Historian to discuss civil rights and economic justice

Howard Zinn, a civil-rights historian, playwright and award-winning author, will discuss Civil Rights and Economic Justice May 7 at 7:30 p.m. in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives. The public is invited to attend free of charge.

Zinn, a former professor of history at Boston University and Spelman College, received the Albert Beveridge Prize from the American Historical Association for his book LaGuardia in Congress (Greenwood Press, 1972). His other books include The Southern Mystique, S.N.C.C.: The New Abolitionists, (South End Press, South End Press Ed ed., 2002) New Deal Thought, (Prentice Hall College Div., 1966) Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal, (South End Press, 2002) Disobedience and Democracy, (South End Press, 2002) The Politics of History, (University of Illinois Press; 2nd ed., 1990) Postwar America, 1945-1971 (South End Press, 2002) and Declarations of Independence, (Perennial, 1991) which won the Olive Branch Award in 1991.

Zinn’s play Emma, about the anarchist-feminist Emma Goldman, has been produced in New York, Boston, London, Edinburgh and Tokyo. His other plays include Unsafe Distances and Marx in Soho. He received a bachelor’s degree from New University and master’s and doctoral degrees from Columbia University.