2024 Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture: The Half-Life of Freedom, Race, and Justice in America Today
October 29, 2024, 6–8 pm, CDS 1750
Featuring: Jelani Cobb, New Yorker staff writer and dean, Columbia Journalism School
Dr. Cobb is a staff writer at The New Yorker, writing on race, history, justice, politics, and democracy, as well as Columbia University’s Ira A. Lipman Professor of Journalism and Dean of Columbia Journalism School. He recently co-edited, “The Matter of Black Lives,” a collection of The New Yorker’s most ground-breaking writing on Black history and culture in America, featuring the work of legendary writers like James Baldwin and Toni Morrison. Dr. Cobb also edited and wrote a new introduction for “The Kerner Commission,”—a historic study of American racism and police violence originally published in 1967—helping to contextualize it for a new generation. The condensed version of the report, called “The Essential Kerner Commission Report,” is described as an “essential resource for understanding what Dr. Cobb calls the ‘chronic national predicament’ of racial unrest” (Publishers Weekly).
During a historic election, Dr. Cobb investigated allegations of voter fraud and disenfranchisement as a PBS Frontline correspondent in the documentary “Whose Vote Counts,” revealing how these unfounded claims entered the political mainstream. He clearly presents how racial inequities, COVID-19, and voter suppression became interlinked crises, contributing to a long legacy of inequality. For tackling one of the key issues at the heart of modern U.S. politics and carefully elucidating what the fight for voting rights looks like in the 21st century, “Whose Vote Counts” received a Peabody Award. Dr. Cobb was also the correspondent for the Frontline documentary “Policing the Police,” where he examined whether police reform is a viable solution in the wake of mounting protests calling for racial justice, and explored how we can hold police departments accountable. Previously, Dr. Cobb was prominently featured in “Ava Duvernay’s 13th,” her Oscar-nominated documentary about the current mass incarceration of Black Americans, which traces the subject to its historical origins in the Thirteenth Amendment.
Dr. Cobb is the recipient of the Hillman Prize for opinion and analysis journalism, as well as the Walter Bernstein Award from the Writer’s Guild of America for his investigative work on Policing the Police. He is the author of “Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress,” and “To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic.” He is also a recipient of fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation and the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the American Journalism Project, and was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2023. He was appointed the Dean of Columbia Journalism School in 2022.
About the Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture
The Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture was established in 2008 to be a stimulating and energizing memorial to the progressive political values Professor Howard Zinn embodied as a writer, teacher, and mentor. Howard Zinn (1922–2010) was a longtime professor in BU’s Department of Political Science. Renowned for his work as a historian, author, professor, playwright, and activist, he wrote dozens of books, including A People’s History of the United States. His work focused on a wide range of issues, including race, class, war, and history. More information about his life and work is available at howardzinn.org.
Howard Zinn was an author, a history professor, and a political activist whose writings changed the lives of BU students and readers around the world. Zinn taught in the College of Arts & Sciences’ political science department for twenty-four years, from 1964 to 1988. He was a hero of the political left, a consistent and cogent critic of American policies, both domestic and international. He is best known for his 1980 book A People’s History of the United States, which countered the premise that history must be written by and for society’s “winners.” A television documentary released in 2009, The People Speak, translated Zinn’s work to the screen for yet another generation of progressive thinkers. The Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture is made possible by the Zinn Lecture Fund, which is supported by a generous gift from Alex MacDonald, Esq. (CAS’72), and his late wife Maureen A. Strafford, MD (MED’76).
