1974); and "Declarations of Independence" (1990).
In 1988, Dr. Zinn took early retirement so as to concentrate on speaking and writing. The latter activity included writing for the stage. Dr. Zinn had two plays produced: "Emma," about the anarchist leader Emma Goldman, and "Daughter of Venus."
Dr. Zinn, or his writing, made a cameo appearance in the 1997 film "Good Will Hunting." The title characters, played by Matt Damon, lauds "A People's History" and urges Robin Williams's character to read it. Damon, who co-wrote the script, was a neighbor of the Zinns growing up.
Damon was later involved in a television version of the book, "The People Speak," which ran on the History Channel in 2009. Damon was the narrator of a 2004 biographical documentary, "Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train."
On his last day at BU, Dr. Zinn ended class 30 minutes early so he could join a picket line and urged the 500 students attending his lecture to come along. A hundred did so.
Dr. Zinn's wife died in 2008. He leaves a daughter, Myla Kabat-Zinn of Lexington; a son, Jeff of Wellfleet; three granddaugthers; and two grandsons.
Funeral plans were not available.
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This is video of heinous condition at Pine Ridge S.D.:
Greetings Mr. Olbermann,
I am so very pleased to share with you on this Wednesday, Indian Country has heard you, loud and clear, these past two nights.
Your first piece, airing, Mon., February 8th,"World's Worst Person" with an award going to The U.S. Senate Committee, was sheer brilliance. We cross posted your video on facebook immediately after airtime. We are listening. Mr. Olbermann, I wish to inform you, sir, for some weeks, through social networking and many, have been taking part in varying initiatives in attempts to gain national media attention as well as Federal aid and relief. I am unhappy to say we have fallen short, as far as media is concerned. You, Mr. Olbermann are the first to broadcast.
On Friday, January 28th, we began calling CNN in Atlanta at 5 pm EST and within 30 minutes, there was a helicopter seen flying over Pine Ridge and CNN promised us a story. This resulted in a measly 20 sec. spot on HLN 5 days later not on Pine Ridge, but on Cheyenne River.
Joseph Brings Plenty messaged me last Saturday by via facebook, stating that the Cheyenne River Sioux are 99% recovered from the latest storm to strike. This is by no means an answer, simply said, Joseph is considering the dire, emergency state of his relations at Pine Ridge, S.Dakota.
Mr. Olbermann, there is a list of over a hundred families that wait for propane. Sir, these are the fortunate. Fortunate in that they can afford, on their average annual $3500 income, to have heat at all.There are many without heat. I have video of meters being pulled of homes occupied by U.S. war vets dying and babies on nebulizers. The above video is by Eric Klein, of can-do.org, as well as documentarian Rick Kline.
Conditions are tragic at best.We are lambasted by visions of Haiti. Well, here are some facts:
- Pine Ridge is second poorest in the Western Hemishere, second only to Haiti.
- This is right here in our own backyard - in the United States of America.
Not only are we in violation of basic human rights here, we're also in violation of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
I have written President Barack Obama six consecutive days and posted those letters to my facebook wall. Though, until your coverage, no one is willing to do anything. My instincts tell me Pine Ridge is taboo, dating back to days of Leonard Peltier's arrest and false imprisonment. I will continue this initiative.
Regardless, the Pine Ridge residents have a crisis situation at hand and, with your help, we can aid the peoples of Pine Ridge. I am currently working with Rick Kline of D.C. and Eric Klein of can-do.org to gather a supply list of emergency goods to be dropped at three sites on the Pine Ridge reservation. This has proven difficult as Eric Klein is on the ground in Haiti and Rick and myself possess no experience in soliciting corporate donations. Heck, I'm just a "white hick" from Boston, but my intent is not to stop till supplies reach my relations and federal aid is sent. I am driving what I am able to load.
Please contact me for any details and facts and people of Pine Ridge I can put you in contact with ie: Autumn TwoBulls, granddaughter of Chief Red Cloud and at mere 29 years secured propane for 100 families and inspired many peoples by way of internet, including the likes of me, "white chick".
Many blessings and thanks Mr. Olbermann for hearing our cries.
Migwetch~Mitakuye Oyasin ~ We are All Related
The Reverend RavenHawk Ruane -Hasak
978-804-9633
111 Washington St.
Topsfield, MA 01983
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As of Monday, February 8th, a call to the U.S. Committee on Indian Affairs helped explain that, in order to get funds, South Dakota's state senators need to take action. The phone answerer explained this would not be happening if it was occurring in another place, such as California, Washington, Virginia or any of the east coast states currently getting hammered by winter storms. The S.D. state senator's numbers are provided below Please know that the office will take note even if callers are not from the state.
Though nothing can be done until a statewide state of emergency is declared, according to the man who answered the phone at the U.S. Committee on Indian Affairs, a senator can make that happen. The more people who call the better - it is most effective if callers are polite, but firm. S. Dakota Senators: Tim Johnson: 202 224 5842 / John Thune: 202 224 2321
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LET THE REVOLUTION BEGIN!
Live your values. Love your country.
And, remember: TOGETHER, We can make a DIFFERENCE!