On The Front Lines
New to OldSpeak: National Treasure Nat Hentoff Talks with John W. Whitehead About His Life Encounters With Historic Icons & Jazz Greats
“I have I guess three passions. One is the Constitution, the other is jazz, and the other is being an atheist prolifer which, of course, gets me in a lot of trouble—all of which combines into free expression.”—Nat Hentoff
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — OldSpeak, an online publication of The Rutherford Institute, hosts an insightful discussion between Nat Hentoff, one of our nation’s most respected, controversial and uncompromising writers, as well as a life-long civil libertarian, free speech activist, anti-death penalty advocate, pro-lifer and not uncommon critic of the ideological left, and John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute, about his encounters with such notable icons as musicians Dizzie Gillespie and Bob Dylan, and civil rights activists Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, among many others.
The interview, “Impressions: People I Knew: An Interview with Nat Hentoff,” is available here.
Nat Hentoff has had a life well spent, one chock full of controversy fueled by his passion for the protection of civil liberties and human rights. At 86, Hentoff is an American classic who has never shied away from an issue. For example, he defended a woman rejected from law school because she was Caucasian; called into a talk show hosted by Oliver North to agree with him on liberal intolerance for free speech; was a friend to the late Malcolm X; and wrote the liner notes for Bob Dylan’s second album. A self-described uncategorizable libertarian, Hentoff adds he is also a “Jewish atheist, civil libertarian, pro-lifer.” Accordingly, he has angered nearly every political faction and remains one of a few who has stuck to his principles through his many years of work, regardless of the trouble it stirred up.
Born in Boston on June 10, 1925, Hentoff received a B.A. with honors from Northeastern University and did graduate work at Harvard. From 1953 to 1957, he was associate editor of Down Beat magazine. He has written many books on jazz, biographies and novels, including children’s books. His articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Commonwealth, the New Republic, the Atlantic and the New Yorker, where he was a staff writer for more than 25 years. In 1980, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Education and an American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award for his coverage of the law and criminal justice in his columns. In 1985, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws by Northeastern University. For 50 years, Hentoff wrote a weekly column for the Village Voice. But that publication announced that he had been terminated on December 31, 2008. In February 2009, Hentoff joined the Cato Institute as a Senior Fellow. Hentoff’s most recent book, At the Jazz Band Ball—Sixty Years on the Jazz Scene (University of California Press), came out in 2011.
OldSpeak, the online journal of The Rutherford Institute, is dedicated to publishing interviews, articles and commentary on subjects often overlooked by the mainstream media in the areas of politics, art, culture, law and religion. The Rutherford Institute is an international, nonprofit civil liberties organization committed to defending constitutional and human rights.
