FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SUMMARY: Howard Zinn to lecture on "Bringing Democracy Alive" at Vassar College, February 24
CONTACT: Diane Zucker, (914) 437-7404, [email protected]
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. --- Historian Howard Zinn will speak in the Vassar College Chapel on Thursday, February 24, at 7:30 p.m.. Zinn's lecture, titled "Bringing Democracy Alive," is the keynote address for Equal Rights Awareness Week 2000, an event sponsored by PEACE , a non-profit national organization devoted to the elimination of prejudices and racism. The lecture and question-and-answer session is free and open to the public. It will be followed by a reception and book signing in the Rose Parlor, Main Building.
Arguably the most influential "radical historian" of our times, Zinn will "discuss the limitations of formal democratic structures and procedures, and how historically they have been inadequate to solve serious problems of justice and equality." According to Zinn, "it has required social movements -- of working people, blacks, women, students to even begin to solve those problems."
Zinn was a participant and observer in the founding activities of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and was also active in the antiwar movement in the 1960s. In 1968, he flew to Hanoi with Father Daniel Berrigan to receive the first three American fliers released by North Vietnam.
Author of the 1989 epic masterpiece "A People's History of the United States," Zinn has more recently written "Declarations of Independence: Cross Examining American Ideology" and "You
Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times."
Zinn is professor emeritus of political science at Boston University.
Equal Rights Awareness Week 2000 is dedicated to creating a critical dialogue between local students, the Poughkeepsie community, and the Vassar community about equal rights issues.
For additional information, call the Office of College Relations at (914) 437-7400. Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations may contact Cathy Jennings, Office of Campus Activities, (914) 437-5370, as far in advance as possible to request appropriate and reasonable accommodations.
Vassar, founded in 1861, is a residential, coeducational liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, located in the scenic Hudson River Valley.
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