SNCC: The New Abolitionists

by Howard Zinn, Barbara Ransby (Afterword), Anthony Arnove (Foreword)

Howard Zinn’s classic account of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), one of the most significant and creative organizations to shape the course of the civil rights movement in the United States

The New Abolitionists has influenced generations of readers seeking to learn from the successes and failures of SNCC organizers. Zinn’s documentation of the process of social change remains an indispensable resource for activists who are continuing, in the tradition of SNCC, to fight for a more just world.

This edition includes a new foreword by Anthony Arnove, situating Howard Zinn's work and legacy, and an afterword by Barbara Ransby, reflecting on the enduring importance of SNCC.

280 pages, Paperback

Published July 28, 2026

About the author

Howard Zinn was an American historian, playwright, philosopher, socialist intellectual and World War II veteran. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, and a political science professor at Boston University. Zinn wrote more than 20 books, including his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United States in 1980. In 2007, he published a version of it for younger readers, A Young People's History of the United States.

Zinn described himself as "something of an anarchist, something of a socialist. Maybe a democratic socialist." He wrote extensively about the civil rights movement, the anti-war movement and labor history of the United States. His memoir, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train (Beacon Press, 1994), was also the title of a 2004 documentary about Zinn's life and work. Zinn died of a heart attack in 2010, at the age of 87.