Historian, activist, and author Howard Zinn loves his country. This does not mean he refrains from reproaching it for its crimes; such reproach is one of the spurs to it doing better one day soon. To that end, Zinn became an academic. However, as the child of poor, working-class parents, Zinn has also been a blue-collar dockworker and labor organizer, a decorated WW2 bombardier, an adviser to the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and leader...

Interviews between young people and people who took part in the civil rights movement accompany essays that describe the history of efforts to make equality a reality for African Americans.