Each year, the Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture brings the community together to hear a thought-provoking presentation on current issues from renowned scholars and thought leaders.
This year’s Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture on December 7, 2020 took the form of a conversation with Ibram X. Kendi, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University, professor of history, and founding director of BU’s Center for Antiracist Research. Historian and Professor Nina Silber sat down with Professor Kendi to cover the full range of his work as an activist and leading historian of racism in America.
From his landmark book The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstitution of Higher Education, 1965–1972, which won the W. E. B. Du Bois Book Prize, to Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the 2016 National Book Award for Nonfiction and was remixed as Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You with Jason Reynolds, to his New York Times No. 1 best seller, How to Be an Antiracist, and his new book project, Bones of Inequity: A Narrative History of Racist Policies in America, Professors Kendi and Silber discussed his intellectual journey and how the current moment has elevated the need for antiracist research.
Over 2000 people attended this virtual event. If you couldn’t make it, you can read a recap at BU Today.
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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.
Members of the BU faculty present a lecture in his name each year, with the generous support of Alex H. MacDonald (CAS’72) and his wife, Dr. Maureen A. Strafford (MED’76).
You can read about all Arts & Sciences lectures here.