Staughton Lynd

Staughton Lynd
Born Staughton Craig Lynd
(1929-11-22) November 22, 1929
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Residence Niles, Ohio
Education
Religion Quaker[1]
Spouse(s) Alice Nyles Lynd
Children 3
Parent(s)
Notes

Staughton Craig Lynd (born November 22, 1929) is an American conscientious objector, Quaker,[6] peace activist and civil rights activist, tax resister, historian, professor, author and lawyer. His involvement in social justice causes has brought him into contact with some of the nation's most influential activists, including Howard Zinn, Tom Hayden and Daniel Berrigan.[7] Lynd's contribution to the cause of social justice and the peace movement is chronicled in Carl Mirra's biography, The Admirable Radical: Staughton Lynd and Cold War Dissent, 1945–1970, published in 2010 by Kent State University Press.

Early life

Lynd was one of two children born to the renowned sociologists Robert Staughton Lynd and Helen Lynd, who authored the groundbreaking "Middletown" studies of Muncie, Indiana, in the late 1920s and '30s. Staughton Lynd inherited not only his parents' gifts as scholars, but also their strong socialist beliefs. Although Lynd never embraced undemocratic forms of socialism, his ideological outlook led to his expulsion from a non-combatant position in the U.S. military during the McCarthy Era.

He went on to earn a doctorate in history at Columbia University and accepted a teaching position at Spelman College, in Georgia, where he became acquainted with historian and civil rights activist Howard Zinn. When Zinn was fired from Spelman at the end of the 1962–63 academic year, Lynd resigned in protest. During the summer of 1964, Lynd served as director of the SNCC-organized Freedom Schools of Mississippi. After accepting a position at Yale University, Lynd relocated to New England, along with his wife, Alice, and their three children. In 1965 he gave lectures on 'The History of the American Left' at the Free University of New York.[8]

Vietnam-era activism

It was during his tenure at Yale that Lynd became an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War.[7] His protest activities included speaking engagements, protest marches, and a controversial visit to Hanoi along with Herbert Aptheker and Hayden on a fact-finding trip at the height of the war, which cost him his teaching position at Yale. As the protest movement became increasingly violent, Lynd began to have doubts about the values and practices of the New Left. As a self-described "social democratic pacifist", he became more interested in the possibilities of local organizing.

In 1967, Lynd signed a letter declaring his intention to refuse to pay taxes in protest against the U.S. war against Vietnam, and urging other people to also take this stand.[9]

Labor activism

In 1968, Lynd published his book Intellectual Origins of American Radicalism, which came under severe criticism. Writing in the New York Review of Books, Marxist professor Eugene Genovese called the book a "travesty of history" and Lynd an "ideologue." Yale denied Lynd tenure, and he became unemployable in academia.[10] Lynd relocated his family to Chicago. There, he struggled to make a living from community organizing. Meanwhile, he and his wife, Alice, embarked upon an oral history project dealing with the working class. The conclusions of this work, titled Rank and File, inspired Lynd to study law in order to assist workers victimized by companies and left unprotected by declining labor unions. In 1973, he enrolled at the University of Chicago law school, where he earned a degree in 1976.

Rust Belt activism

From there, the Lynds relocated to Youngstown, Ohio, in the heart of the Rust Belt. He proved to be a vital participant in the late 1970s struggle to keep the Youngstown steel mills open. Despite the ultimate failure of those efforts, the Lynds have continued organizing in the Youngstown-Warren area.[11] Staughton Lynd has remained extremely active as an attorney, taking on a broad range of cases, including those concerning disabled and retired workers.

Lynd's book, Lucasville, is an investigation into the events surrounding the 1993 prison uprising at Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, and voices serious concern over the integrity of legal proceedings subsequent to the event. His newest book, a memoir of his and Alice's life, Stepping Stones: Memoir of a Life Together was released in January 2009.

Lynd still maintains an active Ohio law license.

Works by Lynd

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 "Alice Nyles Lynd and Staughton Lynd Papers (DG 099)". Swarthmore College Peace Collection. Retrieved 2015-01-10.
  2. ↑ "Staughton Lynd Facts, information, pictures". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2015-01-10.
  3. ↑ "Staughton Lynd". Haymarket Books. Retrieved 2015-01-10.
  4. ↑ Stanley, Tiffany L. "Political activists Staughton and Alice (Niles) Lynd have written a memoir". Harvard Magazine. Retrieved 2015-01-10. May–June 2010
  5. ↑ "Ohio Citizen Action Honors Staughton and Alice Lynd". EcoWatch. February 2, 2012. Retrieved 2015-01-10.
  6. ↑ Lynd (1997), p. 44.
  7. 1 2 Zinn (1999), p. 486.
  8. ↑ Lisker, Roy. "The Antiwar Movement in New York City 1965-67". Ferment Magazine. Retrieved 2015-01-11. An Updated and revised version of the article published in "Les Temps Modernes" the magazine of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre September 1968
  9. ↑ “An Open Letter” archived at Horowitz Transaction Publishers Archive
  10. ↑ Duberman, Martin (2012), Howard Zinn: A Life on the Left, The New Press .
  11. ↑ Fuechtmann (1989), p. 7.

Further reading

References

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