Staughton Craig Lynd (November 22, 1929 – November 17, 2022) was an American political activist, author, and lawyer.
[Staughton Lynd, ''Living Inside Our Hope: A Steadfast Radical's Thoughts on Rebuilding the Movement,'' Cornell University Press, 1997, p. 44.] His involvement in
social justice causes brought him into contact with some of the nation's most influential activists, including
Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922January 27, 2010) was an American historian, playwright, philosopher, socialist thinker and World War II veteran. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, and a politica ...
,
Tom Hayden,
A. J. Muste
Abraham Johannes Muste ( ; January 8, 1885 – February 11, 1967) was a Dutch-born American clergyman and political activist. He is best remembered for his work in the labor movement, pacifist movement, antiwar movement, and civil rights movemen ...
, and
David Dellinger.
[Zinn, Howard, ''A People's History of the United States, 1492–Present,'' 1999. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. P. 486.]
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'' (2010).
Background
Lynd was one of two children born to the renowned sociologists
Robert Staughton Lynd and
Helen Merrell Lynd, who authored the groundbreaking "
Middletown" studies of
Muncie, Indiana, in the late 1920s and 1930s. Though the family lived in New York City, his mother elected to give birth at a hospital she preferred in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
.
Lynd followed not only his parents' academic occupations, but also their strong left-wing beliefs. He was a
conscientious objector who was assigned to a non-combatant position in the U.S. military, but amid the
McCarthy Era
McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner.
The term origina ...
, he was dishonorably discharged after it was found that he had briefly affiliated with communist groups while an undergraduate at
Harvard College.
[
He went on to earn a doctorate in history at ]Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
and accepted a teaching position at Spelman College
Spelman College is a private, historically black, women's liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia. It is part of the Atlanta University Center academic consortium in Atlanta. Founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, Spelman rece ...
, in Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
, where he worked closely with historian and civil rights activist Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922January 27, 2010) was an American historian, playwright, philosopher, socialist thinker and World War II veteran. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, and a politica ...
.[ When Zinn was fired from Spelman at the end of the 1962–63 academic year, Lynd protested. During the summer of 1964, Lynd served as director of the ]SNCC
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, often pronounced ) was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Emerging in 1960 from the student-led sit-ins at segreg ...
-organized Freedom Schools of Mississippi. After accepting a position at Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
, Lynd relocated to New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...
. In 1965 he gave lectures on 'The History of the American Left' at the Free University of New York.
Personal life
Lynd married Alice Niles in 1951. They had three children and were married until Lynd's death from multiple organ failure at a hospital in Warren, Ohio, on November 17, 2022, 5 days before his 93rd birthday.[
]
Vietnam-era activism
At Yale, Lynd became an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
. His protest activities included speaking engagements, protest marches, and a controversial visit to Hanoi along with Herbert Aptheker and Tom Hayden on a fact-finding trip at the height of the war, which made him unwelcome to the Yale administration.[ As the protest movement became increasingly violent, Lynd began to have misgivings. As a self-described " social democratic pacifist" and "Marxist Existentialist Pacifist",] he became more interested in the possibilities of local organizing. Lynd's obituary in ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' described his political influences as "drawing equal inspiration from Marxism, American abolitionism and Quaker pacifism".[
In 1967, Lynd signed a letter declaring his intention to refuse to pay taxes in protest against the Vietnam War, and urging other people to also take this stand.
]
Labor activism
In 1968, Lynd published his book ''Intellectual Origins of American Radicalism''. It came under severe criticism by then-Marxist professor Eugene Genovese
Eugene Dominic Genovese (May 19, 1930 – September 26, 2012) was an American historian of the American South and American slavery. He was noted for bringing a Marxist perspective to the study of power, class and relations between planters and ...
, writing in the ''New York Review of Books
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...
''. Professor David Donald in reviewing the book called it "a major work in American intellectual history". About the Cambridge University 2009 reprint of the book, Commentary Magazine referred to it as an "established classic". It became clear that Yale would deny Lynd tenure, and he became unemployable in academia.[.] 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 bureaucratic labor unions. In 1973, he enrolled at the University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
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. Working first for the union-side labor law firm of Green, Schiavoni, Murphy & Haines, and then for Northeast Ohio Legal Services in Youngstown, he proved to be a vital participant in the late 1970s struggle to keep the Youngstown steel mills open. He served as lead counsel for six local unions, several dozen individual steelworkers, and the Ecumenical Coalition of the Mahoning Valley which sought to reopen the mills under worker-community ownership. Despite the ultimate failure of those efforts, the Lynds continued organizing in the Youngstown-Warren area.[Thomas G. Fuechtmann, ''Steeples and Stacks: Religion and Steel Crisis in Youngstown,'' New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989, p. 7.] Staughton Lynd remained extremely active as an attorney, taking on a broad range of cases, including those concerning chemically disabled auto workers and retired steelworkers.
Lynd's book ''Lucasville'' is an investigation into the events surrounding the 1993 prison uprising at Southern Ohio Correctional Facility
The Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (commonly referred to as Lucasville) is a maximum security prison located just outside Lucasville in Scioto County, Ohio. The prison was constructed in 1972. As of 2022, the warden is Donald Redwood.
The ...
, and voices serious concern over the integrity of legal proceedings subsequent to the event. A memoir of his and Alice's life, "Stepping Stones: Memoir of a Life Together," was released in January 2009.
Works by Lynd
* ''Anti-Federalism in Dutchess County, New York: A Study of Democracy and Class Conflict in the Revolutionary Era'' (1962)
''The New Radicals and "Participatory Democracy".''
Chicago: Students for a Democratic Society, 1965. 10 p.
::Reprinted from ''Dissent
Dissent is an opinion, philosophy or sentiment of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or policy enforced under the authority of a government, political party or other entity or individual. A dissenting person may be referred to as ...
'', Vol. 12, No. 3, July 1965.
* Ed. ''Nonviolence in America: A Documentary History'' (1966)
* Ed. ''Reconstruction'' (1967)
* With Tom Hayden, ''The Other Side'' (1967)
* ''Intellectual Origins of American Radicalism'' (1968)
* ''Class Conflict, Slavery, and the United States Constitution: Ten Essays'' (1968)
* With Michael Ferber
Michael Kelvin Ferber (born July 1, 1944) was the youngest of the five defendants in the federal anti-draft trial in the spring of 1968 in Boston, Massachusetts. The trial attracted national attention because one of the defendants was Dr. Benjamin ...
, ''The Resistance'' (1971)
* Ed. ''Personal Histories of the Early C.I.O.'' (1971)
* With Gar Alperovitz
Gar Alperovitz (born May 5, 1936) is an American historian and political economist. Alperovitz served as a fellow of King's College, Cambridge; a founding fellow of the Harvard Institute of Politics; a founding Fellow at the Institute for Policy ...
, ''Strategy and Program: Two Essays Toward a New American Socialism'' (1973)
* Ed. ''American Labor Radicalism: Testimonies and Interpretations'' (1973)
* Ed. with Alice Lynd, ''Rank and File: Personal Histories by Working-Class Organizers'' (1973)
* With Helen Merrell Lynd, ''Possibilities'' (1977)
* ''Labor Law for the Rank & Filer'' (1978)
* ''The Fight Against Shutdowns: Youngstown's Steel Mill Closings'' (1982)
* ''Solidarity Unionism: Rebuilding the Labor Movement from Below'' (1992)
* Ed. with Alice Lynd, ''Homeland: Oral Histories of Palestine and Palestinians'' (1993)
* Ed. with Alice Lynd, ''Nonviolence in America: A Documentary History'' 2nd Ed. (1995)
* With Alice Lynd, ''Liberation Theology for Quakers'' (1996)
* Ed. ''"We Are All Leaders": The Alternative Unionism of the Early 1930s'' (1996)
* ''Living Inside Our Hope: A Steadfast Radical's Thoughts on Rebuilding the Movement'' (1997)
* With Alice Lynd, ''The New Rank and File'' (2000)
* ''Lucasville: The Untold Story of a Prison Uprising'' (2004)
* ''Napue Nightmares: Perjured Testimony in Trials Following the 1993 Lucasville, Ohio Prison Uprising'' (2008)
* With Daniel Gross, '' Labor Law for the Rank & Filer: Building Solidarity While Staying Clear of the Law'' 2nd Ed. (2008)
* With Andrej Grubačić
Andrej Grubačić is a Yugoslav world historian, world-systems theorist, and activist based in the United States.
Early life and education
Grubačić was born in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He is the grandson of Ratomir Du ...
, ''Wobblies & Zapatistas: Conversations on Anarchism, Marxism and Radical History'' (2008)
* ''Class Conflict, Slavery, and the United States Constitution: Ten Essays'' 2nd Ed. (2009)
* With Alice Lynd, ''Stepping Stones: Memoir of a Life Together'' (2009)
* ''Intellectual Origins of American Radicalism (Cambridge University Press)(2009)
* ''From Here to There: The Staughton Lynd Reader'' (2010)
* With Daniel Gross, ''Solidarity Unionism at Starbucks'' (2011)
* Ed. with Alice Lynd, ''Rank and File: Personal Histories by Working-Class Organizers'' (Expanded Edition, 2011)
* ''Accompanying: Pathways to Social Change'' (2013)
* ''Doing History from the Bottom Up: On E.P. Thompson, Howard Zinn, and Rebuilding the Labor Movement from Below'' (2014)
* ''Solidarity Unionism: Rebuilding the Labor Movement from Below'' (Second Edition, 2015)
* With Alice Lynd, ''Moral Injury and Nonviolent Resistance: Breaking the Cycle of Violence in the Military and Behind Bars'' (2017)
* With Alice Lynd, ''Nonviolence in America: A Documentary History'' (Third Edition, 2018)
See also
* List of peace activists
References
Sources
* Carl Mirra, ''The Admirable Radical: Staughton Lynd and Cold War Dissent'' (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2010).
* Carl Mirra ''Radical Historians and the Liberal Establishment: Staughton Lynd's Life with History," Left History, v. 11, no. 1 (Spring 2006).
* Mark Weber and Stephen Paschen, ''Side by Side: Alice and Staughton Lynd, the Ohio Years'' (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2014).
* ''Scene Magazine'', Cleveland, Ohio, May 23, 2002.
Supreme Court of Ohio Record
Further reading
* Brown, David S. "Suddenly Staughton," ''Reviews in American History'' Volume 39, Number 2, June 2011 pp 354–35
External links
Alice Niles Lynd and Staughton Lynd Papers
Swarthmore College Peace Collection
Staughton and Alice Lynd collection
at Kent State University
Staughton Lynd Interview
*
''Viewpoint Magazine'' Article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lynd, Staughton
1929 births
2022 deaths
20th-century American historians
20th-century American lawyers
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American historians
21st-century American lawyers
21st-century American male writers
American Christian socialists
American Quakers
American anti–Vietnam War activists
American conscientious objectors
American pacifists
American social sciences writers
American tax resisters
Columbia University alumni
Harvard College alumni
Industrial Workers of the World members
Labor historians
Libertarian socialists
Lynd family
Ohio lawyers
Quaker socialists
Solidarity unionism
Spelman College faculty
University of Chicago Law School alumni
Writers from New York City
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Writers from Youngstown, Ohio
Yale University faculty