David Horowitz: Author and Civil Rights Activist

David Horowitz is a nationally known author and lifelong civil rights activist. He was one of the founders of the New Left in the 1960s and editor of its largest magazine, Ramparts. In the 1970s he created the Oakland Community Learning Center, an inner city school for disadvantaged children that was run by the Black Panther Party. In the 1990s he created the Individual Rights Foundation, which led the battle against speech codes on college campuses, and compelled the entire "president's cabinet" of the University of Minnesota to undergo five hours of sensitivity training in the First Amendment for violating the free speech rights of its students.

In 1996 he was a spokesman for the California Civil Rights Initiative, which barred government from discriminating against "or granting preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin." In 2002 he joined Ward Connerly's campaign to pass a Racial Privacy Initiative. This is an anti-racial profiling initiative that would prevent government agencies from asking citizens about their race. David Horowitz is an outspoken opponent of censorship and racial preferences, and a defender of the rights of minorities and other groups under attack -- including the rights of blacks, gays, women, Jews, Muslims, Christians and white males.

David Horowitz is the author of numerous books including an autobiography, Radical Son, which has been described as "the first great autobiography of his generation," and which chronicles his odyssey from radical activism to the current positions he holds. Among his other books are The Politics of Bad Faith, How to Beat the Democrats and The Art of Political War.

The Art of Political War was described by White House political strategist Karl Rove as "the perfect guide to winning on the political battlefield." Horowitz's book, Uncivil Wars, was published last year, and chronicles his crusade against intolerance and racial McCarthyism on college campuses last spring. His latest book, Left Illusions, is a one volume course on the history of our time-from the Cold War to the war on terror.


In 1988, Horowitz created the Center for the Study of Popular Culture as a vehicle for his campaigns. The Center is supported by 40,000 contributors and publishes Frontpagemag.com, an on-line magazine, which receives 2 million page views per month and features columnists Ann Coulter and Andrew Sullivan, and libertarian talk show host Larry Elder. He is also the founder of Students for Academic Freedom, a nation-wide coalition of student groups dedicated to promoting intellectual diversity and academic freedom at America's colleges and universities.

David Horowitz has spoken at over 150 colleges and universities. He has appeared on "Nightline," "Crossfire," "Today, "Good Morning America," C-SPAN, CNBC, Fox News Channel, "CBS This Morning," and is appearing regularly on the Dennis Miller Show, and gives hundreds of interviews yearly on radio and television.