This year's Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture will be presented by Ibram X. Kendi, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University and the founding director of BU's Center for Antiracist Research.

A #1 New York Times best-selling author and the youngest-ever winner of the National Book Award for Nonfiction, Professor Kendi is also a 2020–21 Frances B. Cashin Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, where he will continue work on his next historical monograph, Bones of Inequity: A Narrative History of Racist Policies in America.

A professor of history, Kendi is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and a correspondent for CBS News. His first book, The Black Campus Movement, won the W. E. B. Du Bois Book Prize. In 2016, at age 34, he won the National Book Award for his best seller Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America. It was also a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award. His book How to Be an Antiracist is also a New York Times #1 Best Seller.

Professor Nina Silber will lead the discussion with Professor Kendi. Professor Silber has been a member of the faculty at Boston University since 1990 where she teaches in both the department of history and the program in American and New England Studies, with an emphasis on historical memory, gender, and the US Civil War.


Howard Zinn (1922–2010) was a longtime professor in BU's Department of Political Science. Renowned for his work as a historian, author, professor, playwright, and activist, he wrote dozens of books, including A People's History of the United States. His work focused on a wide range of issues, including race, class, war, and history. More information about his life and work is available at howardzinn.org.

Members of the BU faculty present a lecture in his name each year, with the generous support of Alex H. MacDonald (CAS'72) and his late wife, Dr. Maureen A. Strafford (MED'76).

The webinar will be conducted using the online Zoom webinar platform. Access information and additional instructions on using the Zoom platform will be provided via email upon successful registration. This webinar is open to all members of the BU community including alumni, students, faculty, and staff. Please note that this event will not be recorded.