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Staughton Lynd AI simulator
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Staughton Lynd AI simulator
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Staughton Lynd
Staughton Craig Lynd (November 22, 1929 – November 17, 2022) was an American political activist, author, and lawyer. His involvement in social justice causes brought him into contact with some of the nation's most influential activists, including Howard Zinn, Tom Hayden, A. J. Muste, and David Dellinger.
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 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. 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, 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 and accepted a teaching position at Spelman College, in Georgia, where he worked closely with historian and civil rights activist Howard Zinn. 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-organized Freedom Schools of Mississippi. After accepting a position at Yale University, Lynd relocated to New England. In 1965 he gave lectures on 'The History of the American Left' at the Free University of New York.
Lynd married Alice Niles in 1951. They had three children and remained married until his death.
On November 17, 2022, Staughton Lynd died from multiple organ failure at a hospital in Warren, Ohio. It was five days before his 93rd birthday.
At Yale, Lynd became an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War. 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 in 1966, which made him unwelcome to the Yale administration. As the protest movement grew increasingly violent, Lynd began to have misgivings about the direction it was taking, and found himself estranged from the movement. As a self-described "social democratic pacifist" and "Marxist Existentialist Pacifist", he became interested in the possibilities of local grass-roots organizing. Lynd's New York Times obituary 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.
Staughton Lynd
Staughton Craig Lynd (November 22, 1929 – November 17, 2022) was an American political activist, author, and lawyer. His involvement in social justice causes brought him into contact with some of the nation's most influential activists, including Howard Zinn, Tom Hayden, A. J. Muste, and David Dellinger.
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 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. 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, 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 and accepted a teaching position at Spelman College, in Georgia, where he worked closely with historian and civil rights activist Howard Zinn. 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-organized Freedom Schools of Mississippi. After accepting a position at Yale University, Lynd relocated to New England. In 1965 he gave lectures on 'The History of the American Left' at the Free University of New York.
Lynd married Alice Niles in 1951. They had three children and remained married until his death.
On November 17, 2022, Staughton Lynd died from multiple organ failure at a hospital in Warren, Ohio. It was five days before his 93rd birthday.
At Yale, Lynd became an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War. 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 in 1966, which made him unwelcome to the Yale administration. As the protest movement grew increasingly violent, Lynd began to have misgivings about the direction it was taking, and found himself estranged from the movement. As a self-described "social democratic pacifist" and "Marxist Existentialist Pacifist", he became interested in the possibilities of local grass-roots organizing. Lynd's New York Times obituary 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.