ABSTRACT
Millions of “ordinary” people pay with their lives for the decisive events that determine the outcome of world events. Their actions and thoughts enter into most histories, however, only as objects affected by momentous decisions leaders make, not as subjects of the social world upon which decision-makers depend. Historians typically study the writings of world leaders and construct meticulously researched biographies of such figures in order to shed light on momentous events, such as the creation of constitutions. Yet the notion that “people make history,” long ago incorporated into the language of social scientists, seldom informs accounts of World War II, the Civil War, or even many cases of social movements—grassroots attempts to change outmoded patterns of everyday life. Take the case of the civil rights movement, for example. Biographies of Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X are the norm, not accounts of the millions who changed their lives and revolutionized society through sacrifice and struggle, transforming even Martin's and Malcolm's worldviews. Every child knows King's name, but how many Americans have ever heard of Fred Hampton's assassination or know what COINTELPRO stands for? How many of us could say even one knowledgeable sentence about the massacres of students at Orangeburg, Jackson State, or North Carolina A&T?
