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Leonard Zeskind

American journalist (1949–2025)

Field	Value
name	Leonard Zeskind
image	Leonard Zeskind in 1987.jpg
caption	Zeskind in 1987
birth_date
birth_place	Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
death_date
death_place	Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.
occupation	Journalist
Human rights activist
notable_works	Blood and Politics
spouse

Human rights activist

Leonard Harold Zeskind (November 14, 1949 – April 15, 2025) was an American journalist and human rights activist. He was president of the Institute for Research and Education of Human Rights (IREHR), a social justice and public affairs watchdog organization. Zeskind wrote the 2009 book Blood and Politics, about the history of xenophobia and white nationalism in American politics.

Background

Leonard Harold Zeskind was born in Baltimore, Maryland on November 14, 1949, and grew up mostly in Miami, Florida. He enrolled at the University of Miami and the University of Kansas, but did not earn a degree. For thirteen years prior to his concentration on human rights, he worked in industry, including stints on an automobile assembly line, installing refrigerator motors in vending machines, and as a welder and first-class fitter in steel fabrication plants.

Career

Zeskind became a community activist and human rights advocate. He led the Center for Democratic Renewal from 1985 to 1994.

He was a lifetime member of the NAACP. He also served on the board of directors of the Petra Foundation and the Kansas City Jewish Community Relations Bureau.

Zeskind wrote the 2009 book Blood and Politics, about the history of xenophobia and white nationalism in American politics. The New York Times noted his thesis that such views were only growing more mainstream was met with some skepticism at the time, but the book was viewed as increasingly prescient in the years to follow, particularly after the 2017 Unite the Right rally and similar events. In 2025, the book was among those removed from the library of the United States Naval Academy as part of the U.S. Department of Defense censorship of DEI-connected material.

Personal life and death

After a marriage to Elaine Cantrell ended in divorce, Zeskind married Carol Smith.

Awards

1998 MacArthur Fellows Program
1992 Petra Foundation Fellowship

Works

The Christian Identity Movement: A Theological Justification for Racist and Anti-Semitic Violence (1986)

References

[http://www.irehr.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7&Itemid=17 Staff & Board]. Irehr.org (September 18, 2009). Retrieved on October 23, 2010.
Gabriel, Trip. (April 24, 2025). "Leonard Zeskind, Who Foresaw the Rise of White Nationalism, Dies at 75". [[The New York Times]].
Murphy, Brian. (April 25, 2025). "Leonard Zeskind, who tracked political rise of white nationalism, dies at 75". [[The Washington Post]].
Devin Burghart. (September 18, 2009). "About: Board." [https://www.irehr.org/2009/09/18/staff-board/ IREHR website] Retrieved December 28, 2023.
He was known for his research into extreme right, racist, and [[Antisemitism
(June 14, 1992). "KC-based researcher will be honored". [[The Kansas City Star]].

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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