With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

Tickets selling like hot cakes to 'Voices of a People's History' at Mission High in SF

A small bazaar sprang up on the steps of Mission High on Thursday night as people passed out flyers and chatted up the crowds streaming in to see a sold-out show featuring historian Howard Zinn and a cavalcade of A-list actors and local figures.

The varied crew, featuring actors Kerry Washington, Josh Brolin, Diane Lane and Benjamin Bratt; hip-hop artist Boots Riley; activist Clarence Thomas; civil rights attorney Renee Maria Saucedo; musicians the Stairwell Sisters; and historian Anthony Arnove, read and sang selections from "Voices of a People's History," the companion volume of first-person accounts plucked from Zinn's 1980 best-seller "A People's History of the United States."

It was a very San Francisco affair, from a woman outside hawking a socialist newspaper to the long line of activist booths hugging the hallways, no leftist group was left behind.

"I got a ticket, but I'm giving it away," said Matt Kline, who was in the midst of discussing immigrant-rights-rally T-shirt sales with two comrades before the show started. "I can read the book."
Read entire article at San Francisco Chronicle