The South and National Politics
Howard Zinn takes exception to the title he was given for his talk. He says, “I don’t like to talk about Southern influence in national politics because it perpetuates a kind of mythology which I think is very prevalent in American thinking…and that is that we have a fine, decent, democratic, beautifully structured, lovely country which the South is spoiling. We have some great statesmen, a fine president, a magnificent Supreme Court, a wonderful set of laws, a great constitution, a magnificent heritage, and all of this is being spoiled by a few miserable, evil Southerners. And I don’t think this is true.” Then he adds, “Our problem is not basically that” Mississippi Senator James, ” Eastland is vicious, but that Kennedy is timid.”
Recorded at the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee conference.
Speaker
Howard Zinn
HOWARD ZINN CENTENARY 1922-2022
Howard Zinn, professor emeritus at Boston University, was perhaps this country’s premier radical historian. He was born in Brooklyn in 1922. His parents, poor immigrants, were constantly moving to stay, as he once told me, “one step ahead of the landlord.” After high school, he went to work in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. During World War II, he saw combat duty as an air force bombardier. After the war, he went to Columbia University on the GI Bill. He taught at Spelman, the all-Black women’s college in Atlanta. He was an active figure in the civil rights movement and served on the board of SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He was fired by Spelman for his activism. He was among the first to oppose U.S. aggression in Indochina. His book Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal was an instant classic. A principled opponent of imperialism and militarism, he was an advocate of non-violent civil disobedience. He spoke and marched against the U.S. wars on Afghanistan and Iraq. His masterpiece, A People’s History of the United States, continues to sell in huge numbers. Among his many other books are You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train, Failure to Quit: Reflections of an Optimistic Historian and Original Zinn with David Barsamian. Shortly before his death he completed his last great project, the documentary The People Speak. Always ready to lend a hand, he believed in and practiced solidarity. Witty, erudite, generous and loved by many the world over, Howard Zinn, friend and teacher, passed away on January 27, 2010. He would say, Don’t mourn. Get active. The struggle for peace and justice continues.
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