Homage to Howard (For Howard Zinn Book Fair 12/08/19)

“Homage to Howard.”

Years before we worked together, my co-author Steven Vittoria and I talked about Howard and his masterpiece, The People’s History of the United States. We both were admirers of Howard, and we loved his work, and perhaps especially his ideas of what was called “history from below” or how regular people, average everyday people, made an important contribution to the nation’s history by building movements for freedom, justice, and real human rights.

Zinn, who grew up in New York’s tenements, was such a man himself and he embraced humanistic working-class ideas. As a young teacher in the Jim Crow South, he saw everyday people, like his students at Spelman College, get beaten and arrested for daring to demand the right to vote. These events taught Howard about history happening right before his eyes, where he had a bird’s eye view of the civil rights movement in Georgia and beyond.

These experiences inspired him and supercharged his reading, research, and writing of true U.S. history. And Howard inspired us, Steven and I, to write our own history: Murder Incorporated, which we invite you to read so it can inspire you.

For Murder Incorporated and my coauthor, Steven Vittoria, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.

These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.