'Staughton Lynd represented the best of humanity, scholarship, and activism.'
One of the giants of the American Left, activist, lawyer and eminent historian, Staughton Lynd, died Nov. 17 in Warren, Ohio. He was 92. In a career that took him from the Freedom Summer of 1964 and the first organized Vietnam War protests to a national campaign to save shuttered steel mills in the Rust Belt, he straddled the worlds of the Labor Left of the early 20th century and the New Left of the '60s and '70s.
His parents, Robert and Helen Merrell Lynd were sociologists widely known in the field for their"Middletown" books, which applied the tools of anthropology to the study of life in Muncie, Indiana. Upon graduating from Harvard, a young Staughton sought"to combine the life of the mind and social action," as he later described it, by studying city and regional planning in graduate school. It was not to be.
Before accepting a position at Yale, Lynd served as director of the"Freedom School" during the Mississippi Summer Project of 1964. That summer, a bridge between the Civil Rights Movement and the escalating American involvement in Vietnam opened in Lynd's mind during a speech Bob Moses gave to a Freedom School convention after the murders of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in Philadelphia, Mississippi, in July.
Hayden wanted Lynd to lead a national antiwar movement."He was perhaps the only person who could unite the New Left and the Old Left, speak truth to power, and also be a persuasive advocate within the mainstream." But such a move was against Staughton's nature, and the"anti-leadership ethos" of the era precluded such a possibility, Hayden later recalled.
Drawn to Chicago and its long history of radicalism, he spent a few years in the late 1960s working as a community organizer with the famed Saul Alinsky. During this time, Lynd became interested in unions and the labor movement after meeting men who had lived through the CIO organizing drives of the 1930s. During a writers' workshop in Gary, Indiana, he met two socialist steelworkers from Youngstown, Ohio, developing a friendship that led him to the steel city in 1976.
Despite getting the Carter administration to look at their plan, the government declined to provide funds needed for the modernization of the mill. Though the effort failed, Alperovitz later wrote, it inspired the founding of the Ohio Employee Ownership Center at Kent State University and foreshadowed a growth in worker-owned businesses throughout the state.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Remembering La Diva de la Banda: Revisit Jenni Rivera’s Iconic Fashion LooksFrom her traditional concert dresses to laid-back attire, here are Jenni Rivera's best looks!
Read more »
Remembering the late Rob Sherman's role in removing religious symbols from public buildings in St. CharlesAny Christmas story about St. Charles the past three-plus decades has to include a chapter mentioning Rob Sherman as the main character or, to some, the Grinch trying to steal the holiday.
Read more »
Remembering Brittney Griner's basketball dunksMy hope: Griner flashing her incandescent smile again on a basketball court.
Read more »
Remembering Grant Wahl: A Loss For Journalism, and for All of SoccerGrant Wahl leaves the world a sterling example of how to work with compassion, vigor, and humanity. And how to live life that way, too. jon_wertheim on the former Sports Illustrated senior writer, colleague, and friend
Read more »
10 years later: Remembering Sherese BinghamWho killed Sherese Bingham? It’s a question Indiana State Police is still trying to answer 10 years after her murder.
Read more »
Remembering Bob McGrath: ‘Sesame Street’ icon, music pioneerBob McGrath, an original “Sesame Street” cast member and teacher to generations of kids, has passed away at the age of 90. McGrath appeared on “Sesame Street” for over 47 years and recorded eight children’s albums, introducing symphonic music to young people. Sunday TODAY’s Willie Geist remembers a life well lived.
Read more »