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Staughton Lynd | |
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| Born | (1929-11-22)November 22, 1929 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | November 17, 2022(2022-11-17) (aged 92) Warren, Ohio, U.S. |
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| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
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Staughton Craig Lynd (November 22, 1929 – November 17, 2022) was an American political activist, author, and lawyer.[6] His involvement insocial justice causes brought him into contact with some of the nation's most influential activists, includingHoward Zinn,Tom Hayden,A. J. Muste, andDavid Dellinger.[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 (2010).
Lynd was one of two children born to the renowned sociologistsRobert Staughton Lynd andHelen Merrell Lynd, who authored the groundbreaking "Middletown" studies ofMuncie, 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 inPhiladelphia.[8] Lynd followed not only his parents' academic occupations, but also their strong left-wing beliefs. He was aconscientious objector who was assigned to a non-combatant position in the U.S. military, but amid theMcCarthy Era, he was dishonorably discharged after it was found that he had briefly affiliated with communist groups while an undergraduate atHarvard College.[8]
He went on to earn a doctorate in history atColumbia University and accepted a teaching position atSpelman College, inGeorgia, where he worked closely with historian and civil rights activistHoward Zinn.[8] 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 theSNCC-organizedFreedom Schools of Mississippi. After accepting a position atYale University, Lynd relocated toNew England. In 1965 he gave lectures on 'The History of the American Left' at theFree University of New York.[9]
Lynd marriedAlice Niles in 1951. They had three children and were married until Lynd's death from multiple organ failure at a hospital inWarren, Ohio, on November 17, 2022, five days before his 93rd birthday.[8]
At Yale, Lynd became an outspoken opponent of theVietnam War.[7] His protest activities included speaking engagements, protest marches, and a controversial visit toHanoi along withHerbert Aptheker and Tom Hayden on a fact-finding trip at the height of the war, which made him unwelcome to the Yale administration.[8] As the protest movement became increasingly violent, Lynd began to have misgivings.[which?][citation needed] As a self-described "social democraticpacifist" and "Marxist Existentialist Pacifist",[10] he became more interested in the possibilities of local organizing.[citation needed] Lynd's obituary inThe New York Times described his political influences as "drawing equal inspiration from Marxism, American abolitionism andQuaker pacifism".[8]
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.[11]
In 1968, Lynd published his bookIntellectual Origins of American Radicalism. It came under severe criticism by then-Marxist professorEugene Genovese, writing in theNew York Review of Books. ProfessorDavid 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.[12] Lynd relocated his family to Chicago.
There, he struggled to make a living from community organizing. Sociologist and Professor of American StudiesM. Clément Petitjean notes that Lynd accepted a job from Saul Alinsky in 1968 supervising the second phase of theIndustrial Areas Foundation (IAF)Saul Alinsky organizer training school[13] "Although he was highly critical of Alinsky's politics, he needed a job at the time... Lynd started teaching courses on US workers' history but also on contemporary forms of collective action to the dozen or so individuals." In the supervision of the trainee in a field placement in Gary, Indiana, Lynd saw an opportunity to continue a campaign he had been working on "targeting the fact that US Steel, which had one of its biggest steel making sites in Indiana, paid almost no taxes... But Alinsky and the organizer Lynd was supervising had different plans. Instead, the trainee 'tried to organize around the existence of a pornographic bookstore in Indiana, just next to Gary.' "[13] In May, 1970 he requested a leave of absence to return to his research in oral history, and left the IAF altogether a year later. In a letter[14] announcing his decision he wrote "[Saul and I] come out of quite different political and organizing backgrounds, and it is not surprising that sooner or later our paths would diverge." Meanwhile, he and his wife Alice embarked upon anoral history project dealing with the working class. The conclusions of this work, titledRank 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 theUniversity of Chicago law school, where he earned a degree in 1976.[citation needed]
From there, the Lynds relocated toYoungstown, Ohio, in the heart of theRust 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 Youngstownsteel 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.[15] 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.[citation needed]
Lynd's bookLucasville is an investigation into the events surrounding the 1993prison uprising atSouthern Ohio Correctional Facility, 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.[4]
| External videos | |
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 'My Country Is the World' opposing the Vietnam War and Jim Crow onYouTube |
