Howard Zinn's Southern Diary : Sit-ins, Civil Rights, and Black Women's Student Activism

In the 1960s, students of Spelman College, a black liberal arts college for women, helped organize historic civil rights protests occurring across Atlanta, leading to the arrest of some for participating in sit-ins in the local community. A young Howard Zinn (future author of the worldwide best seller A People's History of the United States) was a professor of history at Spelman during this era and served as an adviser to the Atlanta sit-in movement and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Zinn mentored many of Spelman's students active in the black freedom movement at the time, including Alice Walker, Marian Wright Edelman, and Roslyn Pope. As a key facilitator of the Spelman student movement, Zinn supported students who challenged and criticized the campus's paternalistic social restrictions, even when this led to conflicts with the Spelman administration. Zinn's involvement with the Atlanta student movement and his closeness to Spelman's leading student and faculty activists gave him an insider's view of that movement and of the political and intellectual world of Spelman, Atlanta University, and SNCC. Robert Cohen presents a thorough historical overview as well as an entrée to the diary Zinn kept during this tumultuous time. One of the most extensive records of the political climate on a historically black college in 1960s America, Zinn's diary is a fascinating historical document of the free speech, academic freedom, and student rights battles that rocked Spelman and led to Zinn's dismissal from the college in 1963 for supporting the student movement--Back cover. La 4e de couv. indique: "In the 1960s, students of Spelman College, a black liberal arts college for women, helped organize historic civil rights protests occurring across Atlanta, leading to the arrest of some for participating in sit-ins in the local community. A young Howard Zinn (future author of the worldwide best seller A People's History of the United States) was a professor of history at Spelman during this era and served as an adviser to the Atlanta sit-in movement and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Zinn mentored many of Spelman's students active in the black freedom movement at the time, including Alice Walker, Marian Wright Edelman, and Roslyn Pope. As a key facilitator of the Spelman student movement, Zinn supported students who challenged and criticized the campus's paternalistic social restrictions, even when this led to conflicts with the Spelman administration. Zinn's involvement with the Atlanta student movement and his closeness to Spelman's leading student and faculty activists gave him an insider's view of that movement and of the political and intellectual world of Spelman, Atlanta University, and SNCC. Robert Cohen presents a thorough historical overview as well as an entrée to the diary Zinn kept during this tumultuous time. One of the most extensive records of the political climate on a historically black college in 1960s America, Zinn's diary is a fascinating historical document of the free speech, academic freedom, and student rights battles that rocked Spelman and led to Zinn's dismissal from the college in 1963 for supporting the student movement." In the 1960s, students of Spelman College, a black liberal arts college for women, were drawn into historic civil rights protests occurring across Atlanta, leading to the arrest of some for participating in sit-ins in the local community. A young Howard Zinn (future author of the worldwide best seller A Peoples History of the United States ) was a professor of history at Spelman during this era and served as an adviser to the Atlanta sit-in movement and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Zinn mentored many of Spelmans students fighting for civil rights at the time, including Alice Walker and Marian Wright Edelman. As a key facilitator of the Spelman student movement, Zinn supported students who challenged and criticized the campuss paternalistic social restrictions, even when this led to conflicts with the Spelman administration. Zinns involvement with the Atlanta student movement and his closeness to Spelmans leading student and faculty activists gave him an insiders view of that movement and of the political and intellectual world of Spelman, Atlanta University, and the SNCC. Robert Cohen presents a thorough historical overview as well as an entre to Zinns diary. One of the most extensive records of the political climate on a historically black college in 1960s America, Zinns diary offers an in-depth view. It is a fascinating historical document of the free speech, academic freedom, and student rights battles that rocked Spelman and led to Zinns dismissal from the college in 1963 for supporting the student movement. The activist and author of A People’s History of the United States records an in-depth and personal account of the Civil Rights Movement in Atlanta. During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, students of Spelman College, a black liberal arts college for women, were drawn into the historic protests occurring across Atlanta. At the time, Howard Zinn was a history professor at Spelman and served as an adviser to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Zinn mentored many of Spelman’s students fighting for civil rights at the time, including Alice Walker and Marian Wright Edelman. Zinn’s involvement with the Atlanta student movement and his closeness to Spelman’s leading activists gave him an insider’s view of the political and intellectual world of Spelman, Atlanta University, and the SNCC. He recorded his many insights and observations of the time in his Spelman College diary. Robert Cohen presents Zinn’s diary in full along with a thorough historical overview and helpful contextual notes. It is a fascinating historical document of the free speech, academic freedom, and student rights battles that rocked Spelman and led to Zinn’s dismissal from the college in 1963 for supporting the student movement. "Cohen presents an edited volume of Zinn's diary, made available from his papers at NYU's Tamiment Library ... Zinn's diary entries focus on issues of race, class, democracy, and freedom that were of concern to him throughout his Atlanta years (1956-63)"--