C. Wright Mills: Sociological Imagination and the Power Elite

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5. A class project -- organizing student protests@ '81 Reagan Inaugur - earned me an A and an FBI File.

I know about the FBI part because my stepfather was a federal Supergrade employee and he received several courtesy calls from the Boston FBI Office about my college activities. Apparently Agent Mike believed that I was somehow under my step-father's influence. I was already cut-off, emotionally as well as financially.

But, back to the Zinn class project. I and some others ended up filling half a dozen buses with demonstrators that rolled from Boston down to DC. When we arrived, it was a beautiful, warm Spring-like morning. I'll never forget Vice President G.H.W. Bush popping up out of the top of his limo as he passed the designated protest area. We lined the sidewalk (where else) in the shadow of the J. Edgard Hoover FBI Building. Bush jabbed his thumbs vigorously into the air at us as he rolled past. It wasn't an approving gesture. His sons learned that characteristic smirk from him.

My dissertation, books, and notes went up in a housefire in Santa Cruz, CA shortly after I left Boston. Not related, I'm sure.

Howard did leave a lasting impression on me. I've never actually FOIAed my Bureau file, but what's left of Zinn's FBI files (according to the Index at Volume 4, the Bureau destroyed most of the Indexed contents) is here: https://vault.fbi.gov/Howard%20Zinn