History...

In my History class we are using Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States as one of our three textbooks. Zinn is interesting but long. Last week we read and wrote a paper on Chapter 17 (Or Does It Explode?) which is about the racial equality movement and what happened. I found this chapter interesting because I learned so many new facts. Did you know that the typical rioter was "a young high school drop-out but 'nevertheless, somewhat better educated than his non-rioting Negro neighbor' and was 'usually underemployed or employed in a menial job'. He was 'proud of his race, extremely hostile to both whites and middle-class Negroes and, although informed about politics, highly distrustful of the political system...' " Wow. I never knew that. I always thought that the rioters were young adults who were educated etc... History is always surprising.