Alinsky, Saul D.
Details / Bio
Saul Alinsky was born in Chicago in 1909 and educated first in the streets of that city and then in its university. Graduate work at the University of Chicago in criminology introduced him to the Al Capone gang, and later to Joliet State Prison, where he studied prison life. He founded what is known today as the Alinsky ideology and Alinsky concepts of mass organization for power. His work in organizing the poor to fight for their rights as citizens has been internationally recognized. In the late 1930s he organized the Back of the Yards area in Chicago (the neighborhood made famous in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle). Subsequently, through the Industrial Areas Foundation which he began in 1940, Mr. Alinsky and his staff helped to organize communities not only in Chicago but throughout the country. He later turned his attentions to the middle class, creating a training institute for organizers. He died in 1972.
Primary creator references
Professional Radical, The: Conversations With Saul Alinsky Item: Book Activism
Reveille for Radicals Item: Book Resistance and Revolution
Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals Item: Book Activism
Other creator references
John L. Lewis : An Unauthorized Biography Item: Audio