I was just talking about him to a friend. He was part of my social education in a small but impressive way. A short appearance of his on television somehow wormed its way into my mind about how I see labor unions.
Chalk me up as another who was lucky enough to meet him in Chicago, though it was only briefly and a good few years ago now.
My instant thought when his death was announced in the headlines on BBC Radio 4 this morning was also precisely that it was a shame he couldn’t have made it those last few days.
Aw, that’s a damn shame. If anybody was ever going to keep going forever it was probably Studs.
The first time I ever heard or heard of the man was a Ralph Nader rally in 2000. As a speaker, he was far more interesting than the candidate - but you could say the same of a damp paper towel - but to hear this small old man let loose with such passion was really impressive. I also heard him speak at a crowd at my college, and a few years later I had the good fortune to see him with a much, much smaller crowd: it was a Chicago Public Library event about the blues, and the panelists were Studs and Honeyboy Edwards. (Speaking of people who won’t die, Honeyboy was a friend of Robert Johnson and he’s still going at 93.)
A little while later I read American Dreams. He liked to tell one of the stories in public, but it was incredibly moving: it was about a former Klansman who gave up his prejudices. It’s one of the best stories about any person you ever heard. Also in American Dreams is a story about a recent immigrant to the United States, a bodybuilder with aspirations of maybe getting into politics. He ended up doing pretty well for himself and it’s really interesting to get this look at him from 30 years ago.