I was completely unaware of the human chaos below.” Twenty years later he returned to Royan to study the effects of the raid and concluded there had been no military necessity for the bombing everyone knew the war was almost over (it ended three weeks later) and this attack did nothing to affect the outcome. He wrote, “I remember distinctly seeing the bombs explode in the town, flaring like matches struck in the fog. For the first time the Eighth Air Force used napalm, which burst into liquid fire on the ground, killing hundreds of civilians. Once again he was wrestling with his experience as a B-17 bombardier during World War II, especially his last mission in 1945 on a raid to take out German garrisons in the French town of Royan. One month before his death he finished his last book, The Bomb. That was Howard Zinn he loved the daring ones, and was daring himself. Howard delighted in quoting one of her first published poems that had touched his own life: He spoke poignantly of his friendship with one of his former students, Alice Walker, the daughter of tenant farmers in Georgia who made her way to Spelman and went on to become the famous writer. He had not been back for 43 years, and he seemed delighted to return for commencement. He was chairman of the history department there when he was fired in 1963 over his involvement in civil rights. I have in my desk at home a copy of the commencement address Howard gave at Spelman College in 2005. That’s the only way, he said, for everyday folks to get justice – by fighting for it. Rushing up to an onlooker he shouted, “Is this a private fight, or can anyone get in it?” For Howard, democracy was one big public fight and everyone should plunge into it. The last time we met, I told him that the stories in A People’s History of the United States remind me of the fellow who turned the corner just as a big fight broke out down the block. More, those stirring sagas have inspired and continue to inspire countless people to go out and make a difference. We honor him, for Howard championed grassroots social change and famously chronicled its story as played out over the course of our nation’s history. Howard famously helped us see how big change can start with small acts. What journalist, writing on deadline, could have imagined the walloping kick that Rosa Park’s tired feet would give to Jim Crow? What pundit could have fantasized that a third-rate burglary on a dark night could change the course of politics? The historian’s work is to help us disentangle the wreck of the Schwinn from cataclysm. ![]() found masking tape on a doorjamb, and the presidency of Richard Nixon began to unwind. A night guard at an office complex in Washington D.C. ![]() A middle-aged black seamstress, riding in a Montgomery bus, had tired feet, and an ugly social order began to collapse. A young man named Paris ran off with a beautiful woman who was married to someone else, and the civilization of Troy began to unwind. In fact, some epic history can start out as a minor incident. George Bernard Shaw once complained that journalists are seemingly unable to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilization. The difference between a journalist and an historian is that the historian knows the difference. I was honored when you asked me to join in celebrating Howard Zinn’s life and legacy. Bill Moyers speech at Boston University on October 29, 2010, as a part of the Howard Zinn Lecture Series.
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